Phasing in Construction

You may already have done some phasing with projects… like the room you painted and purchased furniture for or the bath remodel. Phasing has many benefits from managing the disruption to your family and lifestyle, to capturing economies of work and location. When it comes to larger projects, a bit more research can guarantee an improved synergy and help avoid any loss of economies. The most common reasons for phasing include: Less disruption to the household, zoning or other municipal restrictions, and budgeting.

Recently we completed a project that started with phase 1 in 2009. The Owner wanted to expand and renovate the kitchen as well as add on a garage space with a proper mudroom. The plan included an unfinished second story that would work as a full master suite when the time was right. At the time of the planning, Wellesley had adopted some additional restrictions on building size which would have put a moratorium on the master suite so the Owners turned their attention to other areas of the home.

In early 2011, we renovated the existing master bath with the understanding that the room would be used by their daughter in the near future, so the selections of materials and design took this into consideration. Last winter we began designing the conversion of one of the bedrooms into a new laundry, closet and bath- the old laundry location was in the future dressing room- this renovation was done just prior to the master suite, which allowed there to be no disruption in laundry- something every family can appreciate.

With the master suite finishing the first week of September, 2012- the Owner and I were chatting about the phased journey, and that I wanted to write about this project and the reasons to phase things. In his words “We really had all those reasons in mind for the way we wanted to do this. Initially the town wouldn’t let us go further with the second floor build out … and we didn’t want to push the budget either so we could make the master everything we always wanted. This also made sense given the age of the children at the time of the first phase when the new master would be a bit further down the hall from them. In the end, the phased process made all the remodeling more enjoyable and allowed us to focus on each space. It was especially nice that Matt [the production manager] built the outside temporary stair so the last master suite project was virtually dust free and did not intrude on our day to day life.”