Today I got that same recurring excitement that comes to me every time I start a new remodeling project. With anxious anticipation I arrived shortly after 8:00 AM to our new project located just South of one of Tulsa's most prestigious country clubs in Southern Tulsa County. I knew when I did the pre-construction walk through with my boss, David, that I'd really enjoying working on this project. The basics of this new remodel is a new exterior outdoor Kitchen. I've completed several outdoor Kitchen projects through the years so that's not what made this project so interesting. It was the way that we will be transforming a dated and seldom used pool cabana into a state of the art outdoor entertainment Kitchen/Bar patio overlooking the fairways and the large existing in-ground swimming pool. This space will be an awesome place for entertaining family and guests during those hot & humid Oklahoma summers.
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| Pool Cabana |
We have a great set of plans, which is the road map we will be following, the dumpster for the debris is already setting as close as we could have it placed to the cabana (dumpsters or trash containers, should always be placed on a hard surface, i.e. driveway) and the guys stopped off first thing in the morning, picking up plywood, plastic, trash bags and supplies from the local Home Depot. All that's left to do is...well...start.
I find it very important to keep everyone on the same page during a remodel. I like to think of a remodel as a kind of road trip that everyone, including the owners of the home, is on and we are all in the same car. The blueprint is our map and we are all traveling in the same direction for a common goal. This is why I have a pre-construction meeting with the owners prior to bring anyone else on site. This gives me one last chance before work begins to make sure that I understand completely what the expectations are of the owners. I want to make sure I have effectively addressed all their concerns with truthful answers and not provided them an unachievable expectation for their project. It would be like telling your kids, "Kids, we are driving to Disney World and it's only going to take us 6 hours to get there". I will guarantee you that after 10-12 hours on the road those kids will be driving you crazy asking you the old proverbial question, "Are we there yet", over and over and over again. Clients are no different when it comes to the timeline for their remodel, its always better to be realistic with them from the start. A wise old man was told me, "Great Expectations are Pre-Meditated Disappointments" and I tend to agree with him. Although I want everyone to be excited about the project, I always want to make sure I am realistic with what I feel the true result from the remodel should be.
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| Demolition |
After some short talk with the guys I took them through all the paperwork, blueprints, sketches, demo plans and other related information they will need to complete the days work in my absence. I learned early that, just like the road signs that show us our needed directions on our road trip, everyone on the project also needs direction to get where they need to go. I really want to try to make sure everyone working on the demolition stage of a project understands everything that needs to be removed, saved, protected and/or left alone. There is not much worse than losing the confidence of an owner early in a project because someone trashed something in their home that was suppose to remain. It really scream "INCOMPETENCE"!!! And, since we have multiple remodeling projects underway, it's impractical and impossible for me to remain on the project all day long to guide the guys on what to do. If you hire competent people you will remove a lot of the worry and headaches from your day.
Finally, with every project, there are challenges and hurdles that will have to be conquered along the way. Today, we didn't have much to jump over, other than a pool table and some personal property the owners had not yet removed from out of the cabana. The guys simply covered the pool table with heavy weight plastic and then covered that with sheets of 1/8" Masonite hardboard. They took a little extra time with the other personal property as well and made sure nothing was going to get dirty, let alone damaged. Those small extra steps tend to separate less experienced companies from those of us who complete projects on multi-million dollar homes.
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| Demolition to existing patio concrete |
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