just posted a recent project students at my uni are working on.  check it out, and if you are in japan we are in fact looking for volunteers. 

shared with a tokyo friend, jump. we'll see if she knows anyone interested in a barn-raising, japanese style!

WWTCD question:

I did a tiny job (selecting a front door and paint colors) for a couple we are friends with, really former business acquaintances who have become friends, they are lovely people.  A few hundred dollars in time.  Yesterday a package from them showed up with a selection of super yummy treats from a famous NYC gourmet store and a note saying thank you for being so helpful this year.  Their project was quite slow and just finished a few weeks ago -  they first contacted me in spring.  Do I go ahead and bill them, or not?

Sure you go ahead and bill them.  We had a project where we had a gift basket from Zabar's in New York delivered to our door.  I can't begin to imagine how much the thing cost, with all the goodies contained within.  We billed him and that project was over eight years ago.  We still hear from the client and they have sent other work our way since then. So go ahead and Bill them, if they have money to by super yummy treats in NYC and send them to Indiana then they are expecting a bill. 

Marry Christmas Donna~~

Happy winter solstice fellow northern hemispherers!

I am so tired, I think I will crawl under my desk and take a nap. zzzzz

thanks steven!

i don't know donna.  do you think they are expecting a bill?  or do they think you were being a friend and its on the house?  that kind of thing is always funny for me.  we have come to be more upfront about money over the years and let people know when we expect to be paid cuz its sort of awkward to ask for it later.  uncertainty about billing is a pain.

....but Donna did you give them an estimate up front, discussed your price, etc? Do you think that by now they are expecting it to be a "xmas gift job"? If not, I would bill them, even if after all with a discount.

donna, it is nice of them to send you a gift, it is a sign of acknowledgement of their designer's address. if it wasn't up front it would be awkward to ask for money now, unless you don't care about social aspects of this. consider it an advertisement money can't buy. we all have done this and things like that still go through the cracks every now and then. it is more stressful to think about it than let it go for one more last time in freebie dept. in the past, i have also experienced receiving a nice check in the mail without asking. it is not really about if you respect your work or not. you are already beyond that kind of development as an experienced architect who makes a living from it.

We discussed terms, and they asked me for an invoice awhile ago, and they know it will be a couple hundred.  I am certain they are still expecting an invoice from me, I just feel like letting it go, but I still need to mention it to them so they don't wonder, of course.

ah well then that is easy, send the invoice or a card explaining why you are giving them a christmas gift.  for a couple hundred bucks i might not bother either.  creates good will too.

you could apologize for not getting them a receipt sooner, and see how that plays.

i love my blog! thanks green heads!

I'm applying to be a Women Business Enterprise with the City for next year, so I just prepared my first ever Balance Sheet and Projected Profit and Loss statements.  Kinda cool.  Very humbling.

Donna, when I first read your ^post, though you were applying to be the 'women business enterprise of the year'. I'll nominate you if somebody else doesn't get to it first.

Ha! I'd be more likely to win "half-assed sloppy barely-holding-it-together-with-spit-and-wine-fueled-wishes woman-owned enterprise of the year"!  WBE is the City's designation for women-owned firms.

being a WBE only means something if the local agencies actually enforce the diversity contracting rules on their major projects, so that the old-white-man firms actually need to hire a WBE or MBE to meet the diversity quotas. it's a sad place our profession is in. good luck!

while i agree with the incentivization (sp?) that the mbe/wbe targets represent, barry, in practice, their use is a huge burden in pursuing work. tends toward the 'token', which undermines the intention, imo. i support donna doing it; don't get me wrong. there are WAY too few talented participants registered.

Hmmm, I have this idea that being WBE puts me in a better position to get very small, short term projects, not to team with others.  Maybe I'm wrong, I have no idea!

so we just had a client come to us and ask us to design a case study house in tokyo.

could be quite fun.

donna, i'm thinking that what it will do for you, if you decide to go after public work, is level the field a bit. you won't be bypassed, they're forced to consider you, especially if there is lack of representation, which of course, there is a lack...my thoughts.

merry christmas from springfield, pa.

theory central looks to be a promising thread...

happy holidays, everyone!

