What comes first, the chicken or the egg? What comes first, the chicken or the egg? This is a timeless question, and put into remodeler’s terminology can save homeowners baskets full of dough. I’ve seen it time after time, when starting a project, the most organized of homeowners buy products or remodel without giving thought to it’s relationship to the entire house. For example, these days replacing your windows means tilt-in sashes for easy cleaning, except if you install beautiful inside- mount plantation shutters. On most preferred installs, the frame of the shutters won’t allow those sashes to tilt inside your home.
If you are like me, this is not so bad, after all, when was the last time you cleaned your windows? Oh, if only that were the only problem this scenario presented! What you don’t know (and many window professionals included) is that most models of windows require you to tilt in your windows to remove your screens. You love your windows, you love your shutters, you just paid a lot of money for both, and now you can’t clean your window and none of the windows are wearing their screens.
Is it disastrous? Not really, but it is aggravating. If I just described a familiar experience, don’t feel bad, even the professionals forget to warn you. This is true in other parts of your house. A few years ago, while remodeling a kitchen in West Texas, the job was going smoothly. We had the old cabinets out and the new almost completed, when the beautiful stainless steel refrigerator and stove were delivered. There was a tiny problem at that point. And when I say tiny, I mean inches. You see, the month before, at our initial meeting, the homeowner told us she was not going to be buying new appliances. Well, she splurged without giving us the good news. The new appliances were oversized and did not fit into the spaces of the originals.
Again, not disastrous, but it was rather costly and inconvenient. It was costly, because, at this point, she loved her appliances more than her cabinets. So the kitchen was re-designed.
In a perfect world we would have window companies and shutter companies reviewing notes over coffee and appliance sales people calling contractors before writing up orders. But until that day comes, please plan ahead and communicate with your contractors. When you do, you can save money and gain peace of mind in the midst of the chaos we call remodeling. Have a Happy Home!
Hillary Kilpatrick Think! Marketing Home Improvement Marketing Consultant
