The Decision-Making Process
Perhaps the hardest aspect of building a kitchen is the sheer number of decisions you’ll be asked to make at every stage. The painter needs a final color choice, the electrician is waiting to place the lighting and the carpenter has three crown molding choices and is pushing for one you’re not sure about. Add in the likelihood that these are all being put in your lap at 7:30 in the morning when you’re sending your kids off to school and heading out the door to work and the tension starts building. Multiply it all by several weeks or months, add in a little stress and it gets very difficult.
It is important to decide on a method of making choices early in the process, before the start of construction. However, once the kitchen starts to take shape, some of those choices will need adjusting or changing. That color on a tiny paint chip you matched to an equally small laminate chip two months ago now looks really weird. The sub-contractor doing the flooring doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. The clerk at the appliance store just called and your oven came in but its not the right size for the opening in your custom built cabinetry. Each of these situations mean making a decision, often on the fly as your workers wait.
A good decision-making strategy involves several ground rules including:
• Assign the process to one person. Getting everyone on the block’s opinion is not a great idea. In the same way you chose someone to act as general contractor, assign yourself or someone else the final say on design choices and respect their opinion. If you are using a designer or architect, this may be role for them.
• Let the experts do their jobs. If you’re being asked to locate light switches, for instance, first check with the electrician for code requirements and then consider your needs. Their input will be valuable as long as you make sure they are not simply picking a choice because it makes their work easier.
• Have second and third choices on everything. Some things like paint can always be matched while other items like appliances may require substitution or going to another resource. Having back-up resources and secondary choices can mean being able to easily respond to problems.
• Be flexible. It is not the end of the world if something turns out a little different than your original design due to unexpected obstructions or changes in availability of materials. Flexibility also means understanding that you have to change when faced with an insurmountable problem. Don’t doggedly stick to a choice just because it is written on your plan.
• Be firm. While flexibility is important, so is sticking to your guns when you know what you want. Often a supplier or contractor will try to substitute or do things differently because it is easier or they screwed up. If that is the case, tell them that you want to stick to the plan. It OK to occasionally remind everyone who is paying the bills without turning into a tyrant.
• Make the decision. This may seem obvious but many people’s decision making process is to not make a choice, procrastinating or making excuses to avoid a choice. This can get very expensive and cause a lot of frustration with people who are dependent on you to make decisions. When you avoid a choice the pressures of time and money will force one on you, one you may not like.
• Negotiate. Negotiation is a process of meeting someone in the middle rather than a winner takes all confrontation.
• Finish Things. The ultimate goal during the construction process is to stay on track and finish the job reasonably close to your target date. It is easy to keep adding tasks, changing specs and fiddling around with the design. You must keep your nose to the grindstone and get the job finished. We’ve seen numerous kitchen projects left unfinished for months while someone obsesses over a hardware or cabinet door decision. Get it done.
