How to cope with kitchen/bathroom renovation

[Ostryga]

I’m having my kitchen and both bathrooms done at the end of June, total refit of all.

Does anyone have any tips for surviving that don’t involve moving into an air bnb for 6 weeks? I will be at work most days, and Dd will be at nursery or her dads so during the day should be fine. We live in a city so can live off takeout if needed!

The builder is going to do one bathroom at a time so will always have a working loo and bath/shower.

I’m looking forward to the end result, but am dreading the work!

Microwave for ready meals. Set up a corner of living space as kitchen area with that and kettle.

Wash all clothes beforehand and have friend / local launderettes to do during the work.

You can also get plug in hobs quite cheap. Put a box aside and just put in minimal plate knife fork and spoon etc for each of you plus a few cooking bits.

Will they be unplugging fridge freezer or can they work around it?

I had quartz worktop and so sink / washing machine could not be connected until that was done which is obviously a week or so after the rest as they cannot template until units in. So I was 3 weeks without them.

Luckily my downstairs bathroom was very handy at that time.

We had a dunk in the hallway just in front of the door to the kitchen (our downstairs loo was off the back of the kutchen so we couldn't use it). . Then a baby belling stove and microwave and mini fridge in dining room. But this was fir a big extension amd new kitchen - the area was off limits for almost three months.
If you can seal off the kitchen area completely. Just fitting a kitchen seems to create a lot of dust.
There may also be a day or two when the water is off, or at least hot water depending on your boiler. Just plan ahead.

Instant Pot (or similar type of electric pressure cooker), microwave, kettle can let you live a reasonably healthy lifestyle. I use pot in pot cooking methods for minimal washing up.

We set the dining room up as a camp kitchen. We used a small camping gas stove (2burner) and a microwave. We were without a kitchen for over 2 months though, because of a small flood, drying out and then a refit.

Oh yes and we had lots of slow cooker meals.

We did this but with 3 children and only one full bathroom.

Get right in top of the washing - make use of this good weather to ensure everything is done.

Plan easy meals focused around the microwave / hot plate. It’s easier than it sounds. We had a lot of ready to eat salmon fillets with microwave rice and salad or microwave veg. Pasta and sauce plus salad. Jacket potatoes, microwave rice with vegetable curry, that sort of thing. We also used paper plates but ordinary cutlery.

My biggest advice though is don’t sweat it. It IS a challenge (we’ve just done another load of major work) but it IS worth it. It’s hard work and stressful but just keep your eye on the prize and keep remembering how lovely it’ll be when it’s finished.

“This too shall end” Good luck!

You hopefully be without a total kitchen for 6 weeks, at worst 3 weeks, so perhaps make a list of 21 meals/ways to eat that you don't need a full kitchen for, so that when you can't think of anything you can just pick one? BBQ, slow cooker, toaster, microwave, herby veg filled cous cous using kettle, noodles, ready cooked whole chicken, shell fish, dips and pitta, sandwiches, eat out, take away, friends..... I know they're not all the healthiest dinners but it's not forever, love teas on knees or a carpet pic nic!

This is really helpful - thank you. I’ve got an archway into the dining room, so I’m going to tape up some plastic sheeting to try and contain a bit of the dust

I’ll set the dining room table up as a mini kitchen then I think. The fridge is already in the dining room, so that will be fine.

And yes, will repeatedly tell myself that it will end! The last stage of renovating apart from a bit of plastering and painting, and I’m very much looking forward to not living in a building site

We have a little camping oven in our kitchen :

www.amazon.co.uk/Quest-35409-Litre-Grill-100-230%C2%B0/dp/B07Q61P8Q4/ref=asc_df_B07Q61P8Q4/?hvlocphy=1006548&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=309859520377&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-749458115971&hvrand=11606959027355399211

This combined with an Instant pot, microwave and plug in hob should be fine.

