Do not bribe your partner into painting your cabinets by offering up an additional poker night with the boys (or girl’s night out, whatever the case may be) without stipulating that this token of gratitude cannot be redeemed the night before Day 1 of the project. Late night + booze + don’t-wanna-do-the-job-anyway = your project won’t start until loverboy/lady love has slept until noon, had a venti coffee and a nosh, and has surfed a bit of gratuitous Interwebs. Read: 2:00 p.m., at the earliest. Half your first day’s gonna be blown and prep work’s gonna take the other half, so you’re pretty screwed right out of the gate.

Just sayin’.