I would also add to look for an architect who specializes in residential work or at least has decent residential experience. I hate getting involved in a new house or a renovation with commercial architects who haven’t worked on residential work or never worked with wood construction.

Donuts, coffee and pizza will make people do better work.  You spend $100 on food and it’s worth thousands on a project.  Do even ask, just do it.  Have food available.  workers like to feel appreciated.

Ahem, I think you mean Derelicte!

Me too. She was great.

“Are you alone?”

Agree.

If anything watching Mad Men explains why America is the way it is. It's just a bunch of people being nostalgic for a time that never was, while drink and smoking too much. Personally I like Joan's Arc. 

It seems way less cool once you consider that all those extras are the main characters in their own lives. Like, the table next to your theatrical proposal might be a family who is eating a silent meal after watching a loved one pass away in hospice.

This whole “main character of your own life” is just fine until you expect the unsuspecting public to be unpaid extras. Boldly public declarations of love come to mind. Remember the triumphant scene in “Love, Actually” where Colin Firth stumbles into a busy restaurant to confess his love in halting Portuguese? The…

I loved reading about the batman party on Twitter. It was just so over the top and wonderful, and a complete surprise to her. I would want to share that with the whole world as well. I guess I’m not as big a cranky old cynic as I thought.

I would kill for someone to throw me a party, even a low-key one. My mom was fantastic at celebrating my sister and me and after trying to adopt for years, I became a mother and my mom died three months before Mother’s Day. My narcissistic MIL pranced around being the new grandmother and shut me out of the entire day.…

Don’t really give a shit about Gwen Stefani

Just remember she’s from Orange County and nothing else will surprise you.

Would it be impossible to interview one of the original women that worked this gig? After a decade or what of people talking about this, it would be interesting to hear their POV rather than Stefani’s stagnant musings. 

“How FUNNY that white people are the only ones who ever make money off all of this supposed “cultural exchange!”

Even at the time, we thought the “Harajuku Girls” was a weird concept. They 100% seemed exploited. I hope they took A LOT of her money.

Don't hire a neighbor

I definitely agree with the last point about a "happy contractor." When I was in college, I spent summers working for a moving company. While most customers didn't even think of it, we occasionally encountered one that provide water or Gatorade, and even more rarely, a couple of pizzas for lunch. That little bit of…

You missed the absolute #1, most important step that most homeowners nearly always skip, but is one that places an expert in their corner: