Why Do This?

The new ceiling frame structure has been partially laid out and when the owner saw that there are spaces where an adult cannot walk through, she requested to maximize the ceiling space some more and create more levels to get more usable space.

What was a simple two-step plan to rationalize the ceiling has become a four-step, multi-level ceiling that we'll just see how it turns out.  It goes a little over the original budget but that's not unusual in renovations where costs balloon proportionally to the ideas.

I tell myself, this is not particularly enjoyable when you have to conform to the client's whims and desires and you can't just institute simple, economic solutions as you wish.  But that is part and parcel of work.

People always say they do the job for something else -- for the money, for their children, etc.  However satisfaction over the job itself, sometimes it doesn't come as easily when there are conflicting values.  There's an expensive Jaguar sitting in the garage and there is so much resources spent on beautifying a small part of the house which is completely the owner's prerogative to waste money as they please.  But then the issues that float inside my mind are the workers who live from day to day asking for cash advance so they can reach the job site every morning.  It boggles my mind -- these disparities in society and I guess even if I try to put these questions at the back burner, they come up bubbling like quick sand.  At least this project, someone else's luxury, gives people like Raul and Junie income for their family.  And if I cannot derive satisfaction from the solution of the architectural challenge, I can derive satisfaction from that fact.