Also have a washing up bowl with handles that the bottom has a drainage valve which would make it easier for washing up:

www.amazon.co.uk/Joseph-Wash-Drain-Store-Darkgrey-Grey/dp/B07KKYZ4RR/ref=pd_lpo_201_t_1/261-2578643-9154228?psc=1&pf_rd_p=3366510f-1771-44b5-99e2-20c1889506ac&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_wg=KlIPy&pf_rd_r=Z5DW1XXJ422Z60CTHA3T&pd_rd_i=B07KKYZ4RR&pd_rd_w=Rx1d5&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&refRID=Z5DW1XXJ422Z60CTHA3T&pd_rd_r=21410473-ee9f-4f5d-a713-e2793f7b4d8c

Sorry about the long links.

We’re starting in a week and expect to be without kitchen for 4-5 weeks. Will be relying on portable induction hob and microwave, set up in the playroom. I’m less worried about the cooking than I am about the laundry - usually have the washer on twice a day. And the dust, which I hate and will try and keep on top of every evening…

I had a baby & toddler as the time, we set up a makeshift kitchen in the dining room and that worked quite well. We went out as much as possible. Just to escape the noise and dust. It wasn’t too bad looking back, just went on for longer than we expected, as these thing usually do. But totally worth the hassle when it’s done. Good luck.

I would add paper plates for at least some meals. Washing up undr a tap in a dismantled bathroom is no fun.

I did lots of batch cooking in the weeks before so that we could just microwave them in our "camp kitchen" that we set up in the dining room. We had the microwave, kettle, toaster and George Foreman grill, as well as a table top camping stove that we could use to boil pasta. I had two big plastic boxes, one for clean plates/cutlery and one to put the dirty washing up in. To be honest we weren't without the cooker for very long as they fit that quite early on.

We’ve been without a kitchen for 12 weeks now and will probably be another 4 until our kitchen is fitted. We have a makeshift ‘kitchen’ in the lounge and the best thing we got was an air fryer from Aldi. They are brilliant- you can cook most things in them like chips, fish, meat, baked potatoes etc. I definitely recommend getting one!

Did this a few years ago, it was awful! But we only had 1 bathroom / toilet.
I made lots of meals for the freezer beforehand - chilli, Bolognese etc. Bought packets of microwave rice. Set up a spare bedroom as a kitchen area with microwave. Ate far too many take always!
Be prepared for stupid amounts of dust everywhere!

How exciting! You are at an advantage because you have two bathrooms! I had our kitchen done first and then our bathroom. The kitchen was fine and was all done in 3 days. The bathroom nearly finished me off. We had takeaway and one of our friends fed us.

The bathroom was two weeks. Absolutely horrendous.

Tape up some thick plastic on any doors you can because plaster and dust gets everywhere. I cleaned each evening.

No idea how much these cost to hire but a friend recently told me his neighbours had a temporary kitchen pods on their drive. They look amazing - you can even have a dishwasher and washing machine plumbed in.

www.thetemporarykitchencompany.com

I've seen one of the kitchen truck things around here @FlouncingBabooshka! There's two things, can't see how it can be cost effective to hire one and secondly is there a big enough market to make money in hiring them? Unless handmade kitchen companies provide you with them as an incentive to order and then a 'shut you up' when it takes months to complete?

@Rina66 - I’ve done a bit more digging and found this, which gives the price, - just under £40 per day including delivery and installation. Having been without a kitchen for eight weeks in our last house I’d be tempted...

www.kbbreview.com/4372/indepth/interview-kitchenpod/

Bargain!

Thinking about it that would have been rather costly over eight weeks! I suppose though for a lot of people it would be a small fraction of the overall cost of their kitchen (not us!).

We’ve been told the kitchen in the house we’re in now will only take two weeks from start to finish. I’d definitely hire one for that length of time if we needed it. Luckily we’re moving the kitchen to another room so will have our existing kitchen for the duration (assuming it doesn’t fall apart completely in the meantime - which is a distinct possibility )