Kristin Lund and her husband, Peter Coccoluto, did not have the nerve to stand up to their architect.
They had selected her from the seven they interviewed as the best qualified to renovate their 1820s Colonial-style farmhouse north of Boston. She was well-educated, had extensive experience and came highly recommended. So who were they to question her design?
Still, there was the nagging question of the garage. She wanted to put the garage doors at the back of the house, where a car would have to drive past the house to park. Although it was a better design and hid the car from the street, it would mean paving over some of the back yard and would add to the cost of the remodeling. Lund and Coccoluto preferred to put the garage doors on the side of the house where, they acknowledged, it might look boring but it would be easier to reach.
They consulted Bruce Irving, the former executive producer of the television show “This Old House,” who now works as a remodeling coach based in Cambridge, Mass., helping homeowners negotiate the challenges of renovation. Irving recommended that they talk about their feelings with the architect — “You don’t want to end up with a house that makes you feel uncomfortable,” he told them — and after some cajoling, they agreed. They expected her to grow angry and refuse to change the design. To their surprise, she quickly agreed with the changes and redid the blueprints within 10 days.
“Bruce gave us the chutzpah to tell our architect what we wanted,” said Lund, a copywriter, who now works in the house, in Georgetown, Mass. “Sometimes you need someone to tell you that, because we’re so used to internalizing our emotions. He’s almost like having a house therapist.”
Renovating a home can be as fraught as negotiating a difficult marriage. So it is perhaps not surprising that coaches like Irving — many of them former contractors — are proliferating. Remodeling coaches often act more like marriage counselors than building consultants, and, like therapists, they are best when brought in as early as possible. They can help homeowners figure out what they want in a renovation, and can make sure that the project is actually carried out.
They can help diffuse disasters, act as intermediaries between contractors and homeowners, and help owners set a budget, put together a timeline, navigate competing bids, pick a builder and get discounts on materials and supplies. Once a project starts, they can keep an eye on the contractor, monitor the quality of work and mediate conflicts.
Searching for help
In the past, only multimilliondollar home and office jobs had project managers, who oversaw the work and made sure everything was done. But the housing boom and the growth in remodeling created a market of homeowners who know nothing about building and are searching for help. Former contractors have stepped in to fill the void, retooling themselves as coaches. While no association tracks their numbers, some in the field estimate that there are about 100 such coaches around the country.
“People are bombarded with so much information, it becomes harder and harder to make a decision,” said Jesse Morado, president of Renovation Coach in Atlanta. “I’m helping to reduce some of that noise so they can then make a knowledgeable decision.”
Kerry and Bailey Izard hired Morado when, four months into the remodeling of their home, their contractor suffered a heart attack and died.
The foundation for the 2,000- square-foot addition to the Izards’ house had been poured, the first and second floors had been framed, but the roof was missing. At first, the couple figured that they could oversee the project themselves, but the Izards, who are investment managers, quickly realized they did not have enough time for the project, work and their three young boys.
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“The number of decisions you have to make is overwhelming,” said Bailey Izard. “When you make one decision, it affects a lot of other projects. The prospect of trying to manage a number of subcontractors got to the point of being impossible.”
After an outside project manager did not work out, they turned to Morado, who set up a timeline, put out bids for work, pored over the offers and forced them to make decisions quickly so the work would move ahead rapidly. Eight months later, their project is nearly complete, and they expect to move in this spring.
“When Jesse came in, it was a total turnaround,” Bailey Izard said. “If we had gotten him involved here earlier, he would have saved us more money in half the time.”
Objective advice
Coaches’ fees typically vary from $90 to $300 an hour. Because the coaches usually are not affiliated with contractors, their advice is generally viewed as more objective. For large projects, many coaches charge a percentage, usually from 5 percent to 10 percent of the total project cost. Some, like Reva Kussmaul, owner of Eye for Detail in Pasadena, Calif., offer podcasts and offline classes in addition to phone or in-person consultations.
Kussmaul, while acknowledging that some homeowners might blanch at the fees, argues that paying for a coach can be far cheaper than ending up with a home you dislike, or not finishing a remodeling project at all.
Two years ago, she mediated between two homeowners and the contractor they had hired to build a second-story addition. They had paid him $90,000, she said, but he was often absent from the job site and sent workers who mistakenly severed the sewer line and electrical wires. Kussmaul estimated that it would cost $120,000 to fix and finish the project.
“You can say $100 is a lot, but good luck if you get into it and it gets really bad,” said Kussmaul, who charges $100 an hour. “They could have saved thousands of dollars and headaches, and that’s priceless.”
Unlike many contractors, coaches have time to discuss a homeowner’s plans, suggest alternate and sometimes cheaper materials and designs, and explain how a home is built. Most builders are juggling so many jobs that they often do not have time to answer homeowners’ endless questions, walk them through a project, or offer suggestions about how to do something better and for less money. Perhaps most important, a coach can help save a homeowner’s sanity and wallet.
There is no certification or licensing for a remodeling coach, so the National Association of the Remodeling Industry in Washington suggests looking for the same qualifications clients would in a contractor, including recent references, affiliations with industry associations and a resume. While some coaches are former contractors, not every state requires licensing for contractors.
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Can’t call a coach? You still can save the remodeling job
If the expense of a remodeling coach is out of the question, experts say there are still ways for homeowners to avoid the worst nightmares of renovation, and save aggravation, time and money.
* Before hiring a contractor, a homeowner should decide exactly what is desired in a renovation and make it clear to the contractor, say coaches who have extensive experience helping people remodel. If there is anything in the project that is a must-have, the contractor should be told before the renovation begins, rather than when it is halfway finished.
* Asking friends, neighbors and family members is a good way to find a contractor, but make sure the referral is recent. Otherwise, the contractor may have gone out of business, or the ownership of the contracting firm may have changed. Avoid hiring a close friend or family member to do the work, experts advise: Problems will inevitably arise, and relationships may be soured forever.
* Coaches recommend that homeowners contact at least three contractors for bids on a project, and that they be sure to read each bid thoroughly. While one bid may seem cheaper, it may not include everything a project requires and can end up costing more. Going for the lowest price is not always the best strategy. For a few dollars more, a homeowner often can get better quality and better materials.
* Good contractors should be able to provide a list of the last five projects they have completed, accompanied by the addresses and phone numbers of past clients. If a contractor refuses, consider someone else.
* A written contract should always be in place between homeowner and contractor. That way, if something goes wrong, the homeowner has legal recourse. Reva Kussmaul, a remodeling coach in Pasadena, Calif., says many disputes erupt between homeowners and contractors because no written contract exists that spells out the job and the price.
* Before signing, homeowners should ask for a copy of a contractor’s insurance policy and make sure that the contractor is licensed in the state (some states do not require licenses). A reputable craftsman should be able to provide a copy of the license within a day. If the contractor refuses or provides an expired license or a copy, a homeowner should take that as a sign to look elsewhere.