Architects will observe what the contractor is doing and report back to you if they are taking short cuts or something seems wrong during construction.A good Architect understand how to provide good waterproofing details.

There's no shortcut to success, just a bunch of people trying to sell you otherwise.

This is usually a job done with several short cuts, by a guy who says he knows what he's doing. 

There is no shortcut to success.Good Luck,Mike

We fired the contractor in month four and it took us another four months to complete the project and correct all the mistakes, shortcuts, and bad workmanship.  4) We over-improved for the area, believing that luxurious touches would hypnotize that perfect buyer with deep pockets who just couldn't live without this house.

They actually showed how to do some of the stuff.I watch most of it just for entertainment, and to see how dumb some people are.. but some of the DIY shows have some cool ideas and shortcuts sometime

You make her responsible and she tries to take shortcuts and ends up causing more troubles.

I understand there are no shortcuts in this game, besides having a giant network of people who are very successful already.

Once you have completed (6) you can then go back and evaluate each step again to determine if there is a shortcut to avoid or lower costs of that step, or increase chance of success.

You can't take shortcuts.