Advice please about preparing for a renovation, whilst living in our house. Have you done this, what worked?

[BlueAnchor]

I was really eager today to 'get started' with preparing for the builder. All plans are in place, builder lined up. We need to declutter, we need to move 'stuff'.
I spent this morning firstly thinking I would make a list and prioritise. I couldn't think of anything to write.
I decided to just 'take action' .... and ended up wandering from room to room; thoughts like ' pack up the DC's bed...no he might be home'; sort times for the sale room, can't need to create a space in the garage for them'; ' declutter the kitchen and only keep out what I need, but where do I put the packed stuff?' Achieved not much!

Where/how do I start? If you have gone through this any advice would be appreciated.

How long will your renovation take? You will need different approaches for short periods like one month and longer periods like six months.

What are you having done? If all floors are coming up eg for rewiring and new central heating then you will need to be utterly ruthless. If you are just having an extension then some of your house will still be functional and you can live around that.

I'd start by making sure you understand the timeline of which areas your builder needs when and agree that with him specifically. Builders are buggers for trashing the entire place if they can get away with it and it is usually possible to arrange for work to be done in specific areas only at any point. Expect that you will need to be firm about this.

You MUST have one room at any point which is your refuge. It should contain sofa, TV and, if necessary, a field kitchen. The room can change as works are completed, but if you can't sit down together as a family and chill in the evenings you will soon be at each other's throats.

Assuming you need to do a fairly radical clutter reduction I suggest doing it the other way round. Get out your suitcases and pack in them what would be absolutely essential for a two week camping trip for each person in your family. Set those to one side. Everything else goes to storage.

Store as much as you can in clearly marked boxes (tape a complete index to the top of each and write the room it came from on all four sides so you can see it when it is stacked). Good news if you have a garage or friend with a barn but if necessary pay for a storage facility. It must be accessible in case you really need to recover something. Don't just pile the boxes solidly, create walkways so that you can see every box.

Once you have stored as much as you can, wait a week and do a second trawl of stuff for storage, I promise you can manage with half as much stuff as you initially thought.

I'd also suggest giving up doing laundry for the duration. Get a service wash at the laundrette once a week. Usually they fold stuff so well that it does not need ironing. On this basis you only need a week plus one day's worth of clothes, towels and bedding.

If you have time and a freezer, I'd suggest making and freezing lots of meals - far nicer and cheaper than takeout and you will not feel like doing lots of meal prep whilst the house is upside down.

Finally, be prepared for the dust everywhere.You will wage a constant losing battle. Sometimes you just have to accept this is how it is for a while.

If finances allow, the odd weekend away or staying with friends gives you a break from it all!

I'd definitely rent a storage unit and ship most stuff out. Builders can't be tripping over your stuff and they'll need lots of space for tools. Agree with Balearica to just keep one room as your quarters.

Balearica thank you so much for taking the time to give such great information.
Build is likely to be 12 weeks. House is 2000's so not old. Walls to move, loft conversion, resighting kitchen, renovating bathrooms, recovering all floors throughout, replacing furniture, new heating system, full redecoration and new patios in the garden.
No DC's so just the two of us, but will be going to work.

It is an interesting thought to pack as if for a holiday and ship everything else out to store/get rid. I have been saying this feels more difficult staying than moving house. I have renovated before, but in a house we were moving into once complete, packing, putting stuff into storage and living with parents. Maybe I need to think bigger. At the moment we are packing bits, moving boxes to rooms...and on again. Tackling 20 years of stuff in the loft, but nothing consistently and not seeming to make a difference.

I do have a tally of everything that has gone to charity/tip just to make me feel I am making progress! Hard work! I am quite orderly and love everything to have a space....unfortunately that space is often the loft or garage.

Hi, my DH is a builder and says the best thing the homeowners can do is to clear and de-clutter as much as possible. Problems for the builders arise when the owners leave all their stuff lying around and expect the workers to move around it/clear it themselves (yes he's had to do this which is unfair and time consuming). Put as much into storage as you can.

The problems with the house feeling upside down comes when the electricians and plumbers start their bits and combined with the original building team it feels like they're all over the place and in every room.

Most (decent) builders will try and keep dust and rubble to a minimum, and work with you to plan for what rooms need to be accessed first so you can clear rooms in order.

If you can afford it and have the room, it might be worth buying a cheap second hand caravan, putting it on the driveway or garden, and living in that for a few weeks, and then sell it on when you've finished. It might help you stay sane (and give you a bolt-hole) for the times you're looking into the mess and wondering what you've done!

HTH

I agree with what everyone has said. Also, never believe the 12 week time period. Every builder seems to say a job will take 12 weeks, double it at least. Then if they finish earlier you will be pleasantly surprised.

We have a storage unit full of stuff for our work at the moment. I got professional movers in to do it. We took the basics out of the kitchen and they packed everything else. We have not left the storage accessible and occasionally I wish we had something but it is never vital.

Move out anything particularly fragile or prone to dust. The packing for 2 weeks one is a great tip. Have a think about if there is anything you need to buy to make life a bit easier. For us it was a portable induction hob and some plastic tray storage for food. We have had one room downstairs since last October which has served for kitchen, dining room and living room. It was awful for a lot of the time but now our kitchen is done and it has been well worth it.

Also come join us on the home extensions 2018 thread to share the journey!

Thanks for more thoughts, we have a read of the thread. Feels daunting!

