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Before you dive into remodeling or decorating, it is a key move to assess the time frame the work will take. As you would expect, considering glitches such as weather, contractor delays, supplies availability, and potential hidden extra work is a smart, but often and underestimated planning step.

A sound start date hinges on whether you're only decorating or, on a larger scale, remodeling. The former is more flexible as it mostly consists of sheltered, in-house duties only. If it's the latter, weather alone may affect the work progress in quality, quantity and cost.

Unless it's an emergency, plan for times when the weather is your friend, not a foe.

If you are remodeling and hiring for it, book your contractors early. That's an overlooked planning step, but crucial for a successful remodeling. Once you have a contractor booked, stay in touch with each other to develop a continuing 'touch-base' habit. Silence on either side, as in 'not asking questions early and often', may indeed create unnecessary delays and obstacles for either party. So ask when you need an answer; give one when the contractor calls you up and asks you.

At the beginning, get an estimated time window of project completion from your builder. Grab it and consider it a tentative time frame plus ADD some extra to allow for unforeseen delays.

Then, while staying f-l-e-x-i-b-l-e to everything that comes later, you may need to adjust the master plan to coordinate and fit everything else in. As changes to the master plan do pop up, their frequency usually shrinks with a detailed attention to scheduling of all tasks (as opposed to ignoring them).

If your needs are merely a question of decorating, the start and finish depend on you (if you are doing the job yourself).
You can decide when and where to start and how many tasks you need to finish at a time. And if you lag behind, you are in charge anyway. Keep a day timer handy, though, to see the project's development at a glance. A written time-table reference alone may be a strong motivation boost for you to finish on time instead of taking it unnecessarily 'extra easy' ;).

Are you stuck for time to do-it-yourself, or do you doubt your own decorating abilities to get your house looking just the way you want it in the shortest and most productive time?

Then, give the decorating assignment over to a professional decorator, or an interior designer. All you'll need to do is to coordinate your schedule with theirs (for they will need unrestricted access to the task areas in your home). Coordinating both schedules alone is worth it if it meant a shorter decorating time frame and a smaller bill at the end, isn't it?

But don't forget ' Here again, you'll need to look into the demand for interior designers and schedule your time based on their availability. If you want something done in time for the festive season, you might have to claw your way into their appointment books early. Besides, getting a whiz interior designer of your choice is what you want, too, right?

Ask for references. As well as getting comments about the contractors' quality of work, ask extra questions about how timely they were as well. The comments may surprise you and lead you to a better contractor who values productive time as much as you do.

Have a plan 'B and C'. It can happen that your first-choice builders and interior designers bail out (without warning) despite your best efforts. Keep calm. Make a careful second and even a third back up choice during your early planning stages to have alternatives. And always be prepared for the 'unexpected' by staying flexible and resourceful.

Not only will your remodeling or decorating schedule be more on time, but you'll be able to avoid extra expenses in time, money and frustrations. An early and extra attention to timing details may surprisingly keep you as calm as a sleeping puppy during the face lift of your home.