How to Survive Your Home Renovation Project

Orientation

I’ve managed all kinds of design and construction projects during my 40-year career, done a few of my own renovations and watched others.   I’ve created Project Therapy to adapt the strategies that made my commercial projects successful to home renovation.  

The initial three pieces tell you how much, how long and how to survive. Go through them all and you have about as much information as a professional when they begin without spending much time or any money.  These were the three things that inspired me to create Project Therapy

• The Budget Game – How Much Will It Cost.

This is the first and most asked question of any homeowner.   It is an interactive tool that will take anybody from even the most rudimentary description of your project to a reasonable order-of-magnitude budget and at the same time help you research design, code and technical issues.

• The Schedule Game –How Long Will It Take

This is a companion to the Budget Game and the second most asked question.  It will give you a task by task tour of your project from start to celebration.

• Family Dynamic – How To Survive the Project.

This is the therapy part, how your family might negotiate the stress of these projects.   Not always a question but always a concern, or should be.

After that there are a series of pieces, some instructional, some stories or anecdotes that illustrate issues that come up over and over again in these projects.   It is not a comprehensive guide to projects and it is not a link to selling anything, just the things that I think are interesting and important

 Here is a link to the Table of Contents that list all the pieces which I will edit to and add to from time to time.

As an example:     

A friend’s extensive kitchen and bathroom went 50% over “budget” and took 50% longer which was especially challenging since she, her husband and three children under 5 had moved out during the project.

They picked the lower of three prices and settled for a contractor with decent builder skills but marginal business experience.  They discovered termite damage and made a bunch of design changes and additions during construction. They had an architect, but they decided not to spend the money to have them monitor the project.  

I really don’t need to write any more. These four sentences contain all the challenges of a home renovation.  

A Forbes survey asked homeowners about their renovation experience. Twenty-one percent said they would never do another project. Of that group, one in four said they would rather get a tooth pulled.

I’ve built The Budget Game and The Schedule Game to give you an easy entry into managing cost and schedule and I’ve written Your Family to help you navigate the stresses of renovation projects.  I’ve even created a Why Not Just Move calculator as a potential exit path.