#1 Circus Skill You MUST Master ...

​

I'll bet you weren't expecting to have to learn a circus skill to run your home makeover project successfully.

 

But which skill am I referring to ? And why on earth is it important ... essential even ?

 

In the last episode I explained that it's the people involved in projects who cause the most calamities. I should perhaps have mentioned this shouldn't be too surprising since humans have been ranked as one of the most dangerous species on our planet ... although after the mosquito ... and perhaps recent history might suggest pandemic illness should be added to the top of the list.

 

In circus terms, back in the days of live animal acts, the lion tamer was popular because lions are truly terrifying up close. As a kid, I doubt I'd have been massively impressed by going to the circus to watch the mosquito tamer leap into the ring with a small plastic box of live mosquitos, even if they are more deadly. And let's face it, imagining the disastrous consequences of the lion tamer having his head munched when he stuck it unwisely in the lion's mouth, is much more spine-tingling than watching him get bitten by enraged mosquitoes.

 

But if you're guessing it must be lion taming - you'd be wrong. Not many lions roaming around building sites these days, except perhaps in remote parts of Africa.

 

Which, coincidentally, is where I was born and grew up - in Cape Town in fact, not far from the tip of the African continent where the great Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. And talking about lions, growing up on the slopes of Table Mountain, I was lucky enough to be woken each morning at dawn by lions roaring ... seriously, I was. I have to admit they weren't living wild on the mountain but in a small zoo on the lower slopes of Devil's Peak. Even caged, they were real and their roaring was as epic and impressive as you might imagine. We encountered an extraordinary coincidence a few years ago when we moved home, here in England where we now live. One balmy, spring evening, as the sun was setting, we were most surprised to hear lions roaring once again ... no, no wild lions in England either ... another nearby zoo as it happens. Go figure.

 

Anyway, enough about lions and lion taming ... that's not the skill you have to master. So what is it ?

 

Hello and Welcome to Home Makeover Project Secrets, the show that equips Home Owners with the skills and understanding to execute successful home projects, that goes behind the scenes of Home Build Projects to unlock the secrets and share insider tips and strategies to save money and time on any and every home project. What you learn will give you the confidence to embark boldly on your next project and you’ll know what to do so your story has the happy, dream home ending you deserve.

I’m your host, Andrew Philips …

When I talk about "Home Makeovers", I include renovations, remodelling, alterations, additions, going up into attics and down into basements, redevelopments and even ground-up new builds. Any and every project where you're going to be

• appointing professionals, 

• designing something,

• buying materials,

• carrying out construction work,

• employing contractors and sub-contractors, suppliers and manufacturers

and even if you're doing some or all of the work yourself. All things home build.

 

Thanks for joining me. In today’s episode, I'll be sharing about the circus skill you have to master to run your home makeover projects successfully and why it's so important.

So let's head back to the circus.

 

Second only to the lions, the other circus act I loved was the clowns. No, no, not to worry ... clowning is not required on build projects, or at least not usually. But the clowns had one skill, in particular, that was always impressive.

 

The clowns juggled. In the act I remember most clearly, one of the clowns - complete with oversized shoes - kept being given unusual things to juggle by the other clowns. He started with the usual, typical juggler's three balls but it wasn't long before he'd been thrown a china plate, a wooden chair, a particularly vicious-looking knife and a burning torch - with real flames, sparks, smoke and all. Hilarious and terrifying at the same time. Growing up in the bad old days, before health and safety was taken seriously, had its upside, I guess. Unless you were a clown.

 

So - juggling. Successful leadership of Home Makeover projects requires homeowners to become skilled jugglers.

 

And that's because there are four specific project-components that must be juggled at all times. Four competing forces that must remain in balance. In truth, they are very like the chair, knife and flaming brand the clown had to cope with.

 

These four forces are common to all projects, everywhere in the world. And it's essential that homeowners understand what these four forces are, why they need to be balanced or rotating smoothly and why this requires advanced juggling skills. It's a fact, that if you fail to keep them effectively balanced, then they can spin out of control to become more like the four horsemen of the apocalypse - and your project will lose its shape, focus and direction with associated catastrophic consequences ... like wasting money, costs spiralling, disruption and losing time.

