Having workmen in with a newborn

[thegirlwhouk]

Hi all

We are moving into a new house in just over a weeks time. I'll be 36 weeks pregnant with DC1 on the day we move.

The new house is fine in a lot of respects and is structurally sound. However DH and I have a list of jobs that need doing as it's on the tired side. We extended and renovated our old house last summer. We moved out for the duration, and it was quite stressful but we were chuffed to bits with the results in the end. We gained a fair bit of knowledge and both think future works would be much easier with the benefit of hindsight (ie we would not spend weeks arguing about tiles!!!!).

There is far less work required on the new house thank goodness. We'd like to :

Paint all the rooms (inc woodwork).
Fit new carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms.
Paint the outside of the house & replace the front door.
Refit both the family bathroom upstairs and the small cloakroom downstairs.
Replace the laminate floor in the hallway with tiles.

Now, we can't be sure when baby will arrive, so we have 2 options.

We can either book everyone in now and get it all sorted out ASAP. It might be done before baby arrives, but it also might not be. We'd have to be mentally prepared for this! We might well be living out of boxes if we can't unpack in time! The benefit of this is that it would be done by xmas :-)

Or, we can move in, make do, and wait until baby is a month or so old. Part of me prefers this idea, but equally, another part of me would like to get it done ASAP as i'm not sure how much 'organising' I'll want to do once the baby arrives.

Are we bonkers for considering this? The only 'messy' or noisy jobs would be the bathrooms. The house is big enough for me to have at least a room to myself regardless of what's going on around me. We also have inlaws close by whom I can retreat to if it's all getting too much. Having not any real experience with a newborn, I just don't know what to do!

I would leave things a while - you only get one first month at home with your newborn - just enjoy that without the madness - that stuff can wait ! pre book it now though !! good luck with it all ! totally exciting times ahead !!! enjoy every min !!!

I would book now for when baby is 6/8 weeks old.

You don't want to go home with no toilet etc.

Then book them all to come at same time if possible. Ie the same days someone can paint outside house, most inside and do bathrooms. So it gets done in quick time space. Then once messy part done new floor and carpet can be done following week.

I would expect bathrooms and painting I be done in one week if you get everyone to come and work at same time

Move to mil for that week. Ie take baby Moses basket etc so they can paint late and start early and baby doesn't breathe in dust and fumes.

After 6/8 weeks you should be pretty much back to normal/ baby feeding established / fine to go for longer walks out if wanted.

Going to disagree with PPs ...
By the law of averages, you should have a whole month between moving in and baby arriving. Even perhaps more likely than not, since this is your first baby.

In your position, I would be keen to get at least some of the work done in that month, ideally in the first couple of weeks to lower the chances of it not being complete - because how much better would it be to have it all done and dusted and your nest all ready?
I'd talk to the tradespeople you're planning to use about scheduling. We had some builders in around the time that DS2 was due to arrive (planned a home birth too!) and they were happy to get on with it for a couple of days, then be told "baby's here" and leave us in peace for a bit while they switched to another job...

I would get quotes now and line up tradesmen for when baby is 8 weeks old. You might not be able to get tradesmen in that quickly anyway (long waits for good builders where we are). Your baby may arrive early too (my first was at 37 plus 5 unexpectedly as my mums were all 2 weeks late).
Choose all fixtures and fittings, paint colours etc now in detail, go through plans so you've covered everything off, you won't have to do this when baby is here and works progress seemlessly, although be prepared for something unexpected to come up during works. As previous poster said do it in most efficient way and stay somewhere else during worst of the works. Good luck!