Still here...

So I haven't put up a post since December 1st.  And though I did scrooge it and have a fabulously decorated Christmas in my 1/2 finished construction site of a house, I really didn't enjoy it.  In fact, I'm still not enjoying the renovation and finally understand the angst of what my clients go through in the process of giving up control and leaving their most personal possession in the hands of someone else.

I haven't written because I didn't want to own up to what was going wrong on my own personal project.  I didn't want to write because of how would it look from a marketing perspective if I couldn't keep my own project in check.  But, here I am, 4 months into it, and I am finally ready to scream and own up to making a bad choice in contractors.  For the first time on my own project, I decided to hire a GC instead of running the job myself; someone who would own the project, oversee the construction, organize the timeline, manage the subcontractors, and make a fee to do so.  It was my intention to actually BE the client and watch the work get done from the sidelines, trust the team, and let them run with it.  Alright, I admit, that that was an impossible sentence to write.  Even though I said it (and just now wrote it), we all know that I could never really give up the reigns, but I really, really tried my best not to be the boss...

I should have realized that it was going south when they took out the wrong window in my kitchen the very first week of the job.  It has been a series of bloopers just as bad ever since, and since then, I have had to patrol the project checking in on every aspect at the end of everyday.  And, everyday, after taking note of what has (or hasn't) happened, I take a deep breath and say it will get better.  It will be great.  I know it will be exactly as I had hoped.  It's just a hard journey that I didn't expect; one that has humbled me and made me appreciate the anxiety that my clients go through when they take on a project, inexperienced and without any clue of what really to expect.  Even knowing what to expect, knowing the right way that things need to be done, knowing the way you want it to look upon completion, IT IS HARD to be the client.

Here are a few pictures of where we are now.  I am anticipating another 4 months until we are ready for a rager in the backyard.  Now that I have fessed up, I will be posting more often.  After all, I have lots of other AMAZING projects in the works, including a Brookline townhouse, West Newton Victorian, new construction in Wellesley, a Tahoe mancave and a Marin family room.  My photographer is scheduled to take some naked before pics, so stay tuned !