Outlining a story – heresy you say?

Let me state up front – this is MY approach. It works swimmingly well for me, but others might think I am bonkers.

Before I start writing the first paragraph of a novel, I have at least in rough form each chapter I expect to produce.
I know I am going to have some creative types throw fits and others saying things like, “How can you possibly know what you’ll say before you start? That handcuffs my creativity, no way I would do that! You aren’t a writer, you’re an alchemist!”. (I paraphrased that last one from someone who might have used different choice words about formulas)
To tell you the truth, I admit to understanding that others successfully approach writing novel length things differently — but I couldn’t conceive of how I would organize my thoughts and not go insane without outlining extensively.
First of all, why do I do it?

Most writers are familiar with the rewrite process. In fact I go through many rewrites during the creation of a novel. However the vast majority of my rewrites happen before I’ve written the first formal paragraph of the novel.
How you ask do you do that?
Well, I have an extensive outline I create that serves as the skeleton of the twists and turns of the novel and it’s main characters. What issues do they encounter, what problems must they solve, what elements are important, etc. I have found that in my writing, and before I feel the outline is complete, I will have changed or reordered vast elements of the outline.
This takes time and energy, and I’ve found is oftentimes inspired by a good night’s sleep or time away from the outline. However, the results are that when I declare my outline complete, I am pretty happy with where the story is going, and when I sit down to write, I have a lot more fun knowing that I am not that far away from seeing the concept go into a useful form.
The time it takes to readjust my outline is vastly less than if I’d had prose that needs vast repair or replacement.
Before you ask, I’ll say this. No, all the exact details and almost none of the dialog are done in the outline (I may be nuts but I am not crazy!) The outline has the storyline and other important bits in it that help me organize thoughts, threads of activity, and pacing.
Hope that gives you a bit of insight to MY process. I know lots of others do similar things, and others would consider the above heresy and utter drivel. To each his own.
Thanks,
Mike