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. 

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