Eye of the Beholder...5 Tips to a more Beautiful Home!

Our friends, and client Cozy and Mark Palmer informed us the other day that DHome Magazine's editors selected their home as one of the 10 Most Beautiful homes in Dallas! A stunning accomplishment for Mark in particular who has been dreaming of building a Greek Revival Farmhouse for the last 25 years or so.

The old saying goes, '...one man's trash is another man's treasure...' And so it is with homes. What keeps life interesting is producers who continue to make chocolate...and vanilla...and even tutti fruiti - something for everyone who declares their individual taste.




But on the other end of the spectrum from "Most Beautiful" is often "Ugliest!" While 'beauty really is in the eye of the beholder,' here are 5 ways to maximize the beauty of your home construction or remodel project:

1. Go Pro - Just like Doctors are trained in how our bodies function, architects, landscape architects, and interior designers are classically trained in proportion, balance, harmony and variety. Who really studies da Vinci's Vitruvian Man or Le Corbusier's Modulor based on the Golden Mean? Architects do! It's all part of their training. As a result of their training, degreed architects or interior designers are more likely to help you create a thing of beauty. But don't always discount those who haven't studied Le Corbusier - some people just have a knack for designing beautiful things!
2. Show and Tell
   
   Trapped deep within your brain are images and feelings that are satisfying. Experience suggests the easiest way to "untrap" those feeling and images is to research pictures and find things that feel good. Coffee table magazines like Veranda, House Beautiful, and Southern Living to name a few, are brimming with ideas. Recently a website named Houzz began collecting catagorized pictures from architects, builders, interior designers and landscape architects for the sole purpose of displaying professional's best ideas for building or renovating homes. With well over a million photos, surely you can find something that resonates with your soul!
3. Point and Shoot  
   
   Once you have an inventory of ideas for your home project, and a professional(s) to help you with design, it's time to point to a captured picture and challenge the professionals with incorporating the idea into your home. Not surprisingly this will insure most of the ideas which have resonated with your soul will end up in the finished product. Remember, just because an architect or designer draws your idea on a piece of paper doesn't mean your builder will actually build it that way! Hang on to your photos for the next step...
4. "Can You Hear Me Now?"
   
    Think of your builder as a "put'er-togetherer" of gigantic jigsaw puzzles. Just like any computer, you will need to program him/her with the right information so that your building puzzle turns out just the way you wanted. Enter, the communications process! Your ability to end up with what you want in a home is directly related to the quality of the communications between yourself, the design professionals, and your builder. Interview carefully to make sure your builder has a communications system that translates great ideas into beautiful construction.
5. 
   Flies Stick to Honey  The age old expression "...you can catch a lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar..." reigns supreme in the design/build industry. Exhibiting an "attitude of gratitude" insures everyone associated with your project would rather work on your home instead of someone else's. Through the years I've witnessed extraordinary efforts on the part of professionals, builders, and trade subcontractors, all because the homeowner was being kind and gracious to everyone working on the project.

Highly talented people consistently turn out beautiful projects. Experience has taught them what looks good, and what doesn't. While you may think it expensive to hire talent, you haven't seen "expensive" until you have to tear out something that's either made wrong, or ugly!

Pinched!

An old rerun of Hoosiers with Gene Hackman was playing yesterday on cable. Thinking back on my playing days (a long time ago!) I got a little nostalgic remembering the way things used to be. At the risk of sounding a little old here, today's modern game of basketball doesn't begin to resemble the game we played back in the early 70's! Not that our era was better - most would argue it wasn't, but the emphasis was totally different. We were dedicated to our team and to our school, not like today's players who are dedicated to the "I" which doesn't seem to be a letter in the word "TEAM."

