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.

I’d the say the hardest, and most time consuming thing has been the design.  There are so many options available.  So many it’s almost paralyzing.  Over the past year I’ve been chipping away at it in Sketchup.  I’ve gone through dozens of different designs, and probably hundred of minor variations.

Acting as the general contractor has taken a lot of my attention too.  After get a few sporadic quotes over the past year for a thing here and a thing there, I got serious about 6 weeks getting quotes for labour and materials.  We’re now just starting to make specific choices, lay down the credit card, and commit to dates with people.

6 weeks isn’t bad, but since I run my own company I’ve been able to take time away from my work for this.  If I had a 9-to-5 I’m not sure it would be possible–at least not possible for the first time.  After we’re all finished though, and have learned so much, I’m pretty confident if we do this again I can probably get the entire project organized and underway in about 3 weeks without even taking much time from my real work.

So far our ad-hoc process for renovating this old house has gone something like this:

• Contact kitchen designers, and find ourselves disgusted by the idea of paying $150/hour for some one with a specialized but relatively simple domain expertise.  We decide to design it ourselves
• Designing ourselves with the help of Sketchup is slow going.  Partly because we’re not experienced in kitchen/bath/landscape design, and partly because I’m really busy with real work and can’t devote much attention to this.  We determine $150/hour is an offensive rate for a kitchen designer, but overall would have helped us avoid many headaches and got things going faster.  However we’ve gone too far ourselves now and won’t bail.
• With design complete we determine how long we can live with the chaos of renovation.  About 6 weeks seems to be what we’re comfortable with.  After that the microwave lunches and eating out will start getting a little old.
• Early July we make a rough list based on the design of all the jobs that need to be done, and which trades we need to call
• Mid July, and with the help of the yellow pages and the BBB site I start contacting contractors.  This yields very slow progress.  The Internet is of no help, and searching it to find good contractors ends up being more of a time sink than anything else.  There seems to be a ratio of thirds.  Call 3 contractors, 1 will respond; with 3 responses 1 is worth considering.  In other words you’ll have to speak with at least 9 contractors to find one you like.  Multiply that by the number of different jobs you need done.  That’s a lot of calling.
• Calling is a complete pain in the ass.  You’ll call and sometimes you’ll get someone, sometimes you won’t, and sometimes you’ll get voicemail.  I found that I almost always had to followup more than once to actually get the quote.  Often I’d have to make several calls.  The supply and demand ratio is not on our side right now.
• What turns out to be helpful is asking some of the contractors who do one thing, who they’d use to do something else.  This seemed to connect me to more available contractors more quickly and accelerated things.
• I visited lighting, window and eco material stores.  Yes I spent some time at Home Depot and Rona, but more from price and availability benchmarking than actual shopping.
• After 6 weeks of sourcing contractors and materials I had enough information and quotes to start deciding on who I’d like to work with.
• And now I’m just about ready to pull the trigger and break ground on this renovation.

That’s the process so far.