I expect that some firms (like mine [ahem]) who could not otherwise participate in some projects may call you to serve a consulting role or some other arrangement, Donna. That way it brings in work to you, allows them to go after projects with WBE targets/minimums.

updated my educational and skills profile. i wonder i gave too much information. i thought people who directly helped me develop as a student deserved a credit and cooking is a skill that is important. feedback please, i won't be offended.

happy holiday!

Going out in the back yard to  watch for the Red Nosed Reindeer!  Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a very happy Christmas!

its a pity that laws are needed to ensure women get to work as much as men.  worse that offices distort their practices to include a person just  to meet some paper requirement.  crazy-ass world.

cooking is cool orhan.

happy christmas all!

Most Inspirational Teacher Award!  You deserve it, Orhan, that's awesome!

I would add an S to the end of documents in the phrase ..."document all kinds of architectures...".

Had a quiet Christmas and frankly I'm glad it's over.  Angus loves his Air Swimmer RC shark, and it's funny that we never know quite where it's going to float off to and later be found in the house.  I made a passable gravy, peppermint meringues, and some delicious roasted brussels sprouts; MIL brought a smoked turkey that was delicious.

3 metric centuries in 3 days.

and it's been 80 all week.

Santa gave me a good old fashioned head Cold for Christmas.  I guess I didn't drink enough bourbon to kill the germs...argh!  I have to be well by next Saturday cause it is New Years Eve....Yahoo!

I was glad to see Living in Gin  posting  inregard to internships or work or whatever, and in yet another  part of Amerika...

Orhan, never saw the post about the award, other than  what Donna said....that is great

Will, go for it ....a case study house would be a blast as long as it isn't for some American Housing Developer.

ditto orhan.  i missed that too.  very coolio

we are working on it snook.  the client asked us to make something as interesting/experimental as the houses in california but in crowded tokyo setting.  should be fun. 

i just got back from seeing the new(ish) Muppets movie. Hilarious and nostalgic. night all.

As a kid, I never liked the muppets. I was more of muppet babies fan. Wonder if Id feel differently now.

Hey Paul, I got a new iPhone 4s for Christmas, and I've noticed that when I zoom in on a forum page, everything gets scrambled.  Just thought you should know.  Does anyone else see this?

morning all! busy or just unplugged for holidays?

Unplugged and uninspired, Nam.

ha me too!

I've finally come out of my sugar coma.

Key Largo doesn't suck. See you all next week!

but a cold does....headed off to bed.

still working!  where is the off switch?

forced vacation this week - I would have been the only one in the office, but the name-on-the-door said don't bother b/c nothing's going to start until after the new year, so I'm just answering a couple CA-related e-mails then running errands...

oh - and somewhat related - I'm also working on a post for my archinect blog on the recent increase in men managing the household and what that might mean for home design.

That's awesome toaster.  I think it means we need bigger TV's and instead of Oprah and soap operas, we need more Call of Duty!  I kind of want to be a stay at home house-person now that I'm thinking about it.

I don't T know that it will make much difference at all, Toast. I mean, the men are taking over the roles that women were performing. Those roles are cooking, cleaning, laundry, childr reering, and I think those tasks themselves are what has formed, or influenced our housing design. Certainly, men approach these tasks very differently than women, but I think the tools for the task will stay relatively the same. It's an interesting topic, though.

Typing on this iPad is a pain. The keyboard keeps covering up the text box. Any help?

Back to work today, got a tablet computer for x-mas so trying to figure out how to write some apps. Haven't a clue so far.

Toast, am picturing Tim the toolman Taylor's self cleaning bathroom complete with beer fridge... but that's prob not what you have in mind.

Thinking Mr. Dyson will come up with a portable vacuum with beer dispenser and of course an Ipod   recharging station.

Maybe you boys could wear it backpack style, and pretend to be rocketmen or ghostbusters as you feel inclined.

I thought dyson's marketing was pretty masculine...  It looks like a power tool.

Yeah, but I don't think Husband has ever used mine.

my father got my mother/him a dyson vacuum cleaner for christmas he used it for just a couple of mins as a test and i was amazed at the amount of dirt it sucked up from a "clean" rug. 

just got back from the mall, had to exchange some gifts (that i purchased) for the correct size and got some great super sale deals.