No surprises unless it's supposed to be a surprise.

Everyone's heard a story or two about the horrors of home remodling projects. It's a line of business that could benefit hugely from my topic of managing expectations.

Imagine this, you are getting your kitchen redone and the following happens:

1. The contractor was starting to run into some problems from his estimate. They immediately communicated to you what was happening with your house, showed it to you and then talked you through the implications of what were discovered before ASSUMING they should just push forward.

2. The job was going to take a lot longer to do it right than originally anticipated. They start communicating to you immediately why the job is going to take XX days longer to complete.

3. Materials were going to be coming in later than expected. Why? "Because I forgot to order them. I'm sorry for that." would be a very reasonable answer. Not something like, the dog ate my order or the vendor I ordered them from got the wrong part. Just own up to your mistakes.

I am not saying that all contractors or folks in the home remodling business are bad. I've recently had three great experiences with floor people (Armstrong), a wall paper stripper (Susan Hunnicut) and tuckpointing/Chimney repair (Jason Phelps). If there were any problems, they communicated clearly with me on what needed to happen and why. They did a fantastic job of managing not only my expectations, but also my wife's.

No matter what the news is to anyone, good or bad, manage their expectations.