Avoiding a Roomful of Blues

Whoever coined the expression “What you don't know won't hurt you” obviously never had a kitchen or bathroom remodeled. Yet even proactive clients who have done their research don't know everything that they will face. They aren't prepared for emotional stress, changes in family dynamics, budget creep, product selection issues, and the amount of time a remodel can take.

“The biggest challenge is the turmoil,” says Bob Hooey, author of How to Remodel Your Kitchen and Stay Married. Clients don't realize they'll take everything out of their cabinets and store it in boxes, usually in the living room. They may have to wash dishes in the bathroom. “Try telling them they'll have to shower with their silverware and bathe with their dishes. A lot of people aren't ready for that,” says Hooey.

Opening lines of communication to establish trust and set expectations, and doing preconstruction planning will help level the playing field between your knowledge and expertise and what clients are unsure of —which will improve your relationship.

“I think an architect or designer's second profession is marriage counselor,” says John Davies, director of design for Marrokal Construction in San Diego. “There's a peak of anxiety just after a job starts, while they're in demolition, when people have second thoughts. They ask, ‘Are we doing the right thing?'” He says he's never had anyone answer “no” to that question, but he spends a lot of time discussing what might happen, how clients might feel, and directing them through the selections.

Stress can come from every angle —from the number of product choices, to the budget, to the heightened emotions during demolition, to the changes in lifestyle that come with the finished product. The carpenter might cheer when a wall falls, but homeowners may be teary remembering the pencil marks on the wall measuring their child's growth.

Steve Frkovich Casci of Design Works in Sacramento realized his clients were having trouble when they talked about their lifestyles of the past while trying to imagine their future life within the remodeled rooms. “We're moving forward, and they keep pulling backward.” He reminds clients that they won't be the same way after the remodel. “You have to approach tomorrow with a clean slate,” he says. It's his job to get them to recognize they're making bigger changes than spending money and having more cabinets. “It's the way they go about preparing meals. There will be more people in the room wanting to participate; the way people move through the room will be different. Suddenly dad's cooking dinner. He's never cooked in his whole life,” says Casci.

These issues must be dealt with up front. Mason Lord of Hudson Valley Preservation holds a preconstruction meeting to deal with emotional issues. “No matter what, there will be bumps in the road,” he says. “A big bump is the lead carpenter gets into an accident and can't finish the job himself. A little bump is one cabinet isn't the same color as the rest. We talk about how we will handle these things in a meeting.”

Lord says he allows clients to open up and talk about their pet peeves — smoking in the house, playing music — as well as specifics like how the family schedule will work with everyone sharing one bathroom or how laborers should enter the house at the beginning of the day. “Should they knock or just barge in and start working?”

To help give clients a way to communicate, the lead carpenter holds a weekly production meeting with the client every Friday at the client's home. Laura Lurcott — who Lord calls “the glue that holds it all together” and acts as a gatekeeper, sales assistant, and sales coordinator — e-mails or phones clients on Wednesdays to get their agenda for the meeting. “This keeps the homeowner from interrupting during the week,” says Lord. “We try to gently let them know this is their chance [to vent].”

Figures scare people. If clients haven't done their homework, they have no idea how much cabinets, appliances, or flooring cost, let alone what labor costs to rip out and rebuild a wall. To combat budget fears, Gregory Antonioli, owner of Out of the Woods Construction & Cabinetry in Arlington, Mass., lays it all on the table — including disclosing his 67% markup early on. “We don't keep secrets,” says designer Lisa Pearce. If a customer questions an item's cost, says Pearce, who also helps with product selection, she explains how it might take her two hours to research and locate a particular product and its price. “People understand the service that goes on behind the product buying.”

Being a design/build contractor, Antonioli has a certain measure of control over fees. He uses a multi-tiered process that begins with a feasibility study. “We come up with a ballpark price that we guarantee 10% up or down,” he says. “That's to give people a comfort level.” He is rarely off the mark, even with change orders.

Hooey believes in putting price right out front. A certified kitchen designer, Hooey says that when he was a remodeler, he would show clients photos of similar jobs and tell them what it cost. “Educate your client; be a resource for them,” he says. “Give them an idea of what they're really getting into.” He even suggests putting sample remodels with their price tags on your Web site.

