Proper planning is important with any remodeling project, but it is especially important when it comes to a kitchen renovation. Poor planning and scheduling can turn a 3-4 week project into a 3-4 month disaster. Of any type of renovation project you can do in your home, a kitchen renovation is going to have the biggest impact on your day to day routine. Since the kitchen is usually the hub of any home, and where all of the meals are prepared, to be without a sink, stove, and refrigerator for weeks at a time is enough to {{make anyone cranky|leave any family angry and frustrated}}}. The longer the project drags on, the more intrusive it will be on the rest of your life. So how do you avoid delays and help expedite the renovation project? I have outlined some of the key points to make sure that everything is moving along on schedule.

1) Establishing a time line with your builder or remodeler- make sure this is spelled out in writing with clauses for the project not being completed on-time. If a completion date is not established, the contractor or builder is going to focus on his bottom line. If he needs to pull people away from your project for another, he might just do that. By establishing a clear cut finish date, it will force him or her to plan their time wisely.

2) Effective communication with your contractors and sub-contractors- Inevitably during the remodeling project things are going to change, and small problems are going to arise. By having an open dialogue between the contractors and sub-contractors, it will prevent small problems from turning into big problems.

3) Research, research, research- materials may be the biggest reason for a kitchen renovation not being completed on-time. For example, depending on which type of kitchen cabinets you buy (stock, custom, rta), it can take anywhere from 2 weeks for delivery up to several months. Just like anything else in life, you always have to plan for the inevitable. I always suggest to homeowners that you give yourself an extra 2 weeks lead time on top of when the manufacturer or distributor tells you the cabinets will arrive. This gives you time to inspect the cabinets, make sure there are not problems with them, and if there is, it will give the time to find a remedy for it. Without the cabinets, the rest of the kitchen can't even be started (countertops can't be installed, walls can't be finished, etc), so if you don't schedule your materials to be there a head of time you are just setting yourself up for disaster. It is also important to make sure that your contractor or builder is comfortable working with the materials that you chose... if they are not familiar with the installation process it could slow down your project or lead to unexpected problems down the road.

4) Be flexible... if you make a change to the design, you have to anticipate that it will change your time line. Every change you make to the project will have a ripple effect on the rest of the project. Believe it or not, most contractors have the same goal that you do... get the project completed as fast as possible without sacrificing quality. If you are butting heads with your contractor, it is only going to delay the process even further and may affect the quality of the work.

5) Have patience- as I mentioned before, it is going to be a stressful process. By having a good attitude and rolling with the punches, it will create a positive atmosphere on the job site and will help the project run smoothly.