My kitchen renovation project reminds me that even home projects can be trying. Our very old house on Cape Cod has been in the family for 50 years. The kitchen was basic, with a small stove, ancient sink, and an ill-fitting table. No modern amenities or cabinets. My brothers and I decided to renovate the kitchen and re-layout two adjoining rooms to fit in a half-bath. We picked the contractor, Bob, who had re-built our porch twenty years before. We knew him then to be an excellent craftsman and in the ensuing years he had become a general contractor. We outlined our plans with him last Spring in plenty of time to start the project after Labor Day. Bob liked the timing because his summer project would end in late August, he would work on our uninsulated house through November before it got too cold, then he’d work on another insulated, heated house starting in December. All very organized, or so we thought.
Being used to documenting our work, we started sending Bob detailed design specs and floorplans in August. And we drafted a schedule, asking Bob to check our assumptions. We thought we had a great plan that just needed a little refinement, with Bob’s input. However, Bob was absorbed in his summer project and didn’t offer feedback, but did confirm his intention to start work after Labor Day. So over Labor Day weekend, we spent hours emptying all three rooms and doing some minor demolition and we were ready! We soon learned Bob was not. We hounded him to review the design specs, but he’d provide only brief replies that he was buried in his other project. He finally asked to meet at the house in late September. He had many questions that showed he had not read the design documents. As we walked through each room, he asked questions and took notes on the wall. He asked follow-up questions by phone and email. A month after the planned start date, we seemed to have a shared understanding of the project, and our first lessons: 1) Bob does not like detailed written communication. 2) Even a great plan is useless if ignored. For the rest of the project, we did in-person meetings, phone calls, and brief emails. And we did not create documents unless Bob asked for them.
The next lesson was that, although we like schedules, primarily to know when to make design decisions and purchases, Bob does not. When pressed, he would tell us when he expected various tasks to occur, but his estimates were seldom accurate. So we stopped talking about schedules. We’d just ask questions like: When do we need to decide on the type of trim? When do we need to pick the counter material? He was generally comfortable with answering questions like these, allowing us to prioritize our shopping. Eventually we limited how often we asked him what he expects to accomplish in the next week or two. These days we mostly just ask him on Fridays what work he actually did that week.
A project management practitioner would not see much methodology in this project. Our workaround has been to maintain adequate communication to keep it moving. Bob has been an excellent carpenter for 30 years and has produced quality results as a general contractor for 15. His style works for him. He has a steady business and a good reputation. It was obvious that we had to adapt to him, so we learned to live with not planning too far ahead and kept our communication brief and informal. I suspect Bob’s approach causes his projects to take longer than they should, but he does not seem concerned. As his customer, we had the luxury of time. While our project was originally estimated to finish in November, we could tolerate it finishing as late as May. So we’re ok. We even think we’re in the final 4-6 weeks of the project, but aren’t sure. 🙂