Set up a makeshift bath. If you depend on the bathroom that's under construction for daily use (or if it's your only bath), be sure to ask the designer/builder to set up a temporary bath. This can be accomplished by setting up a temporary fiberglass shower unit in the basement that drains into the utility tub floor drain, describes Ken Perrin, president, Artistic Renovations, Cleveland, Ohio. "We can also set up a toilet in the basement," he says. "Then at least they have those two fixtures." A temporary shower/toilet setup might cost $500, "but in the long-run, it's worth it because the homeowner doesn't have to call the neighbors to use the bathroom."

Plan on delays. Despite a careful plan, detailed schedule and having all materials on site, you can bet on a remodeling project running longer than you expected. And if you plan on doing a lot of the project yourself, expect a learning curve. "Whatever time you think it will take, double that," says Cameron Snyder, president, Roomscapes Luxury Design Center, Boston, Mass., and past-president of the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). "Timing is critical in a bathroom project because you can't do A until B is done, and so on."

That said, allow leeway, because with the level of complexity involved in an all-out bathroom renovation, you must count on "surprises" along the way. So don't plan to entertain overnight guests the weekend after your bathroom project is slated for completion. Have that birthday party at a restaurant so you don't have to deal with two messes in your house.

Have fun with it. Embrace the process and take plenty of before and work-in-progress photos. Keep your eyes on the prize—that dream bathroom, the updates you've been wanting for years, the features that will clinch a higher home sale price. Remember during all this dust and through all of the delays why you are doing this.