Advice on getting an extension with young children in the family

[DangerQuakeRhinoSnake]

Considering a small one storey extension but would have two children under five. Already sounds like a nightmare but really would like the work done. It would affect the dining room, hall and kitchen. Has anyone else ever done similar and how did it go?

Currently in the process, although admittedly the children are not toddlers (still primary school aged though). Ours in 2 storey so have lost our bedroom and part of the bathroom on the 1st floor and dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. To be honest though, every single part of the house has been affected with the dust, storage of furniture, 4 of us are in one bedroom at the front of the house........

You just have to have decent builders I think and think of the long term gain. Our builder has been amazing - we had had a working kitchen throughout (with diswasher / washing machine / sink / oven and hob etc) although they've moved it around about 3 times now. Working shower even though the bathroom has no walls and most of the street can probably see in!! Strict rules about trying to be tidy, keeping shoes on at all times, not touching anything, no running etc because its not the house that they're familiar with. Lots of child friendly meals has been a winner here - picnic teas, pizza trips to KFC and pasta in front of the TV as there is nowhere to sit in the kitchen!

And bribery - the promise of a newly decorated bedroom / play area / a million playdates or sleepevers (whatever it might be) because they've not had any for 6 months or so.

How much of your kitchen could be relocated to the lounge? If you can plumb a washing machine in, a sink, and have a microwave oven plus 2-ring hotplate, it would be fine. We ran a pipe from the cloakroom basin for sink and washer and even dishwasher, so apart from little counter space, it was OK to rebuild the kitchen extension.

Young kids really aren't fussed about odd arrangements or dust.

Move out and rent while the work is done

NameChanged you have good builders but that still sounds hellish! How big is your extension that it's already taken 6 months? How long till it's finished?

NotCitrus that sounds like major hassle too. I guess it will be however we do it. Iloveberries sounds like the ideal solution but bit sure we'd be able to afford it.

We hadca massive renovation which started when DS was 4 weeks old and DD was 20 months. It was fine. Half the house boarded off; kitchen in hall consisted of rice cooker, microwave, baby belling, washing machine and sink plumbed in.

It was fine. DS was breastfed and not mobile, DD still at nursery 3 days a week which helped enormously. Work started on January and we were back in by May.

Are you getting any sleep?! We had an extension when DC were 5 & 3 and it was having had about a year of them both sleeping through reliability that made us feel ready to face the hassle. Or perhaps another way of asking the same question is 'are most of the other elements of your lives fairly ok?' E.g. mental and physical health fairly robust, jobs ok, kids alright, no recent major life traumas. Our extension was very disruptive and energy consuming (and went massively over budget and timescale) so it didn't leave room for much else in our lives beyond the essentials. I'm really glad we did it now (4 yrs on from completion) altho I wish we'd chosen a different builder!

Obviously not all extensions are traumatic but I think there's a chance any one will be and you need to think about what resources you have to cope with that stress.

In lots of ways with young kids was great - watching the builders kept them occupied for hours and we were at home more which meant we could make decisions on the build straightaway.