Don Foley
With a background in telecommunications and having sold the company I formed in 1989, I decided to retire in 2000. With my new found riches I decided to extend my house in Redland. I went the usual route: an architect drew up plans and I fired them off to three builders, naturally accepting the lowest quote. How very clever of me…
“No worries Guv. It’ll be sixty grand and we will be out of 'ere in five months!”
… 12 months and £120,000 later the extension was finished, and so pretty much was I. It was a nightmare with weeks on end passing with no builders and endless calls ignored. Added to this, as I later found, having trusted these muppets with the keys to my house, pretty much everything I held dear and of value seemed to have disappeared.
I wondered if there might be a better way to have this sort of work done, simply by applying the normal skills of industry, for example: communicate with customers, be honest, use honest and house-trained tradesmen, and do what you say when you say. Easy enough you may think. Hmmm…
So here we are some fourteen years later - the new ‘Boutique’ local project management team.
Asked what my qualifications are I guess ‘victim’ is the only answer I can give. Supported by my partner Peter Allan and 14 years of actually doing stuff.
I have to say, I love what I do. I will never get rich doing it, but when you enjoy getting up for work each day that is a rare and enriching experience.
With a background in telecommunications and having sold the company I formed in 1989, I decided to retire in 2000. With my new found riches I decided to extend my house in Redland. I went the usual route: an architect drew up plans and I fired them off to three builders, naturally accepting the lowest quote. How very clever of me…
“No worries Guv. It’ll be sixty grand and we will be out of 'ere in five months!”
… 12 months and £120,000 later the extension was finished, and so pretty much was I. It was a nightmare with weeks on end passing with no builders and endless calls ignored. Added to this, as I later found, having trusted these muppets with the keys to my house, pretty much everything I held dear and of value seemed to have disappeared.
I wondered if there might be a better way to have this sort of work done, simply by applying the normal skills of industry, for example: communicate with customers, be honest, use honest and house-trained tradesmen, and do what you say when you say. Easy enough you may think. Hmmm…
So here we are some fourteen years later - the new ‘Boutique’ local project management team.
Asked what my qualifications are I guess ‘victim’ is the only answer I can give. Supported by my partner Peter Allan and 14 years of actually doing stuff.
I have to say, I love what I do. I will never get rich doing it, but when you enjoy getting up for work each day that is a rare and enriching experience.
Peter Allan
Peter has spent all of his working life in the construction industry, qualifying as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in 1977 and becoming a partner with Brendon Penny before spending ten years as a director with a local residential development company.
For the past 25 years he has acted as a Project/Construction Manager on various contracts ranging from large industrial projects through to smaller newbuild and refurbished residential schemes.
Peter has spent all of his working life in the construction industry, qualifying as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in 1977 and becoming a partner with Brendon Penny before spending ten years as a director with a local residential development company.
For the past 25 years he has acted as a Project/Construction Manager on various contracts ranging from large industrial projects through to smaller newbuild and refurbished residential schemes.
