In my last article I discussed the effect of the economy upon design and the burgeoning of the DIY movement. With an evolving disintegration of the separate disciplines and the public's misunderstanding of the design professional's duties, time was rife and ripe for the flourishing of everyman's design expression.
However, in this equation, 1 + 1 adds up to 0, because whenever someone thinks they are getting something for nothing, that's exactly what they get: NOTHING! As my friend and colleague, Steve Ballenger of Zepsa Cabinetry succinctly notes, "If you don't hire or pay for an experienced architect, designer or contractor, then you don't get a coherent architectural plan, you don't get sympathetic interior design, you don't get seasoned, expert advice, you don't get cost control, you don't get project administration, you don't get service and warranty...you simply don't get a quality project. Instead, you wind up with a quilted patchwork of uncoordinated and decorative elements, and a stressful, poorly managed process. So, while the phrase 'you get what you pay' for is true, it strikes a new nerve to think of the inverse.'"
What follows are some humorous, albeit sad, examples of what happens when, as Steve says, "You don't get what you don't pay for."
From the designer Steve Workman is the following story. "I had a client who insisted on using his own flooring subcontractor on one custom job. This guy worked directly for the owner, so every time I called him about showing up on the job, he would call the owner and give him some excuse why he couldn't be there. What should have been a two-week floor installation ended up taking six weeks." So, while the client may have saved some money using his own trades people, he lost in time and quality control.
From a personal recollection, I had a client who decided to hire his own crew of painters. He clearly wanted to save money on the architectural fees by supervising the job himself. After giving him the appropriate paint color and finish, the client related to the painters to "paint everything BM white 01." Clearly thinking that the client meant EVERYTHING, they did just that. When the owner came home, he found cabinets, hardware, floors, in fact - all surfaces, painted white. Did he save money here on supervising the project himself.
Richard Kalch, ASID, writes, "I have a long-term client who decided to go direct and shop the bathroom hardware I specified for a master bath remodel I designed instead of purchasing through me or the contractor in order to save a very few dollars. Guess what? The company she bought it from went under and now she has no hardware and cannot recoup her money."
Madera Rogers-Henry cites her example. "Wow! What I encountered was the remains of a disaster. Upon arriving to a simple staging job, on closer inspection, I saw the painting contractors were painting the door framers, baseboards and the bannisters all with different colors! You could only imagine, paint underneath and on top with palm prints! Clients were attempting to save money by hiring jack legged contractors. These contractors often leave properties with substandard word that the clients seems to ignore. However, I was honored to worked as the project manager and stage, firing them. It was a nightmare. The sad fact about the client's, even after spending thousands of dollars on saving money in an $800,000 home, they resorted back to what they knew."
And, Mark O'Hearn exclaimed, "Gail, I had a client who purchased a gas pool heater over the internet for a wholesale price. The heater was delivered by a trucking company who delivery it off a truck and was left at the end of the driveway about 300 feet away from the swimming pool site. My client opened the box and it was damaged and dented from the delivery and it had to be picked up from the internet company, adding 3 to 4 weeks to the building of the pool. To add insult to injury to the story, he had some issues with the heater and had a challenging time get warranty service from any pool service company."
One of my clients wanted to be responsible for the painting her dining room. She hired a good crew and proceeded to give them the color she chose from a small (very small chip). Need I say more? Not fully understanding the impact of how color changes once enlarged, she gasped upon seeing her room. It looked like a bordello! So, she paid us to redo the right job. That's measuring once, cutting twice!
From Mark Demmerle: "I had a client who was micro involved with the design process. She was a 'shopaholic'. I found myself trying to convince her to NOT overspend the project. She doubled he budget which was dangerous for the house....because a house can only take so much detail before it gets all tarted up."
From Tammis Willis: My client's decided to order their own engineered wood flooring via the internet against both the designer's and builder's advice. Said flooring arrived six months prior to installation and the clients did not bother to inspect the cartons prior to conditioned storage...surprise, surprise. When the cartons were opened and every, EVERY board was cupped...you guessed it...no warranty and so the floor was installed "as is." Eventually the floor will have to be sanded and refinished and while the clients are very detailed oriented, they have managed to live with this stinker of a wood floor.
The savings in the end were negated..."
A sad tale from Janet Adler of Janet Adler, Realty NY: "I decided to redo my kitchen. I set a very low budget for what I thought was an easy design for a very small kitchen. There is a cabinet company who belongs to the same professional organization as me who offered me a very good price on the cabinets. I bought the backsplash from them and the hardware and the faucet. Several weeks later everything was delivered to my apartment and the weekend after that my daughter and I emptied the entire kitchen. The following Monday the contractor arrived and on Tuesday announced that the cabinets would not fit. They were off by 3". It took until that Friday for the cabinetry company to admit that it was their fault and that they would replace the mis-sized cabinets for free (woo hoo). The new cabinets, which would not look as good as the original design because one cabinet would now be 9" instead of 12", would be delivered the following Wednesday. With Christmas around the corner, it will be very difficult to get the contractor back, in addition to my having to pay him twice to do the same job over. Do you think that would have happened if I had not tried to save a few bucks. Cheap is dear!
Alas, poor Janet, now poorer but wiser!