 

Let me introduce you to these competing forces of great influence. They are :

1. Time

2. Quality

3. Health and Safety

4. and Cost

 

It's fair to say they are not always equal in power and each homeowner must determine early on, ideally at the very beginning of their project, which will be the dominant power. And you have to keep reviewing this throughout the project because circumstances may subtly alter which force dominates.

 

Let's explore this in a bit more detail ...

 

Starting with Time ...

This refers to how long your project will take from start to finish and not just the time on site but also the time from when you first start planning, designing and so on.

 

At some point in your process, you will identify an end date for your project. Sometimes this is driven by external factors. For example, you may be moving house and plan a renovation before you move in. This would drive two dates - you can only start the work when you take possession of the property and your move-in date might be driven by the duration of a rental you move to while the house is uninhabitable.

 

So your project planning will revolve around getting ready to start the day you become the new owner and ending on or ideally sometime before the day you need to move out of the rental.

 

A few facts about time on projects.

 

Surprise, surprise ... just like in all aspects of our existence, time costs money.

 

If you have a very short time to do the work, the project may cost more if the contractors have to work faster to get the job done - this might mean longer days or including weekend working and even working double or triple shifts ... increasing from a more typical 8 hours each day to 16 or even 24 hours a day.

 

But taking a long time - more time than really needed, can cost even more. If you have no critical end date and can stay on in your rental for as long as needed, then at the very least, you will be racking up rental costs. Contractors will explain that they make more money the less time they take to complete the works - within reason ... when working normal hours. Think about it - if the plumber has quoted $ 3,000, labour only, to install a bathroom in 5 days then he's earning $ 600 per day for his crew. But, if the same work takes him 10 days, then he's only earning $ 300 per day.

 

If you've no idea how long your project should take - and if you don't, not to worry, very few homeowners do - then here's a secret strategy for getting to grips with establishing your project timeline as a starting point. Ask the experts you will be consulting and discussing the project with at every opportunity. Ask them for their "gut reaction" - how long do they think the project should take. Most will have an opinion and are likely to give you a range - 2 to 4 weeks or 3 or 4 months. Jot these guesstimates down in a notebook and regularly aggregate their advice - work out a rough average. If the architect suggests 8 to 10 weeks, a general contractor advises 10 to 12 weeks and an electrician says "anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks" then you are probably looking at a 10-week project and you'll reserve a couple of weeks float. We'll have a whole episode in the next few weeks on programme or schedule so this is just to whet your appetite. Asking for the teams best guesses, even bidding contractors not yet awarded the project, will give you the benefit of their informal but informed opinions.

 

If you stay with me to the end of this episode I'll share the link to another insider strategy I've used for years on most projects to get close to the most appropriate timescale for a project. Access is Free.

 

So juggling object one ... Time.

 

Next, let's consider the second force - Quality.

 

Quality can be measured in a variety of ways. Like time, Quality is very closely associated with cost. The most simple way to measure quality is by price, although this isn't always as reliable as you might think. Typically we set a quality standard by balancing what we can afford with what is sensible to spend. Now, what does that even mean ?

 

Well, mostly, when homeowners plan projects they want more than they can afford and when the bids come in, they pick themselves up off the floor, get over the shock, and have to go through a tough process to get the total amount back to a number they can live with. We call this process "value engineering" and there'll be another episode just teaching about the best way to value engineer a project for the best outcome.

 

Sometimes, even though we can afford something, it's not a great idea to spend that much. If you have listened to Episode 1 then you've heard me talking about our House-of-Horrors project ... one of the horrors - self-inflicted - was that we had very ambitious plans. We had bought a local quality property but had aspirations to increase the quality so it would be closer to a superior grade hotel - something our target vacation rental guests would appreciate and so we could maximise the rates we wanted to charge for vacation rentals. Not to mention we wanted it to be a fabulous place for family holidays - unless you love camping or a rustic cabin in the woods, it's wonderful to be able to go on holiday to a place that has a higher quality than your home.

 

If you haven't listened to episode 1 then make sure to do so straight after this one - there's an exclusive free gift you can download and the details are in the podcast.

 

Our property only had one shared bathroom when we bought it. By the time we had finished, it had two additional en-suite bathrooms and the original bathroom had been upgraded with a free-standing bath, a walk-in shower, two matching wash hand basins and electric under-floor heating. They were magnificent and many guests mentioned the bathrooms in their 5-star reviews; they loved them. But the cost was extortionate. And we knew, even as we were spending all this money, that we were over capitalising the property. This basically means, when we added the costs of the alterations to the original purchase price, the total was much more than the likely market value of the property. This can become a massive problem - it's another topic we'll be discussing in a future episode.

