Tips for living through a big build

[Chilver]

Builders have broken ground this week for our extension and interior renovation and, despite telling us that they wouldn't break through the back walls until extension 'box' has been completely built in a few weeks, they now want to pull the back wall down next week! So, we have moved into the lounge and are clearing master bedroom and kitchen (back of house) this weekend. As we are only a small 2 bed (going to 3 plus much bigger kitchen diner) and have now lost all living space for the forseeable, can anyone give me some tips to get through the next few months with my sanity intact?? We are 2 adults plus a young child.

Lower your expectations. Assume it will take longer than they say before you are back into the main house. Go away/stay with friends as often as you can. Do you still have a kitchen and bathroom?

Having lived in 2 rooms with a newborn, in the winter without a kitchen or a tap (except in an upstairs bathroom) for 8 weeks; I found reminding myself that people live on rubbish dumps around the world and I was fucking lucky, helped keep things in proportion. You'll be fine, you are first world and living the dream of many.

No tap for 8!weeks, 5 month build.

Have one room, just one room where you can go and shut the door and forget what's going on.
Keep it clean and clutter free as much as possible.... normal if you will.
It will save your sanity.
Brick dust is shit, get used to it. It will be in your hair and you will taste it when you wake up in the morning even though you close the door all the time.
Ooh take pictures, like before and after and as the work progresses, it will spur you on even in the darkest most depressing moments, look how far it's come.
It will take longer, it will be harder and messier than planned, that's ok, accept, shrug and crack on.
Go put a lot, visit family, friends just to get out of it as much as possible.
Good luck, it's going to be fantastic and so worth it.

Lol, so family just arrived unnounced - sure, come on in to where we have no seating area, lounge and are in midst of moving furniture!!!
We have a kitchen for the next 2 weeks and then none. And bathroom for forseeable so mostly just no lounge or any room that is 'normal'! Just wish builder had kept to original project plan (and i use that term loosely!) As I would have had time to organise storage and ourselves a bit more.

My sympahies... we did similar - twice.

My tips would be:
Get crocs or similar for the ‘mucky areas’ and never walk the dirt into the non build areas.
Draft excluders are a really good idea to try and stop the dust reaching ridiculous levels.
Store as much stuff as possible away from your living areas, a storage unit, garage or friends house. Crowding your remaining space with boxes will make life far harder. Really only keep out the bare minimum of kitchen stuff for example.

Good luck, if it goes as well as ours did then it will be well worth it in the end!

Try and accept the situation, dust, dirt and all. Aim to go with it rather than be totally pissed off with it. We are just coming to the end of a 2.5 month phase of our works and I'm 39 weeks pregnant. We now have somewhere to sit and the dust went as of Tuesday. I've been ridiculously calm throughout which is very unlike me.

Just move out. Better for you and the builders. It adds to the costs, but reduces stress...

We've just had the whole ground floor done. We packed up everything except essentials and taped boxes thoroughly so they're hopefully not full of dust... it's a bit of a faff, but if you'll be out on any days when they're breaking through/cutting through bricks, we taped up all of the upstairs doors with gaffer tape and cleaned and vacuumed before untaping them which seemed to keep most of the dust out.

NadiaLeon, if we could 'just move out', we would have done!!! Nowhere to rent short term where we live and child in school, not exactly much we can do about it.

Good kdeas about gaffer taping areas, we'llndo thst.

Currently decluttering all rooms as we move furniture. Horrible job but will help long term.

We're at the stage of no kitchen and a new extension which has just been plasterboarded and skimmed. Friday. We have rubble for a floor and electric wires hanging down from the ceiling. Dust dirt and rubble everywhere.
Go with it as much as you can, remember it won't be forever Keep your bedroom and a living area as dust free as possible it'll reappear everyday so try to live with it. Shop daily instead of big shops weekly - where would you store it anyway? Get used to ready meals - the better ones aren't too bad. Use a slow cooker to do stews and casseroles etc keep tea coffee biscuits cereals fruit all together in a cupboard or on a tray or box to hand that you can easily find. Find somewhere to wash your dishes - we do ours in the sink in downstairs loo and keep it as clean an uncluttered as we can.

Good luck - it does pass. Actively discourage friends and family visiting. Encourage friends and family to feed you. Get out as much as you can

Dreading this when it happens. We have a 4 bed that we will convert to 6 bed with bigger kitchen diner and loft too. That will be in a couple of years. How long can you go without gas and or electric? Say if they need to relocate these?

@NadiaLeon we had to relocate our consumer unit (partner is an electrician) and he just moved it to another room. No longer than a day. You can live without gas though?

@nadialeon We are having our gas & electricity meters etc moved - it was a bit of a faff to arrange but each takes a day. Apparently!
Our builders have sealed off areas with boards and black plastic and tape. So far so good. Plus it’s been summer so can be out and about. Also not muddy. BUT when the rain starts and winter here & when they come into the other rooms I’m unsure how that’ll work. We’ve hired a storage unit as doing every room other than the utility. Still living amongst a thousand boxes though!

We're 5 mths into a fairly extensive extension. Haven't been able to move out, but we do have a caravan. Up until now we've only had to use that for cooking in, but I think we'll be sleeping in it for a few weeks shortly. Agree with all above. Expect the worst and then you can be pleasantly surprised! I thought it would be awful, but it's really been not so bad. We have one room untouched ( at the mo ) and we hole ourselves up in there. Having pleasant builders certainly helps. As was said up thread - we feel totally lucky that we're in a position that we can do this work, and so half a year, or even a year of dust, mayhem and living out of laundry baskets ( 1 each for us all! ) will seem a lifetime away when it's all done.
Anything you don't want the builders to use - remove ( kettle, microwave, hoover ) Ours have even brought their own breville and toasted sarnie maker. They have better lunches than us most days!
Try to have an idea of what fixtures and fittings you want well in advance so you don't have to choose things on the hop.
Good luck - it'll be worth it in the end!!

Ikea do good portable single induction jobs very cheaply.

Console yourself with this thought. We’ve had work done whilst in situ and stuff done whilst moved out. The stuff done whilst we were there and able to keep an eye on things was much better quality, better value and delivered much closer to schedule than the time we weren’t around.

And definitely book yourselves a weekend away about half way through.

I found one of the worst things was the constant dust. If you can afford to pay for professional cleaners to come in at the end, it will be worth it.
My worst period was at the beginning when we had the rock breaker in to dig the foundations for the garage and garden area. It was constant heavy digging noise, bang, bang, bang, going from 7.30 - 4pm every day for a week. I remember thinking, 'oh god how many more weeks will it go on for?' The bonus is that we now have huge piles of our own stone which were used to create beautiful entrance walks and several low walls and steps around the garden.

Entrance walls, not walks. It's not an NT property.

Accept every invitation to dinner you can!!!

Ours took 6 months not 4. Most seem to overrun.

We finished 9 months ago. Within a few weeks all the stress and mess was forgotten and it was so worth it to get the house we wanted :)))

Thanks all for advice and positive stories. Currently clearing out kitchen out for that to go tomorrow. We are being ruthless!!!

Declutter as much as you can, expect it to take longer than expected and put stuff into storage if you can. Good luck!

Keep a photo diary as the work progresses. Particularly if (as) the build takes longer than expected, its good to be able to look back on how much progress has been made (rather than worrying about how much more still needs to be done).

Sex