That got me to thinking about the homebuilding business and the changes I have seen in thirty-four years. In many respects the industry has gotten much better. Materials and technology have evolved wonderfully into attractive features that most people desire. Engineered wood allows longer structural spans without support; longer dimension lumber yields higher ceilings; exotic harvested woods have created rich elegant finishes; quarried stone provides elegance and durability whether you are using it on the outside of your home or on the Kitchen countertops; and technological advancements now run parts of your home. The list goes on, and on.....

Unavoidably with monumental advancements comes increased regulation. City, state and federal regulations are "pinching" the industry to the point that most builders are screaming. Here are a few of the more common complaints:

• Lending. The very lifeblood of the industry has been reduced to a mere trickle by overzealous federal regulators imposing rules that most homeowners, builders, and real estate investors can't meet. Just yesterday a report on Fox News highlighted nine big banks including J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America that had borrowed billions of dollars from the Federal Reserve at .008% and re-invested most of the proceeds in Treasury Bills that are yielding 3.2% currently! This is not what our industry needs!


• Stricter Energy Codes. We all should be for conservation, but "going green" requires a lot of green! Before we can obtain our first construction inspection from our local municipality we have to submit plans to an independent third  party energy consultant who calculates numerous energy co-efficients that must comply with federal standards. The consultant must then perform their own inspections to verify compliance. Who do you suppose pays for all of that? Sadly, it's not the builder!


• Local Building Codes. Particularly in Dallas and University Park the building codes change so often it most likely will vary from project to project when we apply for a permit. No such thing anymore as "walking a set of plans through" for a permit - we leave multiple sets to be reviewed and approved over the course of about a week.


• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Big government must justify it's existence so the EPA has just instituted a rigorous set of lead paint abatement rules for remodeling homes built prior to 1978. Estimated by the EPA to cost no more than $1,000 per project, some builder friends who have "tented" their projects to limit particle migration, and then used  hepa vacuums while scraping lead paint, have seen costs upwards of $30,000. Oddly, if you don't remodel, and instead tear the house down destined for the dump, no special permitting or abatement procedures are required to protect against the migration of lead particles! Does this make any sense when we are so rigorously enforcing paint scraping?


• Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). This self funded government agency used to only bother commercial construction sites as they looked for safety infractions that can fund their operations. With the recession in full bloom, and commercial construction almost non-existent, they have been making the rounds on residential sites. Just what we need!

• Fuel Costs. Realizing that almost all of the materials necessary in the construction of a home have to come from somewhere that probably is not close, the cost of fuel potentially will have a dramatic effect on housing. Transportation costs for planes, trains, and automobiles most assuredly will rise meaning that this cost will be passed on to the consumer. On a microeconomic level just the fuel involved in getting workers and supervision to the jobsite will have an impact. "Pinched at the pump" threatens to have a big role in homebuilding in the very near future.

In editing this post I have realized that my text has become very political. Sorry!! When you are passionate about something you want to pursue it with as few encumbrances as possible. Obviously this is not the same business environment as we had back in 1978. But we are building much finer homes today than what was built back then. We will all adapt - but it sure would be easier if Uncle Sam could lighten up just a bit!

Ungracefully Aged!

"Make it look like it's been there for 150 years!" That was the charge given to the project team by a client not long ago. Actually, come to think of it, that seems to be the charge given to many projects that are being built today. Dallas is so "new" in comparison with most of the towns of the old South that everyone seems to want "history" added to their project. Our history anchors us. It gives us a sense of bygone values which make us feel comfortable in these changing, uncertain times!

So we did - with the help of an arsenal of techniques, we turned something that is brand new; something that works perfectly; something that offers modern day function, into something very old. And it's really fun! I keep a copy of Country Living's Country Paint on my desk at all times. They have fabulous finishes, and they even tell you step by step how to do each finish!

It's all in the Finishes!

Naturally when you buy something brand new that's just the way it looks - brand new. So finding chemicals, glazes, waxes, even chains and tools that will scar the target materials requires some imagination and patience. Failure is common! If at first you don't succeed, try and try again! Adopt a mindset that makes the process fun and not drudgery.

