contributed by Alana Villanueva [interior designer / dallasDECORUM blogger / design junkie]
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you missed the first segment, which detailed the first four hours of Alana Villanueva’s Day On, then we suggest you catch yourself up before you delve into her adventures over the next five and a half hours.
9:30AM
Next appointment: A construction site of a custom spec home that is about 15,000 sq. ft. under roof. FYI: Jobsite visits are not glamorous. They are extremely loud, dirty, and usually either sweltering hot or blistering cold. One of many tips: Where ever you are – at the office, a client’s home, a showroom, lunch, etc. – always be sure to use the bathroom before you head over to the construction site. You think that you will be there only 30 minutes or an hour, but your quick visit can easily turn into three hours. Not fun when you’re in heels and your only option is a less than spic-n-span port-o-potty. But back to the appointment… There are several things to go over, but the main thing is a lighting delivery at 10:00AM. However, as I am pulling up, I see the back end of the truck in the distance…are they turning around” I am not sure what the deal is, so go for my phone to call the driver. Crap! I don’t have the number, just switched to an iPhone, and they couldn’t update my contacts unless I wanted to wait for three hours. So, I go ahead and pull up. The job supervisor is outside waiting for me, and he tells me that the delivery truck has already dropped off the lighting. Ahhhh…not good.
Rewind: Because we learn from our experiences, we do not want the lighting delivery to be dropped off without the SD (Senior Designer) or JD (Junior Designer) being there. Why” On a past job, the lighting was delivered and not inspected. A few days later, I get a call: "Hey, Alana! The electrician just saw that this Murano glass chandelier has an arm that is broken." Or the mirrored back plate is cracked. Or something. (It’s always something.) If you have dealt with trying to get another Murano glass arm to match your chandelier, then you would know that the world has just ended.
LESSON 3: When working in a large firm, there is always room for miscommunication amongst the various departments. Someone somewhere did not follow the mass email that was sent out various times regarding this new inspection procedure. It happens. Life, somehow, goes on.
Fast forward: There are 27 boxes of light fixtures and parts, and now I get to personally go through them with the job supervisor. Yes, in heels. Yes, in the blistering cold.
10:00AM
Inspecting lighting…
10:30AM
S t i l l inspecting lighting…
11:00AM
Time to start placing the lighting and calling out sconce locations. Most sconces are shown on detailed CAD drawings where they are located, and these drawings are then put into a master "Design Bible," and the job supervisor, the client and the designer all have copies. This is for easy reference for all parties involved, and we go through hoops trying to keep all of the copies updated if even a single word on a drawing or schedule is changed. At times, these drawings are completely disregarded by some supervisors, so that is why I am now spending another 45 minutes placing sconces in a 15,000 sq. ft. house. Sometimes ya just gotta suck it up and be accommodating…
11:45AM
Now on to hardware placement, which is another arduous, time consuming job. Go through each room that has a knob, pull, and hook and mark where you want it to go on the cabinet. You cannot leave these small details for the hardware installer to do, especially when you have elaborate, ornate cabinets and there could be many different options on where to do the placement. And if a door happens to get the wrong hardware placement, the entire door has to be remade. This can get expensive and annoying to the job supervisor, as he is trying to wrap the job up at this time.
To make things even better, the hardware installer has not dispersed the hardware amongst the rooms, so he is making multiple trips back and forth from the garage where the hardware is stored to the individual room where it needs to go. In an effort to speed along the process, I start stacking up piles of hardware bags and now have sawdust all over my lovely winter white wool coat. Nice.
12:30PM
Placing hardware…
1:00PM
S t i l l placing hardware…
1:30PM
At this point, I am running out of there as fast as possible to head for a gas station to use the restroom. You get used to it. (Well, not really.) I have a Payday and Diet Coke for lunch as I have to be back downtown for a meeting at 2:00PM. I also have about 500 messages from the office. For some reason, all of the jobsites for this builder never seem to have cell phone coverage in the house – maybe due to some ultra efficient decking” – so my phone is blowing up.
Just some average emergencies like “Where is the stone sample that the other SD needs for her meeting for which she is about to leave”” Uh, I dunno. Think, think! Last time I saw it was when JD was putting it in the SD’s car. Me: "Did you check in SD’s car”: JD: "Uh, no…lemme go check." Five minutes pass before a ring back. JD: "Yes, it was in SD’s car." Yay – problem solved.
I know it sounds trivial, but the case of the missing stone sample could have been a major catastrophe. This particular 24"x24" stone sample was the exact sample that we approved to order the hundreds of square feet of this material for a client’s bathroom. The problem is that the material was all installed and the client HATED it, and SD noticed that it didn’t look like the sample that she approved. This 24"x24" stone sample now needs to go to the jobsite with SD so that she can meet the stone rep and compare how the materials are totally different, resulting in our not having to pay to have the “ugly” stone ripped out and the new stone purchased and reinstalled.
So, yeah – that could’ve been an issue. It has happened in times past where something has been missing for weeks on end and massive search warrants have been issued for the tri-state area, only later to have turned up in SD’s garage. I won’t elaborate…
2:00PM
Meeting at an iron fabricator’s studio to go over a 25′-6" spiral chandelier that defies physics. The installer is meeting me here to figure out how the world’s biggest Slinky (that’s really what it looks like at this point with no lights on it) is going to get through the front door into a three-story stairwell that is only 40" in diameter.
There is also the issue of sourcing the light covers. The original ones were pulled at the last minute by the client, who decided to use calcite glass instead. The only problem is that the calcite glass covers weighed in at over 5 lbs. The fabricator says that we have to keep it to 1/2 lb. to minimize any stretching that could incur with a heavier weight. So back to square one.
But the good news is that the installer said that he should have no issue installing the fixture; however, he says he won’t go up into the attic to install the hardware necessary to support the weight and size of this type of fixture. Huh” So I add to my list to call my back-up installer to come out and simply block out the space as he cannot install a fixture this large. So I now have two different installers handling two different aspects of the job. Double the follow-up now.
2:45PM
To the office. Go over everything with JD that just happened and start delegating. She gets to work on sourcing glass and contacting the other lighting installer. I have proposals that need to be done on all of the playroom furnishings. For the newbies out there that means sending in quotes to the various fabricators, giving them all of the specs of the fabrics, and drawing up work orders.
This process is so time consuming because of the amount of detail that is required. I go ahead and estimate my required fabrics and order CFAs so that when the client signs off we are locked and loaded, ready to go. All of this is done through emails, vendor websites, and faxes.
LESSON 4: Get everything in writing!
I also call the fabricators going over the repairs on the drapery treatment and then put in a call to the separate workroom that made the lounge chair. Upon hearing the news of a large project coming during the next month, they are able to get over there tomorrow afternoon. What did I tell you”
More To Come
It’s mid-afternoon, and Alana still has a long way to go. Tune in next month for the last installment when she plays “beat the clock” with a client’s order, gets her winter white wool coat even dirtier while rifling through a warehouse, and seeks solace in chocolate covered almonds. GO HERE to read Part 3.
