Give me advice. Living in a renovation with kids!

[LosingPatents]

Hello,

renting whilst the new place is done will be very very costly.

weve bought a house. Has damp and two windows that's need doing a whole kitchen and 3 x bathroom job and extension out back. Much dust and work.

how did you live in your renovation with kids. 8 and 12 ? caravan it? In winter?

Can you live upstairs and do it in two stages? I.e. get the downstairs bit done first and then the upstairs bit?

Really you need to be able to section off a "dust free" area and treat it like one of those post apocalyptic virus things where you have a series of plastic zip door covers between you and the building work. Otherwise everything gets covered in dust, and I mean everything. It's like when you find sand everywhere when you have been to the beach but worse.

It would also be useful to put as much stuff as you can in storage or get rid of it so you aren't shuffling round rooms that are full of a house worth of furniture. Also make it easier to clear rooms when you need to switch to a different area for the builders.

At 8 and 12 the kids will be fine. Treat it like an adventure. Although they need to understand why you are doing it and what the benefits to them will be from some short term hardship.

Also be careful about jumping in and getting a quick damp treatment they doesn't work. There are loads of recent posts on here about damp. Normally if you stop the source of the damp and let it dry out then you don't need injection damp proofing or plastic sheeting underneath your plaster.

My advice is:

Warm, not precious clothes.

Accept that your children will be filthy for the next few years.

Don’t think about the end date or completion or you’ll drive yourself mad.

Involve the kids so that they learn and feel part of it. (My 2 year old hammered all the kitchen unit dowels in, slapped paint around etc and now feels very much part of the journey)

Embrace the chaos.

You need to get quotes for phasing it, quotes for doing it all in a oner, then compare the difference against renting for a while. Longer projects usually equals bigger cost.

If it really is financially viable to stay in the house, then yep - get rid of as much stuff as possible, including clothes, bedding etc as that will just be more stuff to wash! You need a section of the house for sleeping, eating, toileting and washing that can be separated off. Consider joining your council gym for showers if water is going to be off.

Cooking wise you just need a table with microwave/air fryer, fridge. Lots of plastic basins for moving clean/dirty dishes around (or just embrace the paper plates). There are lots of threads on what to eat, etc.

Kids age 8 and 12 will just see it as an adventure, wouldn't necessarily worry about them.

We're living (and I'm wfh) in our renovation but we are not doing building work. However, every surface in every room is being renovated, ceilings and walls skimmed, the dust and mess and damp is unreal.

The kids have been relatively unfazed, even when they had nothing but their beds in their rooms whilst we did their bedrooms. They appreciate having bigger rooms in this house and a separate playroom to go into with their friends.

We still have to do the bathrooms and kitchen, I know these will be more upheaval. Luckily we have extra rooms like the conservatory that we move things into whilst we are working on the rooms.