Brand spanking new - but it doesn't look that way! The stucco (above) is applied over brick so that the wall has "movement" to it, all before the finish is rubbed with buttermilk and cow manure. We also like to use yogurt in some applications because it grows moss really quickly.

This was a finish out of Charleston, South Carolina that we were trying to copy. We just didn't have the 150 years to wait for our stucco to look like this!

Sometimes you have to "cheat" a little bit to acquire age. This Italian Mediterranean home was originally built in 1929. Everything from the dropped down roof to the left of the fireplace chimney, and to the right of the drainpipe, is new. Lucky for us we found the old quarry in Austin that produced the original limestone back in the 20's, and quarried all of the new stone for the additions out of the same pit. If you look carefully you will see that we stained an occasional limestone block with a rustic wash to make the new sections blend with the old. The old roof tile was carefully removed and blended with new tile before being re-applied so that all blended naturally together.

Old, refurbished, antique doors aid immeasurably to the aging process when used in combination with new materials. The doors below were discovered here locally, stripped and refinished to look old. Look carefully to see how the original rick-rack on the doors was duplicated on the cowling of the vent-a-hood - a really nice touch! Our cabinets also pick up the design with a diamond motif copied from the doors.

Even mistakes can sometimes work to your favor when aging materials. This copper vent-a-hood was originally ordered with a variegated (read: lime green) finish, but it came out looking like an easter egg! Our guys chemically washed and scrubbed the hood with acetone and steel wool and this was the result. Looks like it's been there for 150 years!

Finally, using family heirlooms in a brand new piece not only brings a sense of nostalgia to the home, but also a sense of history to the piece in which they are used. These Delph tiles are very old and valuable - perfect for enjoying every day in the Kitchen!

Where Do We Start?

Just getting started on a new home or remodel project seems soooooo confusing! Should I hire the interior designer or the architect first? Is it the builder that can guide me through the treacherous waters of the initial phases?  'I want my yard to look like this' - should I get a landscape architect before I hire anyone else? It seems like there are so many choices...where do we begin?

In thirty-four years in the business I have been asked those questions countless numbers of times. To help clarify the issues I thought I might "standardize" the answer to help you get a running start.

Start with ideas! We always advocate that the client cruise through old home magazines like Veranda, Architectural Digest, D Home, Southern Living, Elle Decor, and Traditional Home to name just a few. Most ideas are not original so looking at pretty pictures helps solidify your tastes, and clarifies your thinking.

Group your pictures by rooms. A picture really is worth a thousand words, and grouping all the Dining Rooms together separate from the Family Rooms etc. ensures you get more of what you want in the design phase.

Measure all of the rooms in your existing home. Capture the room sizes on a 3 x 5 card. Having this information at your finger tips during the design process helps you to paint "word pictures" in your mind of the sizes that are being discussed. Maybe the architect is talking about the Dining Room being 13' x 17' - a quick look at your card may tell you that that is the current size of your existing Master Bedroom, but it will help paint a picture in your mind that can help you evaluate the size being discussed.



Purchase your lot or building site. Several years ago Molly and I started work on a fabulous home design before we closed the lot - boy were we surprised when the lot didn't close and our wonderful design didn't fit on anything else we were considering! Cities and municipalities all have setback requirements which regulate how close to the street or sideyards you can build. They become very important to the design of your home (or remodel). Also, deed restrictions which you would normally receive at closing have important design parameters that will need to be considered.

Build a Team! Initial members should include the architect; contractor; interior designer; structural engineer; and landscape architect. You should feel very comfortable with every member of the team. All team members should have and maintain the attitude that they exist on the team only to serve you. This is not the place for prima donnas - send them home!

Have a chemistry experiment... Give each member of our newly formed project team a simple assignment during concept design to see how they perform. If they don't perform well, or if they "can't play well with others", send them home. Your project team is no place for big egos! Not only do you want to feel comfortable with the abilities of each team member, you want to make sure that the different disciplines represented in the group blend well. If someone is not working out with a simple assignment, chances are they won't be a good long term player. Remember, second string players are always itching to get in the game!

