I have a problem with a customer that many of you have had with a unique aspect. I have worked for a woman for over 20 years mostly on a house she does not live in. It has been two different businesses and a residential rental more recently. I gutted and put a new kitchen in it about two years ago. This woman is demanding but fair and treats me good. When I do small jobs she calls me afterwards and thanks me everytime. That means alot to me.
Enter the daughter. She has a 50 year old single daughter that lives 500 miles away that wants to move here and live in the house. The mother called me and asked if I would do some work to thhe house for the daughter to move in. She said there was no hurry to complete the job and that it would be abouut a year before the daugter would be moving and selling her other house. I said I would do the job only if they were not in a hurry.
We met at the job about three months ago to talk about what they want done. They wanted a bathroom and closet added in a bedroom and many other smaller projects. There were many challenges in that the house dates to about 1860 and three houses were moved together to make one.
I dealt with the daughter some on the kitchen project but the biggest problems are that she wants to manage, change, and re-invent every detail of the job. I came up with a floor plan for the bathroom and she rejected it. She met with friend/architect one weekend and they came up with three awful plans that none of them work. I told her this and she asked 20 questions and sent me 10 emails. The biggest problem with their plans is the bathroom fixtures were all undersized or miniature and that made them appear to work but they did not. Some of you might say "what is the big deal designing a bathroom". I have done at least 20 bathroom remodels,enlarging, changing everything around projects and this one is the hardest. But the issue/question is the difficulty of dealing with the daughter. If I ask her a question, she asks me 5 back and suggests a dozen things that don't work. She finally told me to proceed with my plan- at least that si what I thought. I built a new wall in the bedroom for the bathroom and emailed her a picture. She came back with 10 issues and in a phone conversation casually said " we need to slide the door over a little farther and make the end of the wall 45 degrees". That is the kind of thing I hate when it has been decided on, it is done.I drew a large scale plan before I started and it was accurate to an inch.
At this point she wanted to change everything. I have been meeting with subs and discussing what can and cannot be done. I spent a whole weekend on the phone, emailing, and running over to the job to re-measure stuff for her. I have been blunt but not rude to her and she will not stop.
Monday, after a long arduous phone call, I asked the daughter if she was going to continue to do what she is doing right now with the changing, etc. She paused 30 seconds and said she wants to be involved with every detail but not every nail. I pulled off the job and worked other places since then.
I talked to the mother- my longtime valued customer about this problem and she did not want me to walk off the job an told the daughter all I had said.
The question is do I walk for good or do I finish it? The mother has been good to me and I don't want to dissapoint her. The daughter is impossible to please/work with and is driving me insane. She is not going to change. The job is 20% done, great time to walk if I do instead of later.
I don't need the work but it would be a good indoor full-time job to show up whenever I want. What to do?
I pulled
Enter the daughter. She has a 50 year old single daughter that lives 500 miles away that wants to move here and live in the house. The mother called me and asked if I would do some work to thhe house for the daughter to move in. She said there was no hurry to complete the job and that it would be abouut a year before the daugter would be moving and selling her other house. I said I would do the job only if they were not in a hurry.
We met at the job about three months ago to talk about what they want done. They wanted a bathroom and closet added in a bedroom and many other smaller projects. There were many challenges in that the house dates to about 1860 and three houses were moved together to make one.
I dealt with the daughter some on the kitchen project but the biggest problems are that she wants to manage, change, and re-invent every detail of the job. I came up with a floor plan for the bathroom and she rejected it. She met with friend/architect one weekend and they came up with three awful plans that none of them work. I told her this and she asked 20 questions and sent me 10 emails. The biggest problem with their plans is the bathroom fixtures were all undersized or miniature and that made them appear to work but they did not. Some of you might say "what is the big deal designing a bathroom". I have done at least 20 bathroom remodels,enlarging, changing everything around projects and this one is the hardest. But the issue/question is the difficulty of dealing with the daughter. If I ask her a question, she asks me 5 back and suggests a dozen things that don't work. She finally told me to proceed with my plan- at least that si what I thought. I built a new wall in the bedroom for the bathroom and emailed her a picture. She came back with 10 issues and in a phone conversation casually said " we need to slide the door over a little farther and make the end of the wall 45 degrees". That is the kind of thing I hate when it has been decided on, it is done.I drew a large scale plan before I started and it was accurate to an inch.
At this point she wanted to change everything. I have been meeting with subs and discussing what can and cannot be done. I spent a whole weekend on the phone, emailing, and running over to the job to re-measure stuff for her. I have been blunt but not rude to her and she will not stop.
Monday, after a long arduous phone call, I asked the daughter if she was going to continue to do what she is doing right now with the changing, etc. She paused 30 seconds and said she wants to be involved with every detail but not every nail. I pulled off the job and worked other places since then.
I talked to the mother- my longtime valued customer about this problem and she did not want me to walk off the job an told the daughter all I had said.
The question is do I walk for good or do I finish it? The mother has been good to me and I don't want to dissapoint her. The daughter is impossible to please/work with and is driving me insane. She is not going to change. The job is 20% done, great time to walk if I do instead of later.
I don't need the work but it would be a good indoor full-time job to show up whenever I want. What to do?
I pulled
