It’s fortunate that I had the good sense to marry an engineer. If I hadn’t, I would almost certainly be broke, homeless, and unable to calculate a bending moment. Perhaps her greatest contribution to my life has been her religious insistence on seeing a full budget prior to my starting any major renovation project. She’s smart enough not to accept “Uh, it’ll cost about $250, honey,” either- a detailed breakdown and project plan is required, complete with multiple estimates and gantt charts. When you’ve got a lawyer doing gantt charts, you know things are serious.
As a result of her diligence, my track record with renovations is pretty good. Most of my project finish with cost overruns of 10-15%, and about a month behind schedule. It may not sound that impressive, but anyone who has undertaken a major project knows that this is actually pretty darn amazing. But there’s one force that all the engineers in the world can’t calculate- the power of what I call the Renovation Butterfly Effect*. I’m not referring to the costs of a single project growing and changing- that’s somewhat expected and can be planned for. What I’m talking about are the unintended impacts that a project can have on the perception of its surroundings. In other words, how gussying up one spot can make the surrounding areas and items look embarrassingly bad.
The reality of this effect was brought home to me by my recent basement renovation. I decided to tear out the hideous pink carpet and stucco ceilings to create a sleek entertainment and games room. My budget for the actual renovation project was among my best- I came in a little late, but actually under budget. Every nail, every inch of flooring, every piece of trim had been accounted for. I even included the cost of the fancy new television that had been a condition precedent to my starting this project. It made me believe for a fleeting second that I could actually succeed as a project manager if this whole law fad ever fades.
But when it came time to put everything back together, our tattered old hand-me-down sofa and chair looked quite out of place, and the entertainment center we had been using was also looking in need of replacement. The new TV was having unintended consequences as well, as the crystal clear picture on theHD plasma screen made the shortcomings of my much-loved but already strained homemade PVR even more noticeable. And suddenly, the neighboring rooms were showing their age much more than they had before the renovation, and it was hard to figure out where the fancy new trim should stop and where the tired old stuff should take over. The few dollars I had left over in my initial budget were blown hundreds of times over to try to achieve that “finished” feel.
No element of your house exists in a vacuum (well, excepting the things inside your vacuum). A new sink makes the old counter top look dated. New paint the hallway shows up the old and worn paint in the bedrooms. New flooring in the living room means that you need new draperies and rugs. Have you ever heard the expression about curtains and carpet not matching? Well, it works as more than just a lascivious metaphor.
So how can you deal with this Effect? They key lies in planning and thinking things through. Don’t just plan for what a project will require, plan for the broader impacts of the project on the things around you. Try to visualize the finished product and how it interacts with other rooms and all your other stuff. If you’re good with design, try sketching a full model or doing amock-up in a program like Google Sketchup, as this will force you to consider even the tiny aspects of the job. Doing so will help you stay on time, on budget, and on the good side of the engineer in your life.
* Yes, I realize that my application of the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory is flawed, and that my understanding of these theories is based onWikipedia and episodes of The Simpsons. I still think the name is catchy.
Image by The Bartender 007.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my God I had never seen that homemade PVR post before and I’m very interested! What’s the bottleneck now that you have the hdtv? Is it the laptop itself or will any setup of this kind degrade the HD signal?
You are hilarious!
@Melanie - With sufficiently powerful hardware, you can record and stream HD content with virtually no loss of quality. My problem is that my poor old laptop is showing it’s age and can’t really handle HD content- it does standard def fine, but stumbles with HD. I’m also finding that a lot of older recordings and DVD rips that I had recorded in lower quality settings looked fined on my old TV, but now look a little pixelated on the new set. It’s not really a problem with the PVR or the TV, just the fact that my original stuff wasn’t great quality to begin with and I had never really noticed!
@Stephanie - Thanks! I’m glad someone can take joy in my trials and tribulations.
Ah excellent. I’ll be trying this rig out, in that case!
Stephanie….
He’s from Newfoundland.
This is exactly why I have not upgraded to HD. I’ve invested too much time, energy, infrastructure and $$ in my homebrew PVR. I know that upgrading all my stuff to HD would probably cost me as much as the new TV. I know I’d love it — but I’d be setting off a chain of spending that’d bury me more than the price of the new television. Definitely gonna forward this post to my fiancee.
Thanks for sharing this and making me beware of it.
Hey really this is a very impressive article, It is not only a simple article but it is a kind of help to those who are thinking for basement renovation.
“No element of your house exists in a vacuum (well, excepting the things inside your vacuum).” - Actually made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
And yes, your wife is a wonderful woman.
Perhaps I have been on to something by never even beginning renovations in my old house, beyond upkeep and the odd upgrade from the unsightly. “What’s that sweetie, you think my kitchen needs to be modernized? Regretfully, I don’t think this relationship is going to work!” Problem solved.