Assign Design Development Tasks. As your project begins to take shape each different discipline should be looking at your home through different lenses. For instance, what is important to the structural engineer probably will not be important to the interior designer. That is not to say that some disciplines won't overlap - they will, but if the structural guy is placing furniture or selecting fabrics, we've got a real problem! Design Development should be a symphony! In a perfect world each project team member should have a very good idea of what you want by the completion of design development so that proper preliminary budgets can be developed.




Concept Approval. Once all the various disciplines have weighed in on not only their design but their preliminary budgets, if all looks within your expectations it's time to approve the concept.




Construction drawings. Just as noted above, every member should work hard on their own construction drawings so as to complete them by the time the architect completes construction drawings. Realistically the interior designer won't know all of your selections at the completion of construction drawings, but they should have a pretty good idea of where things are going so that they can help the contractor establish budgets.

Final Budgeting and Permitting. Upon completion of all of the construction drawings the contractor should be responsible for setting the final budget. This should include all of the other disciplines costs so that you can get a complete picture of the total project cost. When you approve the project cost you are ready for financing the project and applying for permits. You have finally found the starting line!

One Final Note: by introducing all of the project team members before starting concept design you will have a greater initial cost outlay for fees and services, but that should save you SUBSTANTIAL money in the long run! If every team member is doing their job they should be considering your wants and needs with a close eye on value engineering (read: saving money!) the project. We have found through the years that the most expensive project are the ones where the project team has not been built early and design has not considered better and less expensive ways to do the same thing. Remember: architects don't know cost - they know design! Rely on your other project team members to help you put your budgets together.

Choices...

Just this morning I started reading Matthew Kelly's book The Rhythm of Life, and I can already tell that his insightful writing will have an impact on my life. But it got me to thinking about "choices." Kelly's premise early on in his book is that life is a series and compilation of choices. Periodically we can look back and see the value in our lives based on the choices we have made.

So much of my work through the years has centered around the same issue. The choices required for building a home are not necessarily life altering, but most often they do impact the lives of family members. Is it red or green; smooth or rough; big or small; new fresh and sleek or rustic; does it go here, or here; hot or cold; technologically advanced or old school...the list goes on and on! It can be totally overwhelming! Often we become paralyzed with possibility (see 3/3/11 blog).

Without reading ahead I can almost sense where Matthew Kelly is going with his book. What do you want out of the project - can you clearly articulate the feelings, emotions, and desires that need to be satisfied for this project to make you happy? Can the successful completion of the project make you happy? Kelly advocates getting in touch with yourself so that when faced with choices, you make good ones.

Every picture you see on this blog represents a series of choices. Color and material preferences have been identified in each of these photos creating a symphony of decisions which resulted from a myriad of potential choices.

Without having spent inordinate amounts of time preparing a "sermon," let me share a few thoughts about maximizing the process of building and navigating through the sea of choices.

• Assemble a "world class" team of people that you feel very comfortable with that have a knowledge of the building process and can help you navigate through thousands of choices. Because the disciplines of building interrelate (architect, builder, structural design, interior design, and landscape design) I advocate building your team early - it will save you inordinate amounts of time and money.


• Take a personal inventory. Ahead of beginning the design process understand what your really like, and what you really don't!


• Take a family inventory. Understanding what your family likes and their expectations for the building process minimizes surprises.


• Be fearless! Just like those multiple choice tests we used to take in school when you don't know the answer, usually your first instinct in correct. Remember that everyone makes mistakes, and most of the mistakes can be fixed.


• Don't waiver! If you've done your homework you will be making good decisions. Just because two elements of a large picture don't match when you choose them, they are just that - two elements of a much larger picture!

