Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Hubbard House

So last week, was a little hectic, little crazy and a lot of manual labor. For a couple years now everyone at Dave Fox Remodeling have been remodeling a house in Victorian Village in Columbus, OH and last week on Thursday was the new logo launching and showcase of the house. The first week I was working we went to visit the Hubbard House and with all of the dubris and unfinished work you could already tell it was a beautiful home, but last week right before it was finished and even during the cleansing process it was amazing to see all of their hardwork and design adventures finally be on display for people to see, and for a potential buyer to love and live in.
On Monday, I spent the day doing the usual, tagging along to meet with clients, discussing potential designs, visiting flooring and lighting companies and even doing a final walk through. We had a meeting on Monday with all of Dave Fox employees, which was very interesting listening to the dynamics of the company and everything that gets spoken about, the best thing about the meeting was as important as most of the topics were there seemed to be laughter at most points. Which is something I have am so found of at this business-there always seems to be laughs even when times are frustrating and/or complicated. Tagging along with Alison in a final walk thru was interesting, it is basically just signing paperwork, going over the space and making sure everything is okay, went smoothly and/or making changes (switching out electrical plates, helping the customer pick out paint, etc.)

The rest of the week I spent most of the time getting ready and helping with the Hubbard House, which was sometimes or mostly frustrating and tiring. We scrubbed floors, cabinets, shelves, the kitchen, the bathroom-Everything on the first day. The second day we arrived at 8:30 am and started to move furniture, which can be difficult when its all women and you have mattresses and dressers to move, but we did it, through the sweat, the frustration and the heat we moved it and spent lots of time trying to plan and decide the best arrangements for the furniture regarding egress for the 100 visitors on thursday night as well as the best set up for the house to sell. By 3pm that day we were all spent, and definately ready to leave the Hubbard house. Thursday the next day, a couple of the girls went to finish accessorizing and do touch up's while I stayed at the office with Michelle and helped do some quoting, warranty books and random paper work-type jobs. I took a half day that day to head to North Carolina for Homecoming and unfortunately missed the Logo Launching + Hubbard House Grand Opening. However, I did hear it went great and that the response from the clients were remarkable, it really does show that Dave Fox is the "Mac Daddy" of remodeling here in Columbus, OH and interning here has made me realize that first hand.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Starting to get a feel for it- September 14-16

As I write this blog entry, my eyes are slowly closing, and my face is plush with my down comforter - I am starting to realize, I need to go to bed a bit earlier, and that 1 or 2 am doesn't cut it anymore, my i.arc stamina is running out...

Anyways, I have begun my internship! YEY! The first day was a little slow, and I was a little uncomfortable, I think like any other newbie at a firm would be. I met the girls, got situated at my new station, ( i have my own desk and own phone and everything! although, I am terrified to pick up the phone), walked through the showroom with Michelle, to help me learn placement of materials and cleaning/random supplies that I might need and went to a meeting and just got use to the fact that I am now a working (unpaid) girl now at a design firm. Oh! and the cool thing for the day was visiting the :Hubbard House: a big redesign project they have been working on and must be complete, cleaned and set up by next Friday. It is beautiful and was so nice to see one of their finish products. The second day was more exciting. I became more comfortable with myself in my new surroundings and with the other designers, they are all so nice there and its nice to have young fresh faces like mine that understand the world I just walked out of and helping me to adjust to the world I am stepping into. 
Courtney is technically my mentor, she is the interior design manager, as well as a designer, shes uber sweet and easy to get along with and so far have learned a lot of great useful knowledge from her. Courtney  is so knowledgeable and within these first 3 days I cant quite comprehend how she does all that she does, and knows all that she knows. 
Alison is another interior designer, she is well read, studied at CCAD here in Columbus, and after todays adventures her and I have really started to get to know each other. I admire her confidence in the work that she does, dealing with vendors and clients. 
Michelle is super nice, I think I have asked her and everyone else her job title about 100 times, and honestly I never remember it, but she is super important in the smoothing process between the sales department, the shipments, the vendors and Alison and Courtney. She works a lot on specs and making sure that all of the paper work and shipments are where they are suppose to be, as well as knowing about design.

Back to my second day-I thought I needed to share with you the people who I will be talking about for the next several months-Courtney and I visited 2 clients. The first lady was renovating 2 of her bathrooms and Courtney and I pulled some samples and met with her to see the existing spaces and to get more of a feel for what she wanted. She was a nice lady and super easy to work with, she wasnt super confident in knowing what she wanted so she relied a lot on our design opinions which was nice. Our next stop was to a lady name Phyllis and her husband Dick, they renovated their kitchen, front room, dinning room and downstairs bathroom, and although they had to tear our the back-splash 3 times because she didn't like it, her and her husband are wonderful people and their kitchen is just beautiful. Courtney and I helped the crew hang the chandeliers and pendant lighting. 

Today we met at American Flooring where the four of us were introduced with their company a possible rep for Dave Fox Remodeling and shown around their showroom. Basically they want to be a vendor for Dave Fox and gave us the pro's and con's of their business. Besides it being super cold in the showroom and guy talking our ear off instead of "ooooooing and awwwing" the products it was a great learning experience. After, we all met up at the office except for Courtney. I have to say I twiddled my thumbs for a hot flash there, but then Alison wanted me and Michelle to go with her to visit a house that she had designed the renovation for and was in the beginning stages of the building. It is going to be an amazing space and I really cant wait to see the final project. After lunch I learned from Michelle how to make a warranty book, and besides my lack of knowledge on excel, I picked it up fairly quickly and now I have something I can contribute to! Then Alison took me to meet with two of her clients, one is updating her kitchen to a contemporary feel to go with the rest of her house, so Alison went over several design things with her while keith and I measured out the space to double check for the documents and final drawings. 

Then, Alison realized she locked her keys in her car. Whoops! So her and I sat on the curb of meditation blvd (ironic) and Jessup. It was a beautiful day  and to be honest it was nice to get to know Alison better, I think she understands me well, my goals my dreams and everything in between. The last client we met with was simply to pick out a chandelier. I learned a lot about different light vendors, and lighting products. 

Overall, its been a great three days, and I know that within the next few days/weeks I will be doing a lot more and will be a lot more comfortable attributing my efforts and working on individual tasks.