Today, my alarm went off at 4:30, like it has for most of the last 30 years.

Today, I went to work at a cabinet shop, like I have for the better part of 30 years.

Today, I left a cabinet shop for the last time.

I’ve been designing, building, or installing cabinets for most of the last 30 years (took three years out, while managing a toy store). Around August of this year, I realized I was tired of working in cabinets. I started casting around, knowing that I still need to provide for my family for at least another 13 1/2 years (mortgage, you know …) and into my lap fell the opportunity to be the construction manager for a property management group.

I talked it over with my beautiful bride. I prayed about it – long and hard! – and sought His will for my life. The week after Thanksgiving, I knocked on my boss’s door and had a long talk with him. I had only been working in this shop for three years, but I felt like I had finally found the shop I should have been in all along (including the time I worked for the worst boss possible – myself) and I owed him the courtesy of a long discussion. It wasn’t the money. It wasn’t the workplace. It wasn’t the people.

It was, however, time. He was disappointed. He had seen the office crew really start humming along since I came on board, he was sorry to see me go, and he said that if, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out, to give him a call, because he would take me back in a heartbeat.

I was the preliminary designer, you see, and it was my work that got approved or adjusted by the customer. I would meet with them, measure their spaces, and work with their requirements to create what they needed. I had the knowledge to keep the paperwork part organized, and the OCD-ness to stay on the customers until ALL the questions were answered. Sometimes this resulted in overly polite and extremely professional emails and phone calls basically telling certain interior designers and project superintendents to get off their butts and make some decisions, but that’s what it took!

I love making peoples dreams become realities. I will still be able to do that, but from a different perspective, and for a more limited number of people – the investors in the property management group. I am really looking forward to this next stage in my career path.

The last 30 years have been challenging. I have been injured in this industry (although I can still count to ten without taking off my shoes). I have seen coworkers fatally injured with the tools we use every day. I have had some pretty loud discussions regarding the heritage of interior designers, I have fired customers, fired people I supervised, and fired a pair of bosses once (they owned the company, and were divorced. Messy, and bipolar, and dys___ctional – meaning there was no fun there).

I have met the most talented people in this industry, some famous names have my work in their homes, and met some leaders in the entertainment and sports industries that are nothing like their public personas – and others who are the most down-to-earth and wonderful people you would ever want to meet.

The bottom line for me is – this is the end of an era, and the start of a new one.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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