Trust the team you have assembled. If their core values and sense of style appealed to you enough to select them in the first place, probably their guidance will reflect the project parameters which you established at the start of the job. Remember: Hold things loosely, and people tightly! The choices you make on design and construction of your new home or remodel represent "things," and "things" are not worth holding tightly!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane...

A longtime client (and friend!)  needed some pictures from his home that we remodeled and added on to in the early 90's. Many of our clients allow us to photograph our work upon completion. In this particular case I knew we had a pretty good archive of photographs, but I wasn't sure if we had what he needed.

Going back through the archive sent me down memory lane! I enjoyed the trip and thought you might too! Here are some of the shots from the 1991 Theta Showcase Home. Twenty-one different designers (one for every room!) did an incredible job of turning this 1929 Hal Thompson home into a wonderland.

Heavily themed for a little boy, this bedroom is every kid's dream! Notice the painted floor made to look like cowhide and the barbed wire painted on the floor as a room border!

One of the designers came up with the idea of Venetian plastering these walls, slicking them to a high finish, and then waxing them with ordinary car wax. Stunning!

Just an ordinary Guest Room... The acrylic red is painted over grasscloth for additional texture.

This was part of the old original house. We added the Master Bath back behind it over an non-covered porch making a wonderful Loggia beneath. All looked out over the pool. The old walls were plaster so there was a lot of new plaster added for authenticity in the areas that were not original.

The Wife's Office right off the Kitchen provided a quaint respite from the screaming kids!

A very stylized Maid's Quarters - I guarantee the client would not have done the space this way if had not been a Showhouse! We had a wonderful time working with all of the Designers. It's been twenty years now, but it sure was fun stumbling through our picture archive!

Downsizing...

Molly and I are prime candidates for "downsizing" our home. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to get out the chainsaw and start cutting away, but with our kids grown and gone we rattle around like a peanut in a boxcar in our existing place! Eighteen years ago when we built our home it was just the perfect size for us, our two kids, all of their friends and two dogs. Just perfect! That was then and this is now...

In Tuesday's blog we talked about the difference between "square footage," and "space." We live in space - not square footage. If Molly and I are considering "right sizing" our home based on today's needs we don't need either the space or the square footage. Aging does funny things to you! Where we didn't mind taking care of our property and paying the light bill when the kids were younger and still at home, now that we are older we really mind! It's not just the maintenance and the electric bill that are driving me crazy, it's the manageability and the fact that we don't have a downstairs Master bedroom that has pushed me over the edge.

The Europeans have gotten this right for generations. Where I don't subscribe to the idea of multiple generations of family living together and sharing a "flat," somehow they have managed to survive without all this space. Cautiously I would submit to you that perhaps America is one of the few places left in the world that lives horizontally and not vertically (not having travelled throughout all parts of the world I could be persuaded otherwise on this topic!). So Sarah Sasanka, born in England and educated to be an architect, has been heavily influenced by European culture to take this shrunken concept with her as she relocated to the United States. She's made a complete career out of The Not So Big House book stressing quality over quantity. Brilliant!

Molly would like a space for the grandkids. Bob would like a space for the grandkids that was all upstairs so that the mess can be closed off. Molly would like a larger Dining Room, more storage, and a bigger Pantry. Bob would like the basic living "pod" of the house zoned separately for heating and cooling so that the rest of the house can be basically turned off until either guests or grandchildren arrive. And on it goes... If we're not careful we will end up building that camel (a horse designed by committee) that we talked about a few blogs ago! Suffice it to say that we don't seem aligned on what the real needs are here!

One thing we did agree on several years ago was the need for a room outdoors for entertaining. I seemed like a good idea at the time - still does. We have really enjoyed the addition of another "room" to our house (much less expensive than an add-on to the main house!) but it probably would have made more sense to have added that room on to a much smaller version of what we currently maintain. Not complaining, just telling...

