Scope Creep while Redoing a House

One project in which I had to deal with scope creep was redoing my house. We bought our house and tore almost everything out. We were planning on keeping all the trim in the house since it wasn't in bad condition. We continued to schedule all the work and budget our money. We were two days away from the project starting and our entire family coming into town to help us out. And then, as we began to think about it more, we decided that we needed to tear the trim out as well. If we were going to do everything new, why not the trim as well and make the house look good? This would change our schedule and budget significantly, but we were going to be able to make it work.

Our family came in and we were telling them the plan. My brother-in-law promptly reminded us that if we changed our brown trim white then our brown doors would need to be changed as well. They either would need to be painted or we needed to buy new ones. Also, all the brass hardware on the doors would need to be changed to silver to match all the other fixtures in the home. This again, would not only add time but also cost to the project.

Another example of scope creep happening in our home remodel would be the floors. When we walked through the home, we were able to pull up the carpet a little bit and saw that there were hardwood floors underneath. In the section that we looked at, they seemed to be in good condition and we were excited. However, once we bought the home and were able to pull the carpet up the first day our family was there to help, we realized the floors were not in good condition throughout the home as we hoped. We now needed to buy new flooring and take the time to put it in. Once again, this added not only time but also cost to the project.

A third scope creep in the home remodel would be the pipes in our bathroom. My husband tore out the toilet (it was old and not usable). When he tore it out, he realized that the pipes were cast iron which were corroded through and needed to be replaced. This increased the time significantly and cost for parts.

In order to manage this project better, I could have planned on changing the trim in the beginning and talking to our family about it, since they brought in the need for changing the doors as well. Then we could have planned for this from the beginning. In regards to the flooring, we could have just figured in adding new floors with time and cost from the beginning just in case the floors were not in good condition throughout the home. The pipes in the bathroom was something we did not see coming but was also something that could not be prevented. It happened and we had to get it fixed; sometimes, this happens when dealing with a project. Since this was our first home, we did not look at the risks or how to manage them if they came up; however, we will be more prepared if we ever decide to buy another home.