I had a meeting on Friday with my client and the General Contractor that we're in the process of hiring to do the project. We did a walk-though of the house with a salvage expert and identified which items in the house might have some value in salvage and which could be thrown away. We're basically discussing door panels, door hardware, windows, cabinets and plumbing fixtures. It was really interesting because there's the potential for the 3 people already on the project (Homeowner, GC, Architect) to have 3 different ideas of what should stay and what should go. For his part, the GC thought that everything should go, which is good because it meant that he read our drawings and specifications correctly. I had some ideas of what might be able to be reused or have other salvage value, but some of it didn't make it into the drawings just yet because we hadn't met with the salvage person yet. The Homeowner was disappointed that we weren't reusing more of the doors on the project, which is something that can still be up for debate. He's got his eyes on some light fixtures that might be original to the house that he wants to clean up and reuse, but what surprised me though was that he also really wants to find a use for some wood panelling up on the third floor.
One of the bedrooms up there has some really beautiful tongue and groove wood boards that make up the entirety of the walls and ceilings (it's an attic space so much of the ceiling is sloping). The feeling of the room is very much like an old cottage on a lake somewhere, and I would love to leave it as is, but its not the right thing for a house in suburban New England. Any family that moved in there would tear it down or paint it over to make it a kids bedroom. It would make a great home office, but it's very dark and masculine so it would be hard to work with. More importantly, there's no insulation behind it so we have to take it down to insulate properly.
Between the 4 of us we came up with a plan for the Homeowner to meet up with one of the GCs workers and they would work together to try to un-install (not demolish) the wood panelling. The client very much wants to learn and actually perform some work here, so this will be fun for him - in fact I'd like to help too, but I don't know if that'll fit my schedule. The intention is for them to take the panelling down without destroying it and then he will spend some time figuring out how to clean it up while my boss and I try to come with a way to use. I'm already thinking of cabinetry or some wall panelling in the mudroom, it's a neat design challenge that is pretty exciting really.
I know from past experience with this salvage operation there can be trouble with some GCs. Sometimes they get a low price on demo because they're basically just going to take a sledge hammer to everything and throw it in the dumpster. It's hard to reuse a smashed sink or bathtub, so that won't work for our salvager. So, it will cost the GC more to un-install items and then they have to ask the client for more money on top of what the salvage company is charging to place all the salvaged material. This can lead to bad feelings early on in a project because the client can feel that they're getting nickeled and dimes and can mean that the salvage isn't actually done due in order to cut costs. This leads to a wasteful abandonment of useful material, and can cripple attempts to get points on the LEED for Homes rating system (a major goal on this project).
Fortunately, its looking like our GC has allowed for careful de-installation of much of the material we have in mind to salvage and so it looks like this particular problem won't actually be a problem.
I left that meeting with a good feeling because, for now at least, Client, Architect and GC are all on the same page. I try to savor that feeling because it will surely not last. There are 4 versions of what the project is, one in each of our minds, and another is embodied in the drawing and specifications that we base the contract on. I can assure you that those 4 versions of the this project are not the same and at some point there's going to be a conflict between what's expected and what's been budgeted. I can only hope that this conflict will be a while from now and will be minor. My other project was a near total disaster of missed expectations and underdeveloped budgets and has lead to my company and the GC losing money. I hope that I've learned some lessons from that and won't be repeating that experience here.
But for now, we all seem to be on the same page and are happy, and I'm going to try to hold on to that feeling for a while.
One of the bedrooms up there has some really beautiful tongue and groove wood boards that make up the entirety of the walls and ceilings (it's an attic space so much of the ceiling is sloping). The feeling of the room is very much like an old cottage on a lake somewhere, and I would love to leave it as is, but its not the right thing for a house in suburban New England. Any family that moved in there would tear it down or paint it over to make it a kids bedroom. It would make a great home office, but it's very dark and masculine so it would be hard to work with. More importantly, there's no insulation behind it so we have to take it down to insulate properly.
Between the 4 of us we came up with a plan for the Homeowner to meet up with one of the GCs workers and they would work together to try to un-install (not demolish) the wood panelling. The client very much wants to learn and actually perform some work here, so this will be fun for him - in fact I'd like to help too, but I don't know if that'll fit my schedule. The intention is for them to take the panelling down without destroying it and then he will spend some time figuring out how to clean it up while my boss and I try to come with a way to use. I'm already thinking of cabinetry or some wall panelling in the mudroom, it's a neat design challenge that is pretty exciting really.
I know from past experience with this salvage operation there can be trouble with some GCs. Sometimes they get a low price on demo because they're basically just going to take a sledge hammer to everything and throw it in the dumpster. It's hard to reuse a smashed sink or bathtub, so that won't work for our salvager. So, it will cost the GC more to un-install items and then they have to ask the client for more money on top of what the salvage company is charging to place all the salvaged material. This can lead to bad feelings early on in a project because the client can feel that they're getting nickeled and dimes and can mean that the salvage isn't actually done due in order to cut costs. This leads to a wasteful abandonment of useful material, and can cripple attempts to get points on the LEED for Homes rating system (a major goal on this project).
Fortunately, its looking like our GC has allowed for careful de-installation of much of the material we have in mind to salvage and so it looks like this particular problem won't actually be a problem.
I left that meeting with a good feeling because, for now at least, Client, Architect and GC are all on the same page. I try to savor that feeling because it will surely not last. There are 4 versions of what the project is, one in each of our minds, and another is embodied in the drawing and specifications that we base the contract on. I can assure you that those 4 versions of the this project are not the same and at some point there's going to be a conflict between what's expected and what's been budgeted. I can only hope that this conflict will be a while from now and will be minor. My other project was a near total disaster of missed expectations and underdeveloped budgets and has lead to my company and the GC losing money. I hope that I've learned some lessons from that and won't be repeating that experience here.
But for now, we all seem to be on the same page and are happy, and I'm going to try to hold on to that feeling for a while.
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