The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Home Renovation: Habit 5 - Understand and Be Understood

Part 1: Be Proactive
Part 2: Begin With an End in Mind
Part 3: First Things First
Part 4: Think Win-Win
 

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand Then be Understood

There is a saying that the strongest part of your home renovation design is your constraints. First try to understand the constraints, then you can better understand how to solve your design problems.

Some typical constraints are:

Budget: Try to understand your home improvement budget  from a re-sale point of view as well as a cash flow standpoint.

Time: Time constraints can be a blessing in disguise in that they help lend focus to the project.

Zoning: Zoning constraints will define the legal barriers of size, and dimension not to mention the use of the addition.

Site: The site will have certain characteristics which may dictate what you can and can not do within your budget or time constraints. These may include any slopes on the land, sunlight direction, proximity to neighbors, etc.

You will start the renovation process with a list of needs and you will want them to be understood, but as you move into the design stage you will become aware of how these needs will be facing constraints not only of cost and time, but also with zoning and site issues.

It is important to work WITH your architect and your builder in addressing these constraints. Remember, they are on your side. Listen to your architect and try to understand what they are telling you during the planning and design phase and then seek to be understood.

When this dialog is underway the process starts to become truly collaborative which leads us to the topic of our next blog, Habit 6: Synergize

The Seven Habits of Highly Productive Home Renovation: Habit 4 - Think Win-Win

Part 1: Be Proactive
Part 2: Begin With an End in Mind
Part 3: First Things First
 

Habit 4: Think Win Win

This is a Habit that is best thought of in how to approach the context of the team you will need to assemble in order to complete your home renovation project.

It is easy to have a cynical view of the remodeling experience when you hear some of the stories of change orders, cost overruns, and endless delays.

Many of these stories have merit, and you should always be an educated consumer and a wary buyer, but always keep in mind that you and your team NEED each other.

Owner - Architect - Client Relationship

The triangle is often given credit for being the strongest shape in geometry. By their very nature triangles imply strength through balance. In the case of your remodeling project, the three points of the triangle are the Owner (you) the architect (the planner) and the General Contractor (the plan executor)

THE OWNER: At the start of the process you have NEEDS and a BUDGET.

THE ARCHITECT: The architect has ideas about how to satisfy those needs and the ability to clearly delineate a PLAN on how to achieve them within the BUDGET.

THE GENERAL CONTRACTOR: The General contractor has CONSTRUCTION SKILLS and RELATIONSHIPS that are then leveraged to carry out the plan by procuring and assembling materials.

Think of it as an equation, and remember an equation always needs to be balanced

O+A+G=S where
(Owner - Needs/Budget) + (Architect - Plan) + (General Contractor - SKILLS/MATERIALS ) = successful renovation project

This is really just an exercise in balance. The architect is selling you time and the general contractor is selling you both time and stuff. You are setting out on a project that has some level of ambiguity, but all of you Owner, architect, and general contractor are setting out on this together, and it can only be successful if all parties get what they want. That is why a good plan is tantamount, and why all parties need to understand each other at the outset.

This leads to Habit 5 “Seek First to Understand, then be Understood” which we will get to in the next blog.

The Seven Habits of Highly Productive Renovation: Habit 3 - First Things First

Part 1: Be Proactive
Part 2: Begin With an End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Even on a simple kitchen renovation project there will be literally thousands of little decisions that will have to be made. It is important that you distinguish clearly between your wants and needs from Habit 1.

It is also important to think of things in the context of a timeline and literally put first things first.

There are general project requirements such as securing financing, hiring an architect to design and create drawings and hiring a general contractor that will build your project.

There will also be a set of decisions that have a sequential aspect in the construction flow. In the general timeline of your renovation project there will be certain things that HAVE to happen in order for other things to commence. We typically call these decision points the CRITICAL PATH, and within the Critical Path there are two subsets: DESIGN and then CONSTRUCTION.

Design:

Before construction actually starts you need to have a building permit in place. There are many design decisions that can be put off for later but you CAN'T build anything without the building permit. One way to put first things first is to identify all of the things you need to have in order to get a building permit. The two typical criteria are

Site Plan (showing setbacks and in some jurisdictions lot coverage and possible water run-off calculations). This will help determine the general size and shape of your addition. NOTE: Zoning and land use issues are typically related to the site plan and in some instances can be quite complex as with Historic Districts for example.

Architectural Drawings: showing structural information, energy calculations in some jurisdictions, and compliance with building code requirements.

Construction:

After the permit is received and you have met other design milestones the Construction phase has its own set of critical path issues. For instance you can put off final decision of lighting sconces, but your kitchen cabinets will probably have a LEAD TIME and they will also need to be installed before the counters and your counters in turn will need to be installed before your plumber can finalize the sink installation.

Lead Time: is the time it takes to get something AFTER it has actually been ordered. Semi-Custom kitchen cabinets are a typical item with a 6-8 week lead time, but any product can be susceptible to long lead times. You want to identify these lead time issues early so they do not disrupt the workflow once construction begins.

We’ll get to Habit 4 “Think Win Win” in the next blog.

The Seven Habits of Highly Productive Home Renovation: Habit 2 - Begin With the End in Mind

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

This is a helpful preventative for cutting corners or for having a project that just goes on and on and never ends..

If you ever saw the movie The Money Pit you would get a picture of a hopelessly problem-riddled house that was in a state of perpetual repair. Most people starting renovation projects have been in the house long enough to have a feel that the house has "good bones", but it is important to create clear achievable milestones in your project. Before you start the project you should know what will constitute the end of that project.

Limit of Work Line: This is something we try to designate on a plan to contain the project within some clear boundaries, often at existing doorways or framed openings. This will help guard against scope creep. In the case of this graphic, the dashed lines are areas of work and the non-dashed lines are areas to remain undisturbed.

What Will Change (Light and Space):  Though it is subtle, you are probably used to the space outside of your house and the natural light that you get both inside and out. It is important to keep these things in mind as you design your project. If well designed you can often improve your natural light situation, and also improve how the inside of the house interacts spatially with the exterior.

Visualization: Your architect should be able to give you a clear idea of what the addition or renovation will look like before the plans are completed.

Always "Begin with the end in mind" and you will have a more successful project and a more beautiful space.

We'll get to Habit 3 "Put First Things First" in the next blog.