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I've had many calls over the years from people that started a project around their home and before they knew it the project had gone out of control.
I never understood how that could happen until now, because I almost fell into that same home improvement trap.
When I first built my house twenty years ago I was working as a full time contractor and I would do my paid jobs all day, but nights and weekends were spent building my own house.
The work was done every day and I had complete control of the job. Before I knew it I had my house built and because I was able to devote my full attention to the job, everything just fell into place.
Cut to twenty years later. With a book to promote, syndicated newspaper columns to write, TV show, and my work with the Kohler company, I'm on the road most of the time and get to visit my house only for a few days at a time. When I do get to spend time at home, I tell my wife that I like her hotel and look forward to coming back for another stay!
Earlier this year we decided to build an addition for a new laundry room, then we needed a little more space for a home office. Now, with the limited time I had, I could not work on these two projects every day and they did not get my full attention.
Weeks went by before I could start up again where I left off and by then I was floating back and forth between the two large projects with nothing getting done. Things started to get out of control!
I turned to my book, went back to the basics and took my own advice. "Focus on one small step at a time and do nothing else until that small task is completed." Sounds simple, but if you loose sight of that goal, your could loose control of your project.
My first step was to stop all work on the office and just work on the laundry room till that was finished and then move on.
Ed Del Grande, 
Ed Del Grande's House Call, 
Penguin Books, 
plumbing, 
home improvement, 
books
