Homeowner Faces Frustration
When Teardown Project Slows

By NANCY KEATES
July 24, 2007

Editor's Note: This is the 14th installment of "Teardown Diary," a feature by Wall Street Journal correspondent Nancy Keates. The column details her decision to demolish the Portland, Ore., home where she lives with her family and build anew. In the months ahead, she will chronicle what led to the decision, the financial costs, hiring an architect, knocking down her house, choosing the features of her new home and the final product.

"How's the house going?" people keep asking me.

"We're not tearing it down until March," I respond.

"What are you building -- the Taj Mahal?" asked one especially clever editor.

We're six months into our plans to knock down our home in Portland, Ore., and build a new one in its place, and I'm frustrated by the lack of progress we've made.

Why is it that we still don't have the schematic drawings for our new home? There's much more that needs to be designated: The windows, the doors, the roof, the pipes…the list goes on and on.

I email my architect and tell him I'd like to submit the drawings for building permits by mid September, so we'll have wiggle room before the teardown if something goes wrong.

He emails back: "There should be no problem getting the drawings submitted before mid-September, but at the same time, I need to accommodate my other clients as well. I have a number of projects that were started prior to yours that have more immediate scheduling issues that need to be attended to, so I'll need to schedule my staff's time accordingly."

Hmmm. Is he insinuating that I am being pushy -- placing my needs above others?

It seems that a big part of getting a house built is keeping the pace going. That involves learning how to nag in an inoffensive manner. Of course, that's impossible, since the very act of nagging is offensive. According to self-help books and psychologists like Dr. Phil, the urge to nag is something that needs to be scourged -- even if it means seeking professional help. Clearly, nagging in a marriage is a bad idea. It is all about control over someone else. But control over a project as vast as building a home is essential: Extra time means extra money.

If nagging is out, then there must be a better method of getting someone to fulfill their obligations. Perhaps instead of bugging someone about little pieces, it's better to set deadlines and expect them to be met, and to enforce penalties if they're not. That seems to be a businesslike approach.

If the plumber says he will be there to fix a leaky pipe on Monday, it isn't acceptable to show up on Wednesday unless there is a valid excuse, like all the necessary parts were out of stock at stores within a 30-mile radius.

To seek advice, I call architects in U.S. locales where there's been a lot of residential building. Most tell me that a project takes three to six months to get from the first client meeting to the construction documents.

Robert Dean of Robert Dean Architects in New Canaan, Conn., likens a client's experience building a house to that of someone who doesn't speak Chinese trying to get a driver's license in China. "It is all foreign, and no one is explaining it well," he says. "It is very intimidating. There are a lot of unbusiness-like practices [in the industry], and people are justifiably wary."

Mr. Dean says it's the architect's job to do the nagging to keep the project moving. That means pressing clients to make decisions and getting the contractors on schedule. When an architect isn't organized or has taken on too many clients, it can slow things down, he says. Though it is for their creative product that an architect is hired, three-quarters of his job is project management. "The architect is the string puller," he says. "If he doesn't keep them taut, the project will fall apart."

In Chappaqua, N.Y., Peter Cole of the firm Peter A. Cole Architect says there's nothing wrong with a client nagging the architect. "If [the client is] on the phone with them a lot and keep providing them with information they'll need, then they'll have to respond to you," he says. Mr. Cole says he always feels like he has too many projects going at once. "It is one of the big stress points in my life," he says.

But Edward Bing of Edward Bing Architects Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., disagrees. He's had a few clients who were overly insistent, and the more they called, the more annoyed he became. "The problem is when they don't understand how the process works," he says. Still, Mr. Bing's firm, which has three architects, limits its workload to six projects at a time. "All clients nag to a certain extent," he says.

To move my project along, I am getting help from the new interior designer we hired. She even called and met with the architect while I was out of town. Perhaps she can take on my nagging duties.

Write to Nancy Keates at nancy.keates@wsj.com