Sunday, September 5, 2010

Organised Is Not A Dirty Word - A RANT!

I don't know about you but I am one of those people who gets a weird tightening in my chest and I find it hard to breath if I'm not 100% informed about the current process of the build. This also happens when I forget something that was said, or get a little bit overwhelmed by the changes and decisions both already made and yet to be made. So I plan, and I take notes, make lists and spreadsheets and I have folders with every bit of information and samples of everything and I can breath that little bit easier.

Let me start by saying I work in a very high stress engineering environment where plans are made and changed in lightening speed and making sure those changes don't slip through the cracks mean certain systems need to be put in place. Now I had pre-start last Thursday and to be honest, I was nervous that I would forget something or that I would explain something and it would get lost in translation. To keep me breathing normally I took the spreadsheets I use at work for drawing modifications and applied this to the pre-start, Any change I scribbled on plans I put into my spreadsheet, I numbered drawings and sub numbered changes and it was just so much easier to understand the 87 or so changes I had made.

This is organised, this is good..... well except that my husband laughed at me and told me I was a control freak, my mother explained that the pre-start person probably wouldn't want the carbon copy I had made of my changes file and my friends told me to relax and just let it flow. HELLO! When did being organised and making other people life easier make me a freak. It seems there is merit in just scribbling notes onto pieces of scrap paper, receipts etc. It makes you look more relaxed and carefree. Why do we live in a society where people are teased and put into boxes for doing something that is essentially..... good. We want our kids to be organised, we obviously want our builder to be organised and yet when it comes to the client they are scary and painful because they have an organised way of conveying their wants and needs.

I actually apologised to the pre-start consultant when I met her for my organisation and I honestly did feel bad, I did feel like I had tried to hard, but then I feel bad for feeling bad about being organised. I received a compliment the other day about how inspired a person is by how organised I am and how they hope that they can be as "organised" as me when they build their house and I actually felt awkward about accepting it, I wanted to feel good but at the same time I felt like the nerd at the front of the class who has actually studied for the test.

Ultimately though and this is what I keep telling myself, the nerd who actually studies is going to become a doctor or whatever they want whereas the carefree, relaxed coaster will most likely be struggling in the future. Same with the house, I don't have to worry about having passageways in the wrong spot, about walking to the other side of the house to switch a light on, or about a kitchen that just doesn't have enough storage.

So the control freak stays - and to my lovely husband - Please stop laughing, its really not funny!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am with you! Although I didn't apologise for my control freak behaviour! I would have thought it would having people that know what they want and are prepare would be a good thing.

I am such a control freak that when we go to the movie they say “where do you want to sit” and I say 3 rows from the back in the middle – does get some weird looks but hey at least it’s a definitive answer!

Its your house, your money be as much of a control freak as you like!

Jazz