Delays...

Nobody likes them, but they happen... Delays are a normal part of most projects - the trick is to anticipate these delays and work it into the time frame of expected due dates. For example, if a project should take a week if all goes well, plan for 3 weeks as the completion date. That way, there rarely are "delays" as far as clients are concerned. You can almost always complete on the expected date, if not before! This is primarily advice for re-design projects, especially ones requiring any renovations. It almost always happens that something ordered will come wrong, they will only have 3 items in stock when 4 are needed so you have to wait on the last to be shipped, someone gets a flu bug and is unable to work, an item gets broken en route to the property and needs to be re-sourced and delivered. You name it, it can happen. I've even had tradespeople that are in the property to do an installation or construction work of some sort, try to convince my clients that the furniture is in the wrong place (not all rooms need to be centred around a 60" TV), the overall design is not worth the money ("I could've found a similar item at Walmart for you.") or complain about colours schemes (not every room needs a red feature wall)! Decorator or drywaller??? (Will be the topic of another blog soon, I am sure!) Anyhow, delays are normal due to the human element in this type of work. I have been caught once in a while where the tradespeople are not those I've worked with before, I don't know how they work or the number of extra tasks they may been asked to attend to while the original work is being completed (i.e. while this furniture was being moved out, the freshly painted banisters got smudged and need to be touched up, as well as the furniture needing to be cleaned up). Therefore my time frame of when I expect to be completed is based on their estimate of when the renovation work is done. Sometimes they are not one in the same... I am very hands-on with my projects, especially with the absence of much needed staff at the moment, so I like to be apprised of the goings-on as they happen, so I can adjust the completion date accordingly if needed, help with whatever I can in the meantime, and mitigate any negative situation to keep the project running smoothly and the client happy with the end results. Thinking "outside the box" has become more the norm than not...and personally, I have a bit more fun that way - it is healthy to keep the creative flowing... At the end of the day, though, rational thought needs to prevail over these little things if they occur. And thankfully most clients are very reasonable people. After all, we are decorating a room, not curing a rapid moving epidemic of plague...