Agree that it will take longer than they say. (Ours was supposed to be a 3 month build for a double storey side extension and a single storey rear extension to our 1930s semi. Even with us fitting the bathroom and kitchen as well as all interior and exterior paintwork it still took double that).

I'm 2 weeks into a partial renovation of 6 weeks. The entire back of our house involving dining room, kitchen and 2nd lounge.

We are living in one room down stairs the main lounge.
We have had to empty all 3 rooms whilst leaving clear access through our integral garage.
I wish we had started decluttering earlier tbh.
We've done ok but our son has just quit uni and has moved back home with all his household goods in tow!!!
I'm beginning to get a bit pissed off with dust. My only catering facilities are on a lamp table in the lounge - kettle and mugs on a tray. Out fridge is currently houses in the lounge with us too!
I'm fed up with pot noodles, toast, instant porridge and sick of eating out too!!
My youngest 2 have GCSEs and A levels coming up which means both have revision sessions in school over the next t few weeks meaning we can't even bigger off to family over weekends etc.

Dedpite a big clearout ( the man at recycling centre probably thinks i fancy him ive been so often in recent weeks) I have boxes and stacked dining chairs around my bed. Dining table pedalstools in 2 of the kids bedrooms and boxes piled high in various bedrooms. Tbh I wish I had asked a relative to store the boxes at least.

Next week looks like I will be humping and dumping the same boxes again as electrician needs to get under bedroom floorboards.

Not much advice except get as much stuff out of the house as possible. Save meal out vouchers up. As much as I'm sick of eating out, it does get you away from the dust for a bit!

Regards taking longer than expected.....it always helps if you are all on the same page when making your needs/wants known. It's vital to keep communications open especially regarding how you're likely to use the house. You need to be clear that you understand where fixtures and fittings are to be placed, and stick to the designs and decor you agree to. Many times my DH has taken longer with the build for various clients simply because minds were changed part way through relocating walls, window replacements, kitchen and bathroom fitting etc, etc, and ££££ worth of extra jobs asked for 'because he's there' not originally allowed in the timescale/estimate. Sometimes it's not always the builders holding up the work.....

Sorry posted too soon. I have first hand experience of this re not always being the builders at fault as the extension, major interior renovations, driveway and garden redo took nearly a year cos I kept changing my mind

Also agree with Wasps post above, the dust gets bloody everywhere and lasts about 300 years.....and you get sick of takeaways

I'm just drawing to a close a double storey extension (about 70sq metres).
If I was to do it again I'd probably rent for 6 months.
Dust got everywhere despite the attempts of the builders to keep it to a minimum.
I like the idea of a caravan so I would definitely consider it.
Hide all your nice things especially mugs 😂. Be willing to have no kitchen if it makes things easier for the builders! Include in your contingency a budget for eating out a lot!
Make sure you have a good contingency available! Thankfully we didn't come across any big things but we did lots of upgrades as it made sense to do such as a new boiler , full re render rather than just the extension, building a fake wall on our adjoining side so we can't hear next door etc

Builders will not take any care of your garden and plants so if there is the slightest chance they will access outside space consider moving plants to somewhere safe

We ended up having to move out it was just not possible to stay

Living through house alterations is like living in hell!
Good luck OP and consider moving out if you can

Even if you try to hide out of the way in one room, the builders will still need access to it for random drilling, pipes, electric cables, will want to re-do the floor in that room at an unexpected time, etc.

The renovations are likely to take less time if you move out, as then the builders won't need to work around you and your stuff.

Do not underestimate how much could get damaged, even with considerate builders.

If you have the funds, you can get a removals firm to pack up all of your belongings and furniture (as if you were moving house), bar suitcase essentials, and put it into storage. And then bring it all back when the house is ready.

I like the caravan idea.

We had a 22 week build a few years ago. We decluttered ruthlessly, then most stuff went into storage via a removal company. We had one room that was only having minimal work so lived in there. Also, as we had no heating, it meant one room was kept nice and warm with a convector heater. We are retired, and it was a bit of a trial at times, but we got through it. You just have to keep the end result in sight.

I’d pay for the best floor and carpet protector you can buy and put it down throughout the whole house. I’d put it down EVERYWHERE. I’d also seal up any rooms or cupboards that you aren’t using. Use masking tape so the dust can’t find its way in.

start in loft and work down
be ruthless. everything for the tip, in the car and straight there.
anything else in to rigid packing boxes labelled and ready for removald

Thanks everyone for more shared experiences. Not so worried about carpets as we will replace throughout. This has been my plan. I haven't replaced anything here since new, except to decorate and some carpets. I have waited to be able to get one look throughout, rather than piece meal over the years.

Will think about moving out, no space for a caravan but maybe rent elsewhere. There are only the two of us so will rough it if need be. Not sure about DP, not quite sure he has taken on board the scale of it.

Architects plans are done, planning through, builder chosen, just need to be ready and agree a date.

We built a temporary stud wall to seperate the build. Meant dust was minimal and total privacy- was the best money we spent.

DP and I did this and it was hell on earth. We lived in the building site for nearly 6 months. We were confined to one room for everything. Builders used and chipped our mugs, lost spoons and cutlery ... and lived with an eternal layer of dust on everything we owned. Bottoms of trousers and shoes dusty just walking through, and no matter how hard you try or buy covers the dust permeates.

Don't do it. Rent a studio if you need to, but don't put yourself through it if you don't need to. They are in your space and they don't care. 8am on a Saturday included.

Build is likely to go more quickly if builders don’t have to tidy up for you/ get water and electricity back on for the evening.