Educational Tid Bits

For those of you following this blog for educational purposes - a few things to do at this phase to minimize intrusion, frustration and chaos:


1. Get to know your lead field person - whether that be the Field Superintendent, Project Manager or Lead Framer.  Make them your new BFF.  It will be them that will see to it that your vision is created properly.  Since I am my own manager, I am relying on my Framer, Ruben to bring my vision to life.  He "sees" things like I do and wants to bring out the most in a space - he loves to renovate verses doing all new construction and that makes the difference between getting a great space or an AMAZING one.  He had the idea now to make a trey ceiling in my new Master and to vault the new master bath.  Both details will add "space" and roominess to the floor plan without ever increasing the actual square footage.  Thanks Ruben!

2. Have the subs clean up after themselves.  It is key that you set the bar for this - how clean is clean?  A day's mess should end up in the dumpster and not on the floor waiting for the next sub to come in and clean it before they can start their work.  The guys sweep the trash up at the end of each day and it makes a HUGE difference. it also helps to prevent having coke cans and misc food wrappers end up tucked in your floor joists under the insulation!  They add no R value!! :)

3. Don't be afraid to speak up.  This is YOUR house and YOUR project and most importantly, YOU are the client.  Never lose sight of that - even if this is way out of your league, you still need to check the work and make sure you are getting what you pay for.  Who cares if you have NO idea what you are speaking about - all they need to know is the end result you want, so tell them! You will kick yourself in the end if you settle for something because you were to embarrassed to speak up and correct a "professional"!

4. Stay ahead of the project schedule.  Make sure your project Coordinator gives you an updated project schedule every week - one that notes when you need to have certain items delivered to the house (fixtures, windows, tile, paint, etc.).  If you stay ahead of that schedule, then the last minute decisions that do pop up now and then will not overwhelm you.  There are 1 million things to decide during a renovation..live and die by the schedule!  If your contractor does not provide this service, look at hiring a coordinator who can generate it for you!!

5. Don't take the chaos too seriously.  Realize that 1 million renovations have occurred in the past and each time in the end, the project does come to an ordered end.  You will be able to restore your house to proper living conditions - yard and all.  Now this comes from an A-Type anal non-chaotic person.  It will be my biggest challenge in managing my own project.  I have already started to dream of ways to keep the site cleaner!  I even went so far as re-taping the site protection just to ensure in my mind that dust will not come in to the 1st floor where we are living....HELLO??? Who does that??

Keep on Building!!