Overhauling your home’s look and feel is exciting, especially the feeling that it will be closer to the style you envisioned long before the renovation started. However, the reality of living at home during a remodel is considerably less glamorous than the outcome will be. Some changes may take weeks to months, so make the most of your home’s transition period with tips from our home renovation experts on managing your experience.
A good part of managing your live-in home renovation will occur before any renovations are underway. Keep your expectations realistic for what will be required from you and your family. You may need to temporarily move children into a shared bedroom or move nightly relaxation from the family room into the kitchen or bedroom during remodