Part I. Jolene. Scope Creep

In this four part series, each week I introduce you to one of the Lindner’s, giving you glimpses into our at home interactions that are inevitable with shared city living spaces. We hope these mini anecdotes give you a little laugh and a deeper appreciation of the person behind the design. Hiring someone to come into your home requires vulnerability, it’s only fair that we return the favor.

Part I. Jolene. Scope Creep.

Scope Creep. Do you know it? Wikipedia with the assist, “In project management, refers to changes, continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project’s scope, at any point after the project begins. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled.”

Hmm…there’s something oddly...familiar about that, but not in project management speak. It’s my relationship with Jolene. It started out innocently enough. Jolene would leave my packages at my door, I would say thank you. I offered to babysit once, she gave me a bottle of wine. When they’d come down to hang out on the patio, they’d invite me. I wasn’t sure where to hang my new Samsung Frame TV, Jolene advised (FYI - “artwork should be 60 inches from the floor to the middle of the piece”). I tried to pawn off my Pottery Barn chandelier light fixture, Jolene wisely redirected me to hanging it in my apartment, it’s now one of my favorite focal pieces. Soon I found myself hoping they’d come down to the patio, offering to babysit more often, and poking my head out to say hello when I’d hear them come in the garage. I started receiving invites to dinner and texts about leftovers. Neighborly niceties quickly evolved into those friendship feels. Suddenly I was having dinner with them, staging elaborate Halloween events for 3 pre-teen girls and unofficially AirBnB’ing my unit out to her mom for spring break visits. Then one day Jolene posted she was hiring on Instagram and like any interested party, I slid into her DMs. Now I’m writing this blog for her business. My how things have escalated! Neighbors to friends to business associates, talk about scope creep.

The trouble with Ding Dong Ditching in this era is that your targets have cameras in their doorbells. Lucky for Ava, they were greeted with a sultry sorceress.

A word on Jolene being totally fun. Remember that epic Halloween party for 3 pre-teen girls? Right. Well Jolene is “not like other moms, she’s a cool mom.” A very cool mom who donned a very regal black wig for the event, excitedly announced after receiving a ding-dong ditch from the local school boy crush, “let’s get em back!” Really?! Oh my! I couldn’t…(I am rather shy so this was a particularly thrilling Friday evening for me). Jolene, myself with Beckett on hip, and three 10 year olds ran down the street to ding-dong ditch, the cutest boy in school. Hearts were pounding as our feet raced down the pavement of San Francisco’s Marina district, all of us, adults included, screaming like giddy little girls.

But that’s Jolene. She’s open and generous and likes to bring people together (and she’s super fun!) I suspect her clients experience something similar in the opposite direction, what starts out as a client engagement leads to a genuine friendship. Jolene has relationship scope creep, in the best kind of way.

That’s all for this week, see you next Saturday for Part II. Tony. “Handsome Hubby”

xo,

Sam, The Neighbor Downstairs

Jolene, Sorcerer by night, classy Interior Designer by day.