Staying in Focus

Sometimes the hardest part of anything is maintaining focus. An expert athlete must stay in focus. An accomplished musician or actor must stay in focus. And the DIYer must stay in focus especially when it comes to multiple home improvements and renovations. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by everything needing to be accomplish and a feeling of "where do I start" can keep a person up at night. (I've had plenty of sleepless nights consumed with thoughts of remodeling.) It's also very common for DIYers to start a myriad of projects - but, because of being overwhelmed, losing track of time and costs, or losing focus, none of the started projects are completed (which naturally adds to the stress).

Go to a carpenter's or a "handy-man's" house and you'll be surprised by the number of "in the works" projects, even with their best intentions, are never completed.

In a prior post I listed all of the projects that I have completed and an ever longer list of the projects yet to be completed. OVERWHELMING!

So, here's what I did. I created a chart. The chart is broken down by project/room. The first thing I do is create a budget or estimate for each project. Research using the world wide web is pretty simple. There are even some terrific sites that help with estimates: http://www.improvenet.com/HomeOwner/ProjectTools/index.html and http://www.costhelper.com/cost/home-garden/home-garden.html are a couple of sites I refer to regularly. Also Lowes and Home Depot have cost estimators. After doing my internet research I gear up with calls and emails to various companies to get a more specific sense of the cost and time involved in the project. And then, just to be safe, I add 10% onto my budget. Its always better to have a couple of dollars extra than to find yourself out of funds and unable to complete the project.

Here is an example of one of the many projects I need to tackle (sooner rather than later). My kitchen.

Here is a photo of my kitchen as it looks today.

It's painfully obvious that I need new floors, counter-tops, lighting, a new window and I need to move, paint and find new door pulls for the existing cupboards (which thankfully are high quality, hardwood, cabinets). My estimate does not include any new appliances which generally are the most expensive part of any new kitchen.

As of today, I'm estimating the sprucing up of my kitchen will cost between $5000 and $6000 and I plan to tackle most of the DIY projects myself.

And here's a photo of what I want my kitchen to look like (more or less) when I'm done.

Here's how it breaks down:

1) Tile Flooring for kitchen and sun room. $1000 (builddirect.com)

2) Radiant Heating Matt for kitchen and sun room. $300 (homedepot.com)

3) Granite Counter Top for center island $1500 (marble.com)

3) Butchers-Block Counter Top. $300 (Ikea.com)

4) Back Splashing (subway style pattern). $100 (homedepot.com)

5) New Pendant Lighting above bar area. $300 (schoolhouseelectric.com)

6) New Window. $300 (homedepot.com)

7) Labor. $1700

8) Add 10%.

Wish me luck.