Oddly, in most bathroom build-outs there's almost nothing skill-wise that's totally elusive to most decent carpenters. You might do some basic framing, replace a window, hang drywall, tile, install some flooring, sub out the plumbing/electrical, install a tub…Hey wait a minute—you have to do all this in a 6 x 8 space!!!! You can barely breath in a 6x8 space, much less build a complete house within a house, which is really what you're doing.

It's not the little things that can derail a project like this, it's doing them all, rapid fire in a small space—and in what's arguably the most personal space in someone's home.

To get things off on the right foot, I do a lot of preparation. And one thing I like to do is go over a checklist of things with the customer that are important to the project. That I have a list caught a lot of guys' attention during the www.Kohler.com www.SterlingPlumbing.com presentation at www.TheRemodelingShow.com. My checklist includes:

• Mapping out the yard and the house: where can I place materials, where can I park, do I need parking permits, what are the restrictions, where can my guys park?
• Where can I put my dump trailer or dumpster? Do you have prize marigolds you need access to a dumpster might block?
• How can I enter and exit the house? What doors can I and can't I use?
• Do you have pets? Can you please see to ALL of their needs so we can work?
• Can we take over a room inside the house for staging materials that can't go outside, like bath furniture.
• In a gut job, I emphasize this verbally and in email: YOUR HOUSE IS GOING TO GET DUSTY. I will do my best to minimize the dust, but I can't control it entirely. Where there's budget, I include a maid service to do a final clean-up after I'm done.
• Halo Effect: In a gut job there is a lot of bang-and smash work and this can dislodge drywall, plaster, whatever in other rooms. I let them know this ahead of time and that fixing it will be an upcharge.

After we do all this, we can actually do some work on the bathroom.