Working With Your Professional

Be sure you and your professional share a common vision of the outcome before you get started.
Don't assume that the professional can divine what you want. Have the most complete drawings or sketches that the project can afford, or supply photographs or magazine illustrations. Make all choices – paint, flooring, cabinetry, etc. – up front. You can always make changes along the way once you have the basic road map. This is a design build stage.
Some people spend more time planning a dinner party than their remodel.

Bids
Getting 3 bids went out when President Reagan left office and doesn't belong in the remodeling industry. The market has changed. Choose a qualified professional that you like, and one that like their work too. 'Like quality professional' costs will be close to one another. The truth is; if the professional views the 3-bid customer as just another shopper wasting the professional valuable time. The professional can better spend time with existing customers, finding more good skilled help, making up for lost family time, filling out government forms, getting ready for another insurance audit, and at least a thousand other things all listed as very important.

Negotiate the contract
In the negotiated contract, homeowners tell the professional what they want to accomplish and what the budget is. Then the professional explains how the goal can be achieved for that price. You create a partnership and the relationship becomes less adversarial.
Payments should be tied in to the project tasks.

Be flexible and be realistic
Homeowners are often not aware that remodeling an existing house is much harder – and more expensive – than new construction. You have to work with or around past mistakes, and you don't always know what's there until the work's begun.
Additionally, in today's active construction market, goods are often in tight supply and unforeseen delays may find subcontractors heading off to other jobs. Talk to your professional to be sure the estimated time frame has some wiggle room.
If a job will take ten days, schedule 20. It is reasonable. Things are going to happen. If we get done in 20 days, let's pat ourselves on the back.

Don't hover
Because homeowners are living on the premises during most remodels, they often don't realize what a distraction they are when they're watching over the workers' shoulders. Find out what the professional ground rules are and let him and the subs do their jobs. Remember that everyone's presence in your living space is a source of stress on both sides. "It's like building a car with the driver already in the seat."

Speak up, communicate, and clarify
Don't sit and stew. Most problems can be resolved if you let the professional know what's on your mind – before anger and mistrust start to build up. As soon as something doesn't seem right to you, bring it up.

"Teamwork – that's my dream."