This trend has become popular. With our Texas climate many have found the wisdom of creating cheap space by taking in porches for outdoor rooms. This is a great way to add space with minimal cost (compared to the costs of building additional rooms on the house) while making your home feel much larger.

Matter of fact, these folks liked the concept so much that they asked us to change out the screens to glass panes so they could enjoy their outdoor room year round! Air conditioning and heating was added for comfort.

As Molly's and my debate continues, here is our short list of items we are focused on while downsizing:

• Manageable space - though different for everyone, we have identified (I think!) which spaces we need where, and what size they should be.


• Flexible design - Master Bedroom on the first floor, and space that can get bigger when family comes. Most probably the flexible space ends up upstairs and is zoned for heating and cooling accordingly.


• Property taxes - certainly an issue in Texas because property taxes supplement our State budget instead of having to pay personal State Income Tax. With the economy down most counties and municipalities need to make up the difference somewhere - property taxes seem to be the place. These can be really big numbers!


• Energy efficiency - the world is going green, and we should too! Can a downsize be designed so that it is wildly energy efficient?


• Re-sale - always a dirty word but being practical, can we sell it, or can the estate sell it on down the road?


• Accommodations for live-in health care - now we are really taking a long look down the road, but how is the home designed (or remodeled if currently existing) so that it might include space for someone to take care of us in our old age?

There are probably other issues and considerations which we have yet to uncover. I keep reminding myself that this is a journey, not a destination!

Space - The Final Frontier!

How big is big? How small is small? When someone says they want to live in a "big" or a "small" house that probably depends on their perspective. Space and square footage among friends often means status. "Bigger" sometimes seeks to impress others. Smaller sometimes means "downsizing." For everyone it's different. What is big to one, may be small to another.

Truth be told, we all live in "space." That fount of all great knowledge Wikipedia defines space as the "...three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur..." Huh? The discussion then goes on to "non-Euclidean geometries; Einstein and the theory of relativity." Way Way above my pay grade! Let's be simple here: we live in space, not square footage. Your work in designing a new home, or adding and remodeling your existing home depends on your requirements - what spaces you need to accommodate your lifestyle. Let's look at some extremes.

Sarah Sasanka started a revolution in 1998 when she published The Not So Big House. Next thing you know she was on Oprah, HGTV, and was written up in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Her book was advocating the idea that homes should be designed in such a way that rooms share multiple functions. In other words you wouldn't have a Media Room with just a large screen and some big overstuffed leather chairs, you would share that space with a pool table, bar and the accoutrements of a Family Room. The Living Room - often the "museum" in many older homes, goes away to become a Family Room with big screen TV as well as a separate space for what used to be a Dining Room. Sarah is an English born architect. I swear she just brought the shared space concept from across the pond to a building industry that was ripe for going on a diet! Her wonderful ideas have spawned all sorts of complimentary avenues for her: The Not So Big Life; Not So Big Showhouse; even Maitrhea which has something to do with exploring the space of your inner self - OK, how did we crossover from architecture to self examination?

This is one of Sasanka's interiors. She is combining the concepts of shared function with an extremely high level of quality and craftsmanship. The style is faintly reminiscent of a Prairie type of architecture.

Jay Shafer goes even further. He has taken small to the extreme with his 65 square foot Tumbleweed Collection. Even his website is small! Little more that a large dog house occupied by humans, Tumbleweed focuses on simplifying your life by using only the bare essentials. (Read: no pool table!) Jay's Tiny House collection includes a "wet bath" with potty, sink, and shower all in one little cubicle. For the really adventurous Tumbleweed has a Small House collection that zooms all the way up to maybe 275 square feet.




The point here is that space is linked with function. The bi-product of those two elements becomes square footage. There is no real right answer - it differs according to need.

On the other extreme are homes that have separate rooms for every life function. If you want to play pool you go to the Billiard's Room; movies are watched in the Theatre; the grandchildren play in a separate Gameroom; and drinks are served at a separate Bar. The square footage meter burns itself out on homes of this size!




