I may actually be insane

[ellangirl]

But we're going to start an extension when I am 7 months pregnant, and have a toddler 2 cats and a dog.
Extension is lean to style rear kitchen/dining room, adding downstairs loo understairs, and replacing detached garage at same time. Unaffected rooms will be upstairs (3beds and bath) and front room. How do we manage this?? Anyone else do anything this mad?

you start by asking round friends and neighbours for a reliable local builder and listening to their horror stories. If you hear what sounds like a good one, go round for tea and have a good look round at the workmanship and enquire how much later the actual end date was, than the planned end date.

It will be especially interesting if you find a builder who turns up when he says he will, and works a 6-day week, 8 hours a day, without disappearing for hours on end to do jobs for other people to fetch supplies

Buy a canister vac from a DIY shed, that will be capable of sucking up builders dust, cement and bits of rubble. Hide your own vac, and hide its hose and attachments in a different place.

Buy a large tin of cheap biscuits. Hide your nice biscuits.

only if you have somehwere to move to /escape to while this is happening.
upstairs wont be unaffected - dust gets everywhere

Also hide 'nice' mugs, stools and chairs you don't want used as step ladders and anything else you don't want ruined. I did it for an 8 month build with a toddler and a baby and I don't recommend it. On the other hand you can cope with just about anything if you have to!

We had a temporary kitchen rigged up ( sink, microwave, 2 electric rings, washing machine) in one of the bedrooms. Actually in some ways it was easier to do it when dcs were really tiny as they would object much more now I think- lack of personal space and hygiene not an issue with littlies!

Hide your secateurs too

Buy lots of gin. LOTS

"a builder who turns up when he says he will, and works a 6-day week, 8 hours a day, without disappearing for hours on end to do jobs for other people to fetch supplies"

These surely are mythical, no?

Good tips, especially re vacuum! We are working on somewhere to move to, fingers crossed we can sort that.
We have a builder sorted already actually, with lots of personal recommendations. One of the benefits of living in a small place!
oreo if only I could drown sorrows with gin!!
rhubarb what did they do with your secateurs??

We are living in the front garden in a static - 3 beds, has a shower and flushing loo. Saving money on rent, on hand for questions from builder, could keep dog with us. Have a 4 year old and 6 year old. It is noisy when it rains, cold when it is cold (shove the heaters on) and gets hot when it is warm (open doors windows). But it is OK. It is dealable with. It is all right. And can sell static on when we finish.

Our renovation is 6-8 months so is definitely worth it for us - saving us thousands. We had not considered it (and were going to rent) until someone said they had done it - so it may be worth a thought rather than renting - depending on how long your building will put the house out of action. FYI static cost just under a grand and a grand to get it moved/levelled etc. £2k outlay instead of the £6k at least rent we would have had to pay. If we had found somewhere to rent who would accept the dog! And still got a static to sell on when we have finished.