The Gunther Project: Expect The Unexpected
Every renovation project should come with a handy little pocket Buddha – the kind that has a soft, soothing belly, and reminds you to breathe deeply and stay calm. I’m about to tell you that at some point in your reno, you are going to hit a bump, and I am hoping that if I tell you this ahead of time, it will make that bump (or mountain, depending) easier to wrap your head around because it’s going to happen. Trust me. You are going to need Buddha.
As witnessed by our social media, I have recently completed a renovation that involved ripping the back of my house off and exposing the 100 year old interior. My contractor, Robert, who I have used on many jobs and who I trust completely, called me over at this point to show me the exposed innards of my house, where the floor joists for about a third of my second floor were completely cut off (think “Sawzall”) and left hanging in midair. Where there should have been a giant, foot thick LAM beam or steel header, there was…well…nothing. Which meant this entire area of my second floor had been held up for several decades by...well…nothing. I am still amazed that my house stood for years like this without any significant cracks.
We can play the blame game, which in my case would be two owners ago and a very bad DIY, but that’s getting us nowhere. We obviously had to fix this problem, which meant A. a five figure beam now added to the project budget B. not so insignificant time delays and C. a moderate but pain in the butt redesign of my new addition to accommodate the thickness of the new five figure beam.
Somewhere in your project, you are going to run into a problem. Sorry. I’m just the messenger here. There are a whole host of reasons why. Here’s a few: bad DIYs, the contractor you hired is not up to snuff, the design is wrong (call me…I’ll fix), the products you ordered came in wrong, broken or not at all (welcome to building post Covid), termites, (I once saw a house that was missing 40% of its sill beam). The list is long.
My best advice is know this going in, anticipate, and plan ahead. Make sure you call the contractor’s previous clients before you hire him or her, and the same for your designer. Then put aside and extra sum of money, then double that extra sum of money, and don’t touch it for pretty things you would like to add on. We can call it the “just in case” contingency. If you don’t use it, great…go to Aruba when you are done (you will need that vacation after ripping apart your house). Most of the bumps I have seen over the years are discovered during demo. No one can see behind your walls, so that’s when you need to be prepared. Have a therapist or a Buddha on speed dial, and try not to hyperventilate when the unexpected happens, because it probably will. Plan for the unexpected, and if it doesn’t happen, you will have money for Aruba.