LIFESTYLE

A Lawyer, a Civil Servant and an Interior Designer

I have always been very excited by the idea of working with an interior designer to refurbish and decorate our home and finally, my wife and I decided to embark on a renovation project to do just that. Upon a friend's recommendation, we appointed a young interior designer, D, to manage the project on 26 May 2009. That was the day it all started. A friend warned me that there would be stressful days ahead. The first of the three mistakes we committed was to continue to live in the flat whilst the work was going on. It will be easier to supervise the work, we rationalised. To our horror, we saw our flat being transformed into a worksite. The dust, the mess and all kinds of workers walking in and out of the flat was a sight to behold. I felt like a foreign worker living right next to the worksite. Our study became a temporary kitchen. My wife, who was on leave, start to complain. The second mistake was not to study the schedule of works thoroughly. It was probably over-confidence or even possibly, the trust I had placed in D. After a week of hacking and sawing, the workers did not come for the next two weeks while we lived amidst all the debris. The wife's complaints got louder.

So, I rolled up my sleeves to deal with D directly. There was a flurry of SMS's between the two of us. Weekends were spent either having meetings or shopping for furniture and other peripherals with him. It started to feel like we were building a relationship with D.

We trawled websites, magazines and shops to get ideas for our dream home. Which lights to choose? What colour paint should we use? Which type of black tile is suitable for the kitchen floor? Do we use a solid surface or granite for the kitchen counter top? What would be a good colour for the solid surface? These were the details that we were inundated with every day.

I also learnt more about the differences between the wife's personality and mine. In true civil servant fashion, she wanted things to go according to a schedule and in a preconceived system. The fact that the workers sauntered in late every morning, gave themselves several breaks in between and called it a day by 4.00pm drove her crazy.

Their haphazard and nonchalant way of performing the work led me to be on the receiving end of some hysterical telephone calls from the wife. Sometimes, I felt like I was walking on a tightrope when I had to balance our respective views and D's ideas. Cold stares and silence from the wife sometimes culminated in quarrels. "This doesn't feel like my home," she blurted out one day when she did not agree with some of my ideas. It took her a while to realise that she is a "woody person" - someone who is in harmony with wooden furniture, our former design scheme. I persuaded her to accept the new concept. She sighed. Visualisations of the final product gave me hope but became a nightmare for her.

I do not know how some people can build a house from scratch, furnish it and still survive the experience to see the final product. The minute details of renovations beat any discovery that lawyers do. Each new detail comes with a cost. The wife who was managing the project budget was getting stressed by the week. "How can a mere casing cost $350?" she lamented. This was nothing compared to her bewilderment when she discovered that shifting each electrical point attracted a separate cost.

D is a simple and decent man who has been running a sole proprietorship for the last six years. Being a sole proprietor myself, I felt an affinity towards him. Halfway through the project, I realised that his project management skills needed to be improved. He did not take notes and he forgot details. With the amount of details that was building up as the renovations took shape, I had to resort to taking notes myself.

If there is one thing that I could learn from him though, it is to keep a cool demeanour during even the most stressful moments. His response to our impatience and complaints was always an: "I understand" said in a solemn voice. Although it was not funny at that time, we had many laughs over it afterwards and forgot our unhappiness towards him.

The third lesson is not to have a woman at home when the renovation work is going on. As a good, supportive husband, I took the wife's complaints and comments very seriously at first. After a while, I realised that I had to be neutral and make my own judgment call on matters.

In early July, the renovation works were finally completed. "I have never met so many different kinds of men in my life as I have during these six weeks," the wife said. Her horizons have somehow expanded, and we have learnt a lot about home renovations; we are particularly surprised by the below average work standards in the renovation industry.

Now when I look at photographs of beautiful homes, I do not swoon over them. Instead, I study the fine details, the homeowners hard work and hold new-found respect for them.

Rajan Chettiar
Rajan Chettiar & Co
E-mail: rajan@rajanchettiar.com