So far I’ve been using the following tool to manage this renovation project:

Google Docs Spreadsheet

• For collecting a log of which contractors and which suppliers I’ve contacted, when, and the results. This is crucial for keeping track of who you need to follow up with.
• For listing all the work that needs to be done in detail.  This is helpful to give to contractors when the come for a quote.  It also help make sure all the contractors are quoting on the same list so you can compare apples to apples.
• For sharing live documents rather than exchanging attachments, which makes version control a breeze.
• And of course for tallying up costs of both labour and material

Microsoft Project

• It may be a little heavy handed, but I already own it.  The Gantt chart is incredibly useful for visualizing the entire project over time, how long each job will take and the dependencies between each job.  Not sure I could plan out the scheduling without a Gantt chart.

Sketchup (www.sketchup.com)

• This is an invaluable tool.  I want to marry Sketchup.  Designing the kitchen, bathroom and landscaping would have be practically impossible for us without it.  I realize people have been doing this on paper for years, and some guys designed the pyramids without even that.  Still, this tool allows you to see exactly what you imagine, and quickly.  Take the time to get over the learning curve, start with detailed, accurate and precise measurements, and you’ll be set.

Email is usually a tool I find very helpful.  What often happened to me was that I’d call a contractor, discuss, and then email a link to all my photos and models.  It seemed like a really helpful thing to do.  Pictures are better than words for describing a design, and the models contain enough detail and measurements that it shouldn’t be necessary for the contractor to spend their time coming in person to quote.

The results, however ,were often that the email would be ignored and I’d have to follow up with another phone call, only to get some ballpark figure based on… well I often wasn’t sure what, because I wasn’t sure if they’d actually seen the photos and sketches.  When this happened I simply dropped contractor from consideration.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:21 pm and is filed under process, tips, tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.