Sigh. I'm frustrated.

[shipperx]

So I'm working on plans for a house for my sister (no, I didn't manage to talk my way out of it. Once she discovered how expensive it was to hire an architect, she did ye old guilt trip until I felt like the worst sister in the world for refusing.) Anyway, I haven't been writing (at all) because I've been drawing. And, much like fanfic writing, I'm now totally and completely stuck on the plans. The upstairs bedroom for my neice doesn't work the way that I thought it would.

If I had more energy to work on it, I know I could work it out. The problem is (and this goes back to why I tried ducking out of designing the house in the first place), I'm a commercial architect. I'm still muddling through on the construction details because they're not what I'm used to. Also, I freaking work 9 to 10 hours a day! I don't seem to have many wondrous plan ideas left by the time I come home to work.

It's not that I won't figure out the plans, because I will. They work out, you just have to play with them. I just know I'm going far, far more slowly than my sister wishes. I know she's frustrated that I haven't sent anything to the contractor yet. And I had believed I would have a plan and elevations by now. It simply hasn't worked out that way, and I'm stuck, stuck, stuck.

Oh well. Just needed to vent some frustration.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

And oddly enough, just today I was thinking about asking you what kind of architect you were because I had a residential question. I want someone to explain to me why new homes suddenly have one wall where there are no windows. I've seen four new homes being built in the last year and all four of them have a side that is window free. I'd go nuts in a house like that.

volunteer labour

[klytaimnestra.livejournal.com]

If your sister is not paying you, or not paying you much, she has no business complaining (or even sighing loudly) if it takes longer than she hoped it might. If she wants quick results, she can hire someone. She's succeeded in guilting you into doing the plans; the guilt has to stop there. She could try enormous and constant gratitude as an option, in fact.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

There's no structural reason for it. The two most likely reasons would be either "North Side Neighbor" policy which is, when building relatively small neighborhoods where there is minimal clearance between houses they somewhat consistently leave one side without windows so that the house next door can have windows open to that side without looking into their neighbor's house, and it has a domino effect throughout the subdivision (actually, stopping to thik of it, both my mother's and my house is like this. If the rest of the house has an adequate number of windows, you don't really seem to notice. The other possibility is that the owner or developer is simply trying to avoid buying more windows. In all liklihood, it's both.

And, on a usual basis, I primarily design schools and hospitals. (Used to, primarily hospitals. These days, primarily schools).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Grr.

Both my mother's and my house [b]ARE[/b].

Guh.

Haven't had my morning coffee yet.

[fishsanwitt]

I think your icon says it all.

I hope you get unstuck soon :)

[thedabara-cds.livejournal.com]

*hugs*
I know what it's like to have family making unreasonable demands. Maybe next time she makes impatient noises you should tell her not to keep rushing you unless she wants a crappy house...

Re: volunteer labour

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

She keeps asking me how much I want her to pay me, but the truth is, if she wanted to pay an architect the actual feel, she would have used the architects that I told her to go to. Plus, honestly, she couldn't afford me. So, while I'm sure that there will no doubt be some money involved it's more along the lines of enough money to assuage her conscience.

But, yeah, I'm a doormat where family is concerned and somehow manage to do everything everyone else in the family wants... which is rather exhausting.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, I've worked out most of the original issues. However, I'm still no where near done and I'm sick of leaving work to have to come home to work several more hours. And the thing about drawing is, there's simply no way to make it go faster. Sigh.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I mildly remind her that I have a thing called a job and she really needs to have patience. But... yeah... she hears it but it never quite sinks in.

Can you call her bluff?

[klytaimnestra.livejournal.com]

Can you say, "if I were charging you professional fees, it would be X. If you were paying X, I would add it to my professional workday and you would get the plans sooner.

However, I know that you cannot afford that fee, and since you're family, I am doing the plans as my gift to you. This means that I am doing them on my own time, when I get home from work. And that means that I cannot get them to you as fast as you would like them.

If you would like to take the plans to an architectural firm and have someone else finish them, you could probably get a reduced rate at this point, because I've done a lot of the work already. I will be happy to make you a gift of the plans in their current state, to do as you like with, or in their finished state.

However, I am unwilling to accept a reduced fee from you, because that will make you think you have a right to demand the plans at a certain time, and frankly, I'm working flat out as it is, and I cannot get them to you any faster. So your options are,full fee, from me or someone else, and speed: or free, but you'll get them when I can get them to you."

You're absolutely right, she wants to pay you enough to salve her conscience and make her think she has a right to nag you, and no more. But she doesn't get nagging rights for anything less than full fees.