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ASSESSING YOUR NEEDS AND TAKING A PERSONAL INVENTORY
Every successful project has a balance of needs and wants and budget.
What was the last vacation you planned? Are you a planner? I am. My wife, daughter and I went to New York a couple of years ago. We went to visit her cousin who was getting married in the city. We were meeting up with my wife’s brother and his family. The trip was only for a couple of days, I think if I can remember correctly, we were there for four full days then traveling for two.
For the past several trips to new places I have made a daily agenda. I like to plan out all the places to see. All the restaurants to visit and map them out. I like to assign them to a particular day, so we have a plan. Often times the plan changes dramatically, but I like to start with a plan.
The overall plan allows almost more flexibility because you know ahead of time the things that interest you. You are able to set your priorities and move forward towards a goal. It eliminates wasting time trying to research during the vacation and allows you to enjoy the moment more.
During a vacation each day might be packed with activities, but they can always be scaled back if you decide that its better if you go in a different direction. Planning for your construction project is a lot like planning for a vacation. You might be laughing at this if you have ever gone through a renovation or new construction project. The concept behind the two are the same.
Plan around your priorities. Set goals for each stage and be flexible. Start with the ideal and then scale back.
Creating a plan allows you to work through your priorities, understand what might be most important to you and your project. The goal is to not lose sight of your priorities. Don’t get distracted by outside forces.
For instance, I have gone on vacations with other families and I’ve gone on vacations without a plan or daily agenda. The daily agenda on a vacation might sound nerdy but it does help. What I have found when not having a plan of your own you become subject to someone else’s plan.
So lets get into accessing your priorities. What are your priorities and those of your family that will really make a positive change in your life. The first step is to understand your family and yourself.
Ask yourself this first question. Go ahead and take out your project binder or iPad app. Whatever you are using to plan your project and put a fresh page in front. On the page write down the question: Why am I or why are we doing this?
This is the first question you need to ask yourself. You and your family should sit down together and write down an answer to this question, or maybe you all right down separate answers and compare after.
This will give you insight into what your family is thinking and what they plan to get out of the project.
The next question you need to write down and answer is: How do I live my life? This is a very important one. Really explore a day in the life of you. Again, have your family do the same. Take the time and write down each 30 minutes, what you are doing that day. Then think of a day that is not an ordinary day but perhaps a special day such as Christmas or New Years. How does your day look during those times as well.
There is a saying in Architecture that you don’t design the church for easter Sunday. I think you need to understand what that Sunday looks like, and take it into consideration, but don’t design your life around one event. Design around your life.
The next question focuses on what you plan to get out of the project. How will this project impact and change my life? For this one, please take the time to think about it from various different angles. How will this change enhance your living experience? You are about to enter into a renovation, how will your budget affect your future finances? Is this the right time in your life to go through this renovation?
This leads us to the budget. What is your total budget? I am surprised at how often homeowners and developers are shy when discussing budgets. I think we are and have always been taught to never discuss money with people. It’s some strange thing in our culture as Americans to not talk about money.
I’m going to get on my soap box here and tell you that if you never talk about money to your kids as they are growing up, they will never know what to do with it when they get older. I can’t imagine how many jobs people have gotten right out of college where they just accepted the offer presented to them. They did not negotiate a better salary, because they don’t know how. We are teaching our children that is rude to discuss finances, and I have my own reasons why I think this is if you want to find out just ask me in the comments section of this episode. Talk to your children about money and teach them to negotiate. That is all I’m going to say about that.
Now that you know why you are moving forward with your project and you have a total budget planned for the project, we can explore what you have to work with and really dive into how you use each space.You will find out that this is the episode of lists. But that is how planning goes. You start with lists then move into drawings.
I am going to give you the top 20 questions you should ask yourself and your family. This is the longest list I have gone over to date so lets get started.
1. How long do you plan on staying in your house? What are circumstances that could arise that would cause you to leave?
2. Will your family be growing? Are your children leaving soon or are you going to be taking in a relative?
3. Do you have people outside your family that live with you?
4. How much space do you think you will need? Are you creating additional rooms?
5. Do you have pets? Are they allowed throughout the house?
6. How often do you eat at home? Where do you eat your meals?
7. How do you plan to use your spaces?
Write down each room on that piece of paper to form a column. Tell you what, get a new sheet, turn it sideways or landscape and at the top draw a horizontal line and space out each room you are thinking of touching with this renovation along that line.
Now create a column from each word. Make the column fairly wide so you can divide it into two. On the left side of each word write out how you use that room now. On the right talk about how you want to use the room in the future. This will give you a better understanding of what you plan to get out of each room and start to formulate your priorities for each space.
8. How often do you entertain and what style of entertaining? Large or small, formal or informal?
9. Is there enough private space for everyone in the family?
10. What does your family like to do to relax within the home? Together and independently.
11. Do you need a hobby room or laundry room?
12. Evaluate your storage and explore whether you need more space or simply need to get organizational elements?
13. Does your family have the same design aesthetic?
favorite colors
favorite materials
favorite styles
dislikes
what do they like best about the existing spaces
how could the current be improved
If they looked through magazines would everyone gravitate to the same image. I do this often with my wife. If we see something we will ask each other if we like it or not. How it could be improved or how we could imagine it translates to our space.
How do they see utilizing the rooms?
14. Have you thought about a color scheme? If you would like more information or to hear more about color listen to my past episode number 20. It discusses color.
15. Would you prefer traditional or more contemporary? What is your style? Collect using iPad.
16. If renovating how does the current style of your house translate to the new style?
17. Is there any element of art or family heirloom that you would like to incorporate into the design of your space?
18. If you had a magic wand and could change your space today, what would it look like and how would it function? If money were no object.
19. What is your maximum budget? Be sure to include contingencies of around 15-20%.
20. How would you approach reaching your budget would you rather compromise some areas or postpone?
I wanted to end this episode with a quote from Samuel Butler:
“Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.”
