CASE 4.2
The Home Improvement Project
Lukas Nelson and his wife, Anne, and their three daughters hadbeen living in their house for over five years when they decided itwas time to make some modest improvements. One area they bothagreed needed an upgrade was the bathtub. Their current house hadone standard shower bathtub combination. Lukas was 6 feet four, andcould barely squeeze into it. In fact, he had taken only one bathsince they moved in. He and Anne both missed soaking in the older,deep bathtubs they enjoyed when they lived back East.
Fortunately, the previous owners that built the house hadplumbed the corner of a large exercise room in the basement for ahot tub. They contacted a trusted remodeling contractor who assuredthem it would be relatively easy to install a new bathtub and itshouldn’t cost more than $1,500. They decided to go ahead with theproject.
First the Nelsons went to the local plumbing retailer to pickout a tub. They soon realized that for a few hundred dollars morethey could buy a big tub with water jets (a Jacuzzi). With old ageon the horizon a Jacuzzi seemed like a luxury that was worth theextra money.
Originally the plan was to install the tub using the simpleplastic frame the bath came with and install a splash guard aroundthe tub. Once Anne saw the tub, frame, and splashguard in the roomshe balked. She did not like how it looked with the cedar panelingin the exercise room. After significant debate, Ann won out, andthe Nelsons agreed to pay extra to have a cedar frame built for thetub and use attractive tile instead of the plastic splashguard.Lukas rationalized the changes would pay for themselves when theytried to sell the house.
Page 127The next hiccup occurred when it came time to addressthe flooring issue. The exercise room was carpeted, which wasn’tideal when getting out of a bathtub. The original idea was toinstall relatively cheap laminated flooring in the drying andundressing area adjacent to the tub. However, the Nelsons couldn’tagree on the pattern to use. One of Anne’s friends said it would bea shame to put such cheap flooring in such a nice room. She feltthey should consider using tile. The contractor agreed and said heknew a tile installer who needed work and would give them a gooddeal.
Lukas reluctantly agreed that the laminated options just didn’tfit the style or quality of the exercise room. Unlike the laminatedfloor debate both Anne and Lukas immediately liked a tile patternthat matched the tile used around the tub. Anxious not to delay theproject, they agreed to pay for the tile flooring.
Once the tub was installed and the framing was almost completed,Anne realized that something had to be done about the lighting. Oneof her favorite things to do was to read while soaking in the tub.The existing lights didn’t provide sufficient illumination fordoing so. Lukas knew this was “non-negotiable” and they hired anelectrician to install additional lighting over the bathtub.
While the lighting was being installed and the tile was beinglaid, another issue came up. The original plan was to tile only theexercise room and use remnant rugs to cover the area away from thetub where the Nelsons did their exercises. The Nelsons were veryhappy with how the tile looked and fit with the overall room.However, it clashed with the laminated flooring in the adjacentbathroom. Lukas agreed with Ann, that it really made the adjacentbathroom look cheap and ugly. He also felt the bathroom was sosmall it wouldn’t cost much more.
After a week the work was completed. Both Lukas and Anne werequite pleased with how everything turned out. It cost much morethan they had planned, but they planned to live in the house untilthe girls graduated from college so they felt it was a goodlong-term investment.
Anne had the first turn using the bathtub followed by theirthree girls. Everyone enjoyed the Jacuzzi. It was 10:00 p.m. whenLukas began running water for his first bath. At first the waterwas steaming hot, but by the time he was about to get in, it waslukewarm at best. Lukas groaned, “After paying all of that money Istill can’t enjoy a bath.”
The Nelsons rationed bathing for a couple weeks, until theydecided to find out what if anything could be done about the hotwater problem. They asked a reputable heating contractor to assessthe situation. The contractor reported that the hot water tank wasinsufficient to service a family of five. This had not beendiscovered before because baths were rarely taken in the past. Thecontractor said it would cost $2,200 to replace the existing waterheater with a larger one that would meet their needs. The heatingcontractor also said if they wanted to do it right they shouldreplace the existing furnace with a more energy efficient one. Anew furnace would not only heat the house but also indirectly heatthe water tank. Such a furnace would cost $7,500, but with theimproved efficiency and savings in the gas bill, the furnace wouldpay for itself in 10 years. Besides, the Nelsons would likelyreceive tax credits for the more fuel-efficient furnace.
Three weeks later, after the new furnace was installed, Lukassettled into the new bathtub. He looked around the room at all thechanges that had been made and muttered to himself, “And to thinkthat all I wanted was to soak in a nice, hot bath.”
Questions:
1. What factors and forces contributed to scope creep in thiscase?
2. Is this an example of good or bad scope creep? Explain.
3. How could scope creep have been better managed by theNelsons?
