When embarking upon any project, remodel or design & build, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of decisions to be made. The list of decisions marches through the homeowner's mind. What kind of windows should I choose? What kind of handles do I want on this sink? What kind of shutter dogs should I choose? How about the style of siding? Making decisions that impact your project, are wise, efficient, and timely all depend on your process.

If you are a visual learner, this type of up-front decision making involved in a remodel or build can be difficult, because only when you see all of the pieces together do you feel confident you are making an informed choice. For those of you who are hands-on learners, lots of leg-work is involved to do in order to touch and feel products that will eventually make it into your home. Criss-crossing the town with samples and comparisons for days can be exhausting. For the theoretical thinker, there are many surprises when the plans that you carefully crafted in the virtual, precise world of spreadsheets, Pinterest, or architectural plans fail to take in variables that occur in real life. Just imagine for a minute each of these ways to gather information as the leg on a stool. When balanced, the stool is useful, when one 'way' soaks up too much time and energy and the others are neglected, the stool is useless.

The first step is ALWAYS to count the cost. Do the research. Pin away. Answer those basic questions: What do I need? What do I want? What is my vision? How much do I want to spend? Skipping this step and heading straight to show rooms can get you into some major pickles -- sticker shock or product overload, to name a few.

Ferguson's plumbing, lighting, and appliance showroom in Alpharetta

However, if you stay in the virtual world too long, you are likely to have trouble getting off the ground. The internet has a way of making everything look perfect, affordable (cheap, really), when the truth is that getting locked into a certain magazine-spread look and trying to replicate can be expensive and an exercise in frustration. Here's how to decide if you are spending too much time 'researching in virtual world' -- if you are spending two or three times more time and effort on browsing sites like Wayfair or Houzz instead of looking at actual products and talking to knowledgeable and helpful salespeople, you are becoming imbalanced. Your stool is about to tip over because it is not balanced!

Stephanie & Madeline discussing appliance selections

Where to go look at product is another one of those decisions that can be mind-boggling. Here at BAC, we've spent years cultivating the best vendors in the Atlanta area. When Ben and Stephanie started looking for plumbing fixtures and windows, they went straight to the folks that have helped so many of Ben's client's over the years. Madeline at Ferguson's in Alpharetta was very knowledgeable and helped Steph navigate through the seemingly endless variations on a faucet to choose fixtures that are going to reflect her style, be of long lasting quality, and be within their budget. Not an easy task, but certainly doable with a little expertise to guide the way. To pick out their Enviroguard windows from local window manufacturer Precision Millworks, they headed to Lummus Supply to finalize their choices. Reid Lummus gave Stephanie the guided tour through trim styles & mulls. Using the North Carolina home as their style guide, they selected a wide trim, 9 light window with the mulls on the top only.