I actually like my job!!

Yesterday was a very awesome at work! I know that is something people usually don’t say, but I am definitely lucky to have found this job. For those of you who don’t know (or don’t remember) last October, I started working at a drapery company. It is a small company, only about 10 employees, and we make custom draperies. Our slogan is “Workroom for the trade”. Which means that we mostly do work for designers and design stores in the Philly area, we also ship a lot of stuff to New York City. We just finished a historic house near Williamsburg, VA (supposedly Thomas Jefferson slept there), and the rumor is that the magazine, Architectural Digest, will be doing a spread on the house. I will certainly keep you posted. Anyway, over the past year I have really learned so much, it has been a humbling experience. I was an apprentice in high school to a woman who had a drapery workroom and while in Connecticut I had my own business for a few years. When we moved to Pennsylvania (summer ’07) I didn’t have a customer base (no friends to spread the word) and I wasn’t sure where to begin. So I saw an ad in the paper and called for an interview. They asked if I could come in right away and offered me the job before noon! So I was feeling pretty cocky! Yup, they wanted me, not just wanted me, but also needed me, Oh I was like a pig in slop. Fast-forward a year and I can’t tell you how many times I needed to redo things, take things apart, do things differently, sew the seam straighter. These are things I thought I knew! My supervisor is very sweet and has a nice way of telling me to redo things without making me feel like crap. She certainly has the patience of a saint.

So on to why I had an awesome day yesterday: One of my favorite parts of the job is going out on installs. I get to use power tools and see the fancy houses. Yesterday I got to climb a ladder!! What is so great about that? Usually we just use a little stepladder, but yesterday we had to install panels and a valance that was 20 feet high! That is 2 stories! This is big for me because I am not fond of heights. I had to climb the ladder with a loaded tool belt, drill gun, and a valance that was 16 feet wide. My boss had a ladder on one side of the window with one end of the valance and I had a ladder on the other side. It wasn’t that heavy, but it was bulky. We got it all together and it looks so great.

Doing something I never thought I could do: Priceless! (Although I won’t give back my bonus check!)

We also did 2 other rooms in this house: the big tv room, and the ludicrous tv room!