In real estate, the three most important things are location, location and location.
When remodeling or rebuilding a house, the three most important things are to measure, measure and measure. When you receive your initial blueprints, compare the measurements to your current living space to get a frame of reference as to how large your new bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms will be. Things look larger on paper when your imagination is unencumbered by reality. Only when the walls have been erected do you pause and think: hmmm, that surely looked larger on paper!
Before you finalize your plans, measure again. Unless you are using custom-made cabinets, know that kitchen and bathroom cabinets usually come in 3-inch increments. So, if windows or other items need to be centered, make sure they will center with your cabinets, else will you be wasting an inch or two here and there using fillers.
Finally, plans inevitably change throughout construction. You might even switch vendors mid-stream. If you decide to change your cabinets or items based on the recommendation of a new interior designer, measure again to make sure the new plan fits in with what has already been done. Else, you’ll be getting very familiar with the change order.
One great tool to help you measure it the Leica Disto A3, a laser distance meter. Costs a lot more than the standard tape measure, but when you have a lot of measurements to take, it saves a lot of time. Press a couple buttons and you can take all the measurements for your closet space. The tape measure is still handier for short distances, but when you’re measuring long distances by yourself, you don’t have to worry about the tape measure being straight or folding or any of that other nonsense. As an added convenience, it switches easily between inches and feet-inches. Not sure why, but some vendors want their measurements in inches and others in feet-inches.