Old House Renovations

It seems completely obvious. Make a list of what you need to do and cross things off when you get them done. However, I have discovered that an amazing number of people never make a written list, much less create a master plan for house renovations. They think that they know exactly what they are going to do and will remember all of their plans. This method of keeping track of your house renovation tasks leads to house tours like this:

“I still have no idea how I ended up with this marble tile in the sun room. And  the stairway is not at all what I pictured. We were going to have a loft area that was open, but we forgot to tell the drywall guy and he did such a nice job that we didn’t want to tear it back out. He cut us a storage access door, though. This is going to be a patio area, but we always forget about it until it is too late to work on it.”

If that sounds like you giving a house tour, you didn’t have a master plan. Sound scary? Relax. It isn’t that hard too do. Just work one room at a time and you’ll have a book sized plan in no time. I’m sort of visual, so I tear out magazine photos and write right on them. I’ll number the page, circle a feature I like, scribble notes about how I want to change it and then write down info about it on my master plan page for that room, along with the picture number.

When I want to work on a room, I know what features I want and how I want them to look. I have a complete list of tasks to complete and always consult my plan book when I talk to construction crews. I check off tasks as they are completed and will consult the book when I have spare time to see if there are small projects to complete. It may seem anal, but all I know is that I no longer am the person who says, “No idea how we ended up with a vanity like that. I had my heart set on a completely different one, but I forgot about it when we were picking out stuff.”

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