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Show Notes:
DESIGN A HOUSE THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU
Product Highlight
On Wednesday I was invited to the SubZero/Wolf showroom by one of their representatives Mary White. The Chef, Chef George, cooked a fantastic lunch for 6 designers. The product they were highlighting was their steam oven. To tell you the truth it is a lot more versatile than I believed originally.
The showroom serves as more of an educational space than a sales floor. Actually none of the appliances are for sale. They have distributors around town, but this is a place where you can go to test and play with all the equipment. They have all the available products. Every month they have a class or event where you can come in and see the products in action or you can make an appointment and walk the store with a rep.
If you have the budget for wolf products the showroom would be an excellent resource for you. Give them a call. If you would like more information give me a shout and I can get you connected to Mary.
Subzero / Wolf Showroom
Lunch by Chef George
Show Topic
DESIGN A HOUSE THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU
Several years ago I was asked by a contractor to join them at one of their clients houses to go over some ideas for a kitchen renovation. The home owner was not a very pleasant person to work with and the contractor was being extremely pushy trying to increase the renovation and include lots of additional areas of the house.
Needless to say the meeting was horrible.
I was hearing from the client that all they wanted to remodel was the kitchen and the contractor kept saying we can do this and then this and that… After the meeting I was thinking, wow. That was the worst hour and half I have ever had in my career. Why was everyone pushing in such opposite directions? Are we not being hired by the client to work within their goals? I mean I know what the contractor was trying to do by up selling the project to try to force more scope out of it and therefore more profit.
At what point as an architect, brought in by the contractor do you take a stand for the home owner and risk the contractor getting upset with you and potentially never asking you to come into a project?
At that point in my career I was younger and less willing to speak my mind to contractors. I regret letting that meeting get out of hand or go so far down the wrong path. Needless to say, I no longer work with that contractor and have moved on to work with less pushy salesmen.
I tell you that story because there will be a lot of salesmen that come into your life when a construction project either renovation or new construction begins. You have to absorb all the information you are receiving, digest it and ultimately make the decision. Be firm with your decision, not mean, but express to that person that this is what you would like to happen, and lets see if we can make that happen.
There are times when I as an architect will offer suggestions above the initial scope requested by the client. It is not to try and up sell, but rather just let the client know what may be possible that they have not thought of yet.
I never explain it or present it in a pushy manner and it is always something extra in addition to drawings that actually meet their goals.
So what do you do if you find yourself with a contractor breathing down your neck with hot stinky breath forcing a project on you that is much larger than you originally hoped. First you express to them that this is your budget and that this is the amount of scope you would like to focus our efforts on. If your team is not listening to you and accepting of your goals, I think it is time for a new team.
Don’t be afraid to change teams during a project. Changing during construction can be difficult with subs, payments, half work completed etc. But it can be done. Don’t think you have to ride out the project until completion with a crappy team. It will only stress you out for a longer period of time and put a cloud over the project. Move on. Find someone that listens to YOU.
Show wrap-up
Shout out for this weeks show goes to Mary White for setting up a great lunch event at the subzero wolf showroom in Buckhead. Really enjoyed the cooking lesson using steam and exploring the great kitchen appliances.
Take action
So I wanted to end with one final take away for you. Stand up for your project goals. Listen to ideas from your team, and expect them to listen to yours.
If you have a project you want to get started on I would be more than happy to help get you started. Would love to hear from you.
I wanted to end this episode with a great quote from Stephen Covey. The author of ‘the seven habits of highly effective people’. Stephen said:
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
My advise is that we all start to listen with the intent to understand. With that said thanks for listening!
