Your Home Renovation Has Started – How Can You Maintain Some Control Over What Happens?

I spent a great deal of time and trouble to measure and sketch up everything, make notes to describe what you wanted and you even drafted, discussed and signed an agreement with your contractor. Now the contractor is about to get started, and your job is done…
Are you General Home Repair And Maintenance sure?
This could be true but are you really just going to walk away and assume that everything will go perfectly and/or the way you want it? This is probably not the best thing you could do, no matter what your signed agreement or your contractor says.
Remember “Murphy” of Murphy’s Law? Murphy will undoubtedly materialize at some point. How long he stays is always up to him (however, to at least some extent, you can minimize the length of his visit).
Think about this: Your absence during the construction process will eventually become apparent to the contractor and especially to the workmen on your project. Because of this there is a good chance things will be covered up that shouldn’t be covered up, things will not be done that you won’t know about (for a while, at least), things will be done wrong or left undone until it’s too late, etc., etc.
There is also the question of what happens a few months or years from now when you might want to add or change something but you have no clue where the wiring really went or where the plumbing piping was installed and such as that. You saw some of it once but now it’s all covered up by sheetrock, paint, wallpaper, cabinets, shelving, etc.
Would you like an Long Term Contractors easy solution?
Keep your digital camera in a convenient place (NOT in or directly visible from the construction area. Otherwise your camera may well disappear). At least once a day you or someone in your family methodically photograph the construction area. It is best to set your camera to show date and time if that option is available. Try to take the photos in the same sequence of locations each time so you can end up with a more or less “time lapse” sequence for each wall, ceiling area, or other area of the work. This process will give you a pretty accurate and traceable record of what was done, when it was done, etc.
If you had the foresight to prepare them you can also take your original ‘scope of work’ plan sketches and add notes (dated) as you go along to supplement the photos and, of course, you could use a portable “pocket” recorder as you take the photos.
This process will give you a good, clear and concise record of the construction process from start to finish. Much more importantly it will also indicate to the contractor, subcontractors and other workmen that you are keeping an eye on and a record of what they are doing. Trust me, they will “behave” much better under these conditions, especially when the documentation is obvious.