Week 2 Blog Assignment - Building A Garage

     About 9 years ago, my wife and I decided that we needed to tear down our older garage in favor of building a new garage.  The old one was falling down and we did not have any water or sewer running out to the old garage.  We wanted our new garage to be bigger, better and also have running water and a sewer service as well.  Neither one of us was a project manager or had any experience with any major construction up to that point.  Just to make sure that we could follow-through with the project, we ran some numbers and did some homework.  We really wanted to do this entire project right and we wanted it to go very smooth.  At the end of our many discussions and evaluations, we decided to go for it.

     Part of our plan was to hire a contractor to do the work for us.  We did some interviewing and finally decided on a contractor that would be in charge of our entire project.  All we had to do was give him all the details, which includes our wants and needs.  We sat down with the contractor on several occasions to go the plans he drew up for us.  We could not have been more pleased.  At this point, we really felt good about what we had gotten into.  We had not had any additional stress or any miscommunications and things were really going smooth.  What could possibly go wrong?

     Once the contractor began construction, we began to get so excited.  My wife and I both could not wait for things to be complete.  During the first two or three days of construction, I would come home daily to see the progress and to touch base with the contractor.  Here is where things get a little out of hand.  On the 7^th day of work, I came home and noticed that the plumbing was set and the concrete slab around it was hard and set.  The problem is that the plumbing was in the wrong place.  In my initial design, I had the plumbing coming up through the concrete slab at a specific location as I had based the entire layout of the garage around the plumbing and sewer.  This garage even had a second level and the upstairs water and sewer was also based on the footprint down below.  When I saw this error, I immediately approached the contractor and asked for an explanation.  My contractor stated that my wife had asked for the plumbing to be moved to the new location.  The contractor did not question her, so when they were laying the pipes and concrete, they adjusted to her specifications.  The contractor stated he assumed that I was part of that decision making process and my wife thought that moving plumbing was as easy as making the decision on where to hang a picture.  What a huge mess I was in.  Can anyone feel the frustration I was experiencing?

     After I had a day or two to calm down from this error, I began to think of how this could have been avoided.  I began to think of all the things we did right and they were numerous.  Then it hit me, we did not set clear boundaries and responsibilities for the project.  Even though we hired a contractor to do the work, I was essentially the project manager from our family.  I could have been clearer and set forth a better and more definitive communication system that would have given us a system of checks and balances.  So the error was all mine to own and that frustrated me even more.

     In retrospect, I should have not been so vague regarding roles.  As our text states, I should have established “a clear distinction between how different people on the same project team will work together to perform their tasks” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton and Kramer, 2008, p. 107).  I should have established a chain of command that all ideas or changes went through.  I needed to communicate that all decisions on changes should have been ran through me for a final approval.  Our text also states, “share important information with all team members in a timely fashion” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton and Kramer, 2008, p. 107).  I should have asked my wife to run any additional changes or thoughts by me so we could make the decision together.  I assumed that she knew to do this already but I was dead wrong.  Since I did not keep these important things in mind, I had to totally re-work my floor plan.  Today, the garage is nice and works for what we need it to.  My initial design would have been much more efficient and usable but I had to learn my lesson the hard way!  I do have a tip for everyone else that may keep you from going through the same mistakes as I did.  If you ever find yourself within a project and things seem to be going extremely well, stop and take a quick look at all the details.  You may find something surprising!

References

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.