What's practical? What are your true needs? Site constraints, location, and budget usually define the early perameters of the space to be designed. Sometimes outside influence determines what space gets designed. Re-sale (a dirty word for most people), property tax implications, energy efficiency, even Realtors opinions can add additional pressure to the design process.

Where do we begin with trying to figure out what we can design? Not necessarily in the correct order, here are a few thoughts:

• Catalog your living habits. How you like to live; spatially where you would prefer to have others (children, spouse, guests) in relationship to you; and normal daily tasks that have become habits (waste basket and recycling bin vs. trash compactor) are important to note.


• Carefully examine your existing accommodations to evaluate how spaces and room functions relate to one another. What works? What doesn't? What would you improve? What will you never have again ('During parties I hate being able to see the caterer from the Dining Room!').


• Budget. What resources can I allocate to the process? Will my property taxes be affordable? Same question for gas, electric, and water.


• Define your "mindscape." What preconceived ideas do you have for the space? When the process is completed, what are my expectations for how the space will function? What are the one or two things you can't live without - are they included in the project?


• Who do I trust to design my project and build it most closely to my expectations?

Not surprisingly you will find that a careful inventory of these thoughts and feelings will result in a plan that reduces "space" into "square footage." We all find it a lot more comfortable to live in well designed space as opposed to simple square footage!

Homemade!

I've heard it said before that a camel is nothing more than a horse designed by a committee of well intentioned novices! Ignorance really is bliss... As times get tougher there is a real temptation to do-it-yourself. Home Depot and Lowe's thrive off of this concept. So does this small burgeoning industry of "build it yourself" websites that entices you with the ideas that 'anyone can do it' and 'you'll save so much money.'

How about a second career as a homebuilder? Sounds like fun doesn't it? Should you choose to "build it yourself" that is exactly what you will have - a second career. Once you get into the nuances of things like rebar in concrete; kinds of framing materials and structural components; wiring, plumbing, and mechanical systems; trim; paint sheen; hardware etc. etc., you will discover that you have bought yourself another career. Experience suggests that you won't save money, you'll spend lot's more on your almost vertical learning curve.

Unless you are a jack of all trades most likely you will hire out (or subcontract) the parts of construction that you know are way above your abilities. Straight from the mouth of a longtime friend that framed houses for twenty years before finally becoming a builder, let me paraphrase his arguement for why this may not be your best option:

• Subcontractors usually charge a lot more when they work directly with the homeowner. Fact: without the knowledge that experience brings to the project, most subs know that their job function will be wrought with confusion - time is money and they charge accordingly.


• Most owners don't have enough time to devote to their project so the project ends up with the "leftovers." Most trades work from 7am to 3pm. Particularly during the heat of the summer months (when they may start at 6am) they usually won't change their hours for an owner's schedule.


• An owner's lack of experience can often result in the trades taking advantage of the situation. Cuttin' corners to save time and money; recommending the addition of unnecessary elements for the sake of driving up the price; installing it per instruction when they know it will result in a costly change order, are but a few ways where lack of experience can be detrimental.


• As a "one shot" transaction you remove the incentive for the sub to keep you happy. We call that 'gravy train' because most subs look for repeat business to ensure their longevity in a given trade.

From a larger perspective I would add a couple of other things to think about:

• Most people are not well trained to spot good talent - they spot available talent. Without the exhaustive experience of having done a lot of building so you know what to look for, most people will find what is available. Not necessarily your best approach for space you are going to live in!


• For good talent you usually have to wait. No shortcuts here. The good ones are always busy and you have to work into their schedules. This requires planning that most people are not used to.

With limited experience in the homebuilding business are you really saving money and gaining the efficiency necessary for this to become a viable option? I doubt it! If you required surgery to remove a part of your body that was defective, would you do the surgery yourself? Absolutely not! Though not as complicated as medicine or surgery a good 'ole do-it-yourself project can still be pretty complicated.