 

Almost every component of any home makeover can be bought at a range of prices - carpet, furniture, faucets - whatever it is, when you go shopping you'll see cheaper options and more expensive. Typically, the cheaper items are a lower quality and the quality improves as the cost goes up. But there is definitely a price point above which a purchase becomes a "nice-to-have" where it shifts from increased or improved functionality to more of a vanity buy. Like buying an itty-bitty Gucci handbag for $ 2,500. We all know that there are equally functional, cheaper options you can buy ranging from $ 10 - cheap for sure to $ 50 - and everywhere in between. Only you can decide whether your project needs Gucci and Ferrari or something more middle of the road.

 

In a future episode, I'll be sharing a secret strategy for getting great quality at a cost you can afford.

 

The third force we must address is Health and Safety.

 

Historically, no one paid any attention to this aspect of project delivery. Just get the job done, it doesn't matter how. And as a result, construction had a very poor safety record. Workers died on construction sites. In recent times, we are getting better at addressing this important factor. This has affected both labour practices, working conditions and materials used - think about the ban on using asbestos-containing materials. When I was a kid out in Africa, we routinely used a piece of old corrugated asbestos roofing sheet at the back of a barbecue fire for insulation. I shudder now at the risk we didn't even know we were taking. And yet in some parts of the world, asbestos is still being used in construction.

 

At an absolute minimum, you must comply with your local legislation regarding Health & Safety. If you don't, you risk criminal prosecution if anyone is injured or worse. This may mean for example ensuring workers are using safety ladders, wearing protective footwear or have a comfortable, dry, warm space to eat their meals during work breaks. As the employer, you carry ultimate responsibility. Laws in different countries are likely to vary so be certain you know what standards are required. Saving money or time by cutting health and safety corners is the worst possible option. Will you be able to live with yourself if a worker dies on your project, just because you wouldn't pay for some item of safety equipment or you appointed a contractor who you knew was using unskilled labour without appropriate Health and Safety training.

 

And a good dose of common sense when on-site will stand you in good stead. If you see a member of your site team doing something you know you definitely would not do, then tell them to stop. They are likely taking a dumb risk. Like balancing a ladder that's just too short on a chair to gain the extra inches. And if you feel unsure, ask another operative or your architect.

 

I so often see operatives on roofs who are unsecured with no safety harness or, even worse, wearing a safety harness that's not connected to anything. Falling off the edge of even a single storey roof can have life-changing consequences and even cause death.

 

One of the surest ways to ensure safety will be maintained appropriately is to employ reputable contractors and sub-contractors. The money you think you're saving employing some fly-by-night outfit will be paid out tenfold if someone gets injured or worse and you end up in court or even worse, in prison.

 

There's no way to get around this, obeying the law and sticking to the rules does cost money and can slow things down. But for me, these are non-negotiable.

 

Finally, let's address the elephant in the room - let's talk direct Cost.

 

Cost is how much you're going to pay. And from the very start of the project, when you first decide you're going to embark on a project adventure, you must be cost-focused. Even if you have money to burn and the cost is of no concern, why spend a dime more than you need to. For the rest of us who are counting every penny - that's good stewardship after all - running a tight budget is imperative.

 

I won't say too much more today about cost because in future episodes I'll be talking a lot about this topic - how to track it, how to tame it, control it, and above all, how you can reduce it and save it.

 

But I do want to sow a seed about cost that is worth you hearing at the beginning of your project journey. Let me ask you this - How much do you want to pay for your project ? If you haven't even started planning and designing yet, then you're going to be thinking "I've no idea" but you're wrong. And I can tell you the exact amount you should spend, kind of.

 

You should spend the right amount, the correct cost, for what you want and expect to get. And this amount is a balance of what you can afford with what you need to achieve - and if that is also what you want, then you're winning.

 

Most people think they should pay the lowest cost, the cheapest cost. And that would be sensible if you said the lowest possible correct cost.

 

Here is an absolute truth that I've seen proved over and over. John Ruskin, a prominent English social thinker, who lived in the 1800s at almost exactly the same time as Queen Victoria, said this ...

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

 

Ruskin was bang on the money ... literally.