Although remodelers recognize that everything you can touch in a kitchen or bath has choices associated with it — color, texture, size, shape, price, brand — homeowners may not realize the sheer volume of choices until they begin the process. Ask a female client what it's like to pick out a pair of pantyhose, then multiply that frustration by 10, and she'll get an idea of what it can be like to pick out just one product. Many remodelers, like Bob Fleming of Classic Remodeling & Construction in Charleston, S.C., use a selection coordinator to help clients shop. “We do not allow them to go shopping on their own,” says Fleming, who says his coordinator Mike Stansell takes clients on a shopping spree, driving them to all the selection points where time has been set aside with each vendor representative to work exclusively with the client.

Another selection issue customers may not be aware of or understand is the difference between products sold by big box stores and those found through the remodeler's designated suppliers and vendors. John Sperath of Blue Ribbon Residential Construction outside Raleigh, N.C., says he discovered a few years ago that certain brand name items sold at The Home Depot were not the same quality product as those his vendors sold but carry the recognizable name. His customers didn't understand why they should pay more for a fixture from the preferred vendor. This kind of selling, says Sperath, gives the impression that contractors are ripping off homeowners.

Sperath developed a cover letter that he gives to clients along with his preferred vendor list. In the letter, Sperath explains that customers won't be comparing apples to apples if they look at retail chain products versus those from preferred vendors. He will install a product a client brings in from an outside source, but he won't guarantee it. “My clientele is sophisticated enough to understand what I'm saying in the letter,” he says. “If they go to my supply houses, they're getting what I quoted.”

One of customers' biggest gripes is the amount of time a remodel takes. Even with all the selections in place, says Alan Freysinger, co-owner of Milwaukee's Design Group Three, one of his high-end kitchen remodels takes about 12 to 16 weeks. Mostly it's because people want something unique in style, and there's more time invested in the selection and production” processes.

The selection process in particular is time consuming. If you don't use a selection specialist, you need to be highly organized and make sure selections are made before a project begins. Freysinger says he won't give clients a construction start until all selections are made. “If you don't have those selections done, your chance of having something go wrong from a scheduling standpoint are pretty high,” he says.

Keeping clients in the scheduling loop helps them visualize the end of the project and offers them a way to tick off goals accomplished. This allows them some control over the process and may make it seem as if things are moving more quickly.

Antonioli, who does about 40 jobs a year, gives clients a project schedule chart. “If something is going wrong on our project, we can't hide it from them, and they can see if we're on schedule,” he says. He also holds weekly meetings and provides clients with a written status report of everything that was discussed and who has obligations for the following week.

Simplistic as it may seem, the smoothness of the process will rely on planning and communication. Because you are the resource, you have to prepare your clients for every eventuality and make things easy for them. “People can really stress out. Then after a time they'll get into the groove,” says Mar-rokal's Davies. “It can be a strain, but it's important to remind people that it's supposed to be fun.”

“We waited too long to select the floor tile, and there were so many choices. The selection was overwhelming. We should have spent as much time on the tile selection as we did on cabinets. We felt very incompetent. Having [a selection specialist] who shops with you would help.”
Nancy Hanlon, Silver Spring, Md., kitchen remodel

“I was amazed at how much I felt I had to be [at home during the remodel]. If I wasn't here, they made decisions without me. My husband's tall, and the contractors hung the light fixtures too low, then they tried to convince me the lights — and the mirror — were fine. I had to tell them to rehang them. If you're detail oriented and you care what the end product is going to look like you have to be there.

The other thing that was a surprise was that there were so many different guys here, a lot of people coming and going into the house. If you're not going to be there, you have to ask yourself if you're comfortable with that.”
Renee Jacobson, Pittsford, N.Y., master bathroom remodel

“I wish I knew it was going to take as long as it did. We planned for a certain number of weeks not to have the kitchen available and it pretty much was twice that. Part of it was their scheduling. I wish I had known more about my contractor's ability to stick to a schedule and how well he was able to manage subcontractors. There were days where we were amazed by what they could get done and a lot of days when nobody was there and nothing was happening. We were left wondering. There should have been more communication as to what was going to happen next.”
Dave Olson, Fairfax, Va., kitchen and family room remodel

“Hidden costs were a problem. I had a two-story house on one circuit. Even though I'd upgraded all my panels, the electrician said it was a fire hazard. I never would have guessed it. When he saw what was inside the walls, he called it ‘homegrown electricity.' Not up to code, confusing wiring. The plumbing too had to be upgraded and brought to current code. It was all a big added expense.”
Jill Greenfield, Leawood, Kan., kitchen and whole house remodel