Software projects and home renovation

Finally we have renovated our house and moved in last week. I say finally, because it has been a project with a verrrrry long gestation period. Something just short of our five year plans!Need analysis was done several times over; specifications were changed every minute and every hour and with every idea thrown in by well wishers(?).We had my colleague from buildings department come and look over the place and give her professional recommendations. We had an architect whose expertise we sought.We had any number of friends and relatives who had an idea on renovation. I did look over a recently renovated house for fresh ideas!I did look at a house which was being put through the process of renovation.I was asked to just look at the colour combination of the lamination and nothing else!We had called our 'old' contractor who had originally done a lot of work for us.He came and listened to our elaborate ideas. He never did turn up afterwards; it intrigued me, but kumar guessed that the elaborateness of the exercise and lack of clear focus must have driven him away from us!The last i heard was that he is no longer doing construction contracts but into catering contracts!!
The crux of the problem was relocating us during the 2 month(optimistic estimate) period that the whole process would take. I, the forever optimist, suggested that we stay over in the first floor, while the ground floor work was going on.Kumar was quite definite that he would have nothing to do with it and would like to stay away during the entire exercise. I thought he was being needlessly finicky, as we had scaled down most of the structural changes that we had originally contemplated.But then we had a bright idea of staying in company guest house.And as it happened , we ended up doing precisely that.
But the story i am about to narrate is about the similarities in the situation i was placed in this project as a customer, vis a vis the position i used to face as a project manager of software projects.I used to be horrified at the casualness of the customer and the vague specifications that they would give before assigning the project to us.What would be definite is their intention to go in for the same, everything else will have to be guessed.And the minute we deliver a product based on our own guesswork, they would get all agitated and say the product has absolutely no correlation to their requirement;how they assumed we would know some basic knowledge of their work, and of course they want this and that and that and this;would make us believe that they are cosmetic changes actually.I used to be fuming and just about managing to keep my systems people at bay.
But here it happened exactly the same way. Only after he had completed a cupboard, will i get fresh ideas on how to do it differently. I will get ideas on relocation of a washbasin or a cabinet only the day after he has completed installing them.I will get ideas on different materials for sinks, when i went to look for samples of ceramic tiles.I used to plague the contractor with all sorts of fancy ideas and notions.Have to grant it to him, that he used to go alongwith me (appeared to) and definitely give in where he could, accomodate my ideas where it was not too much of a hassle, but firmly steer me away from some hairbrained ideas,giving some technical reasons which would translate into maintenance issues 5 years hence!
And then after he had completed the entire project and we moved in and started living, whole new requirements sprang up every now and then. He patiently attended to our needs, saying he will leave only after we are completely satisfied. He never once turned back at us and said, if only you had told me these requirements earlier...
The moral of the story is, software projects and house renovation projects are similar.And i felt truly enlightened that i behave like a typical customer, starting to actually think only after the product is delivered..