What's It Worth?

This economy has a chokehold on all of us! The news out of Washington while encouraging of late is still nothing to write home about. With all the doom and gloom blasting us in the face by multi media sources, the temptation to "cheap out" has never been greater. People are flocking to Walmart, not Neiman Marcus.

In my last post we talked about repainting the Living Room. Admittedly when it came time to buy the paint for the room, I had to cross that all too familiar threshold of "price versus quality." Wouldn't now be the perfect time to save a few bucks and cut a little corner on quality? Couldn't I cheat a little bit and buy the lesser quality paint that might cover up all that red? Not with the prospect of twenty-five ladies sitting in that room for an upcoming party! You always get what you pay for!

Sherwin Williams makes several grades of paint retailing for a range of $25 - $49.49 (Design Basics to Duration) per gallon. It is easy to convince yourself that a half price sale is all you need to get the job done. "Duration" is their top of the line paint which is advertised to be more washable than most brands. I chose "Super" grade paint at $40.99 per gallon because it is designed to cover with one coat - and I was trying to cover red! After eighteen years with the same red it was time for a change and I was hopeful that one coat would do it.

But that is precisely my point - eighteen years is a very long time between paint color facelifts! When our home was built back in '92 - '93 we hired a painter who took great care to prepare the walls and the wood so that we would maximize the longevity of the finish. Had we used cheaper paint and inferior labor, both that more closely fit our budget at the time, we could never have gotten eighteen years out of this paint job. By cutting corners and using lesser grades of material and labor how many times would we have had to paint walls and molding in those eighteen years to keep it looking fresh?




Walmart and Neimans both sell clothing. So do a lot of other fine department stores. The main differences between Walmart and Neimans are product style, product durability, and service. A busy executive that wears a suit everyday most probably would not buy his suit at Walmart. No, the styling, the materials, and the service offered when you gain a few extra pounds are better at Neimans. To be fair other fine department stores offer the same advantage. Nothing wrong with Walmart, but if you have ever had a Neimans suit - you probably still have it!

That tension burns within us. "Quality" has a price, but "price" often doesn't have quality. What's it worth to me - do I spend a little bit more now and save a lot later? Or by saving a few bucks now will I risk getting caught short on quality? It usually costs an awful lot to fix it later!

Ready, Aim...Missed!

You would think as much time as I spend in and around the building business we would always get our colors right! Ah...wrong! It seems like every time we commit our home for a large party we end up sprinting to "fix up" parts of it for the event. Focus this time is on the Living Room. We changed the use of that room when we made our Gameroom a Playroom for the grandkids. The Living Room has become more of a TV room. Not a bad trade in my book because with three living areas (Gameroom, Family Room, and Living Room) our Living Room used to be a museum.

So off we go to take the red out of the Living Room. The first sample was too light; the second seemed deeper and just right. Covering the red is a monumental task so I had to double roll the walls. In the morning light it is just not working well with the furniture colors. Cheaper to change the paint color than the upholstery! Now it's looking like it could be Sherwin Williams 6427 Krypton, or 6246 Northstar. How in the world can you choose a whole room color anyway for those little itty bitty color chips?

For me the process in re-doing a room is always the same. I start by taping off all of the areas and moldings that don't get a color change. If we were re-doing the molding as well, I would start by painting that first and then taping it off once it was dry. As you can see, I had a lot of really great help!

For the baseboards I have discovered Frogtape. This green multi-surface tape seems to work better on low horizontal surface like base molding where excessive paint can accumulate and curl under the tape. It is not as easy to work with (too sticky) as the old standard 3M Scotchblue so I have been using the blue tape on the vertical surfaces.

I hear and obey!! If the boss says it's too blue - it's too blue. Before we can pull the tape however (because it's a pain to re-do!), we will need to coat it - AGAIN!! Once finished it should be a lot more peaceful than the red. Hope we get it right next time...