 

If you have ever bought anything from Amazon or your local equivalent online retailer, you have probably only seen the photos of the product you're buying before it arrives. So there are likely to have been times when a product arrived and you were taken aback because it was much smaller than you expected, or more flimsy - the build quality was poor, what looked like polished steel was actually just shiny plastic.

 

In 99% of projects I've worked on, my clients always wanted to appoint the contractor with the cheapest bid. But over and over, by using a hugely effective strategy which I'll share with you in a future episode, we could demonstrate that this would be a false economy. In most cases, the lowest cost was only lowest because it was wrong and it turned out that a higher bid was actually the lowest possible "correct" cost.

 

But paying top dollar is no guarantee of increased quality or functionality. Take cars as an example - if you need a car with four seats that can get you from A to B, the price point for a reliable vehicle may start at say $ 10,000. But you could also spend $ 500,000 on a car - the same model even, just encrusted with diamonds. Which seems silly but lots of construction elements are like that - there are hugely expensive "designer label" items, where the cost includes a huge mark-up for the brand name or because the Kardashians have one ... or six ... in their home.

 

I guess there's nothing wrong with buying a fabulous, eye-wateringly expensive, solid gold toilet seat if you can afford it - and I'll say nothing about your taste if that's your thing ... but beware of falling in love with expensive components ... the costs add up very quickly. And with not much real benefit.

 

The reason why cost is the elephant in the room, is that all of the other forces influence the project cost.

 

We've already mentioned how too little or too much time is costly.

We've discussed how quality influences cost.

Even Health and Safety affects cost.

 

As your project progresses you have to constantly juggle these forces to keep moving towards completion.

 

Imagine if you were building an extension and early in the process when digging the foundations stormy, wet, or freezing weather stopped work for a couple of weeks. Now you have to decide whether to give more time which will cost extra or to pay extra for the contractors to accelerate to make up the lost time. Either way, you end up paying more. But that could mean that your total cost will be more than you can afford. Especially if your budget was tight to start with ... and, in home makeovers, it almost always is very tight. So now you have to decide whether you can compromise on items not yet purchased - taking a scope or quality hit - less of something or at a cheaper cost, but maybe not getting what you wanted or having to find more money for the extra cost.

 

Good news though, I have a really effective strategy for dealing with these kinds of tough decisions, which I'll share in another episode.

 

It's worth mentioning that cost can even influence the other forces.

 

More often than you might realise, a project is plodding along and suddenly a brilliant idea lands. Let's add something extra that will really improve the end result. Like adding a hot tub on the new deck. Fabulous idea. Maybe you got an unexpected bonus at work or just decided "what the heck" we'll find the money or stick it on a credit card. But this sudden addition means ... the contractor has to strengthen the deck to carry the extra load of the hot tub, and the electrician has to run a new power supply to the deck because the tub needs a higher rating, which means they will take longer to finish the job. So time increases along with costs increasing for the extra scope.

 

There are so many examples of how these forces have to be kept spinning smoothly. The circumstances are unique to every project so it is important to be ready for them and I recommend you look out for future episodes when I'll be explaining what you need to do to develop your skills as a master juggler. Better to be an expert than just a clown.

 

Another insider secret ... there's an invisible fifth force that has to be juggled ... if cost is like the vicious-looking knife, then this fifth factor is more like the flaming torch I mentioned that clown juggling - and, because it's so important to understand, I'm going to dedicate a whole episode to it in the next weeks.

​

So, lot's to look forward to in upcoming Home Makeover Project Secrets episodes to help you on your project journey.

​

Now I mentioned that Free secret strategy to determine the optimal project timeline - and you can access it via https://giftoftime.thediypm.com - you'll find the link in the show notes.

 

To make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to Home Makeover Project Secrets on our website at www.thediypm.com where you'll also find our blog posts and details about our upcoming Project Masterclasses and Training Courses.

If you have a question about a project you're planning or already running, please reach out and email me at faq@thediypm.com. If you have a challenge to overcome then I can just about guarantee others are also facing the same or similar challenges. We'll be answering listener questions in FAQ episodes every few weeks. It’s always reassuring to know you’re not the only one battling away …

 

It's been great to have you with me today and I look forward to having you back for the next Episode of Home Makeover Project Secrets.

 

All the best on your project adventures.

​

Andrew Philips, Project Management Coach