The first phase is design and planning. You are, or should be, working with an architect or design professional to help you form a master plan and advocate for the design itself, over and above budget considerations and ease of building or lack thereof. On our current This Old House project in Charlestown, Massachusetts, we went through this phase of the project last summer. Our homeowners Dan and Heather Beliveau were filled with anticipation and raring to go. The second phase is demolition, when the work gets going.
Demolition is fun to a point.
There are those who claim that ripping out the old is therapeutic, but when walls and ceilings come down and are shoveled into the Dumpster, you realize that the house you just purchased for hundreds of thousands of dollars has been reduced to the value of two dollars and ninety-five cents. This phase tests your will. You just have to keep going. The third phase is framing - for me one of the most fun of the whole project. As walls quickly go up, the project seems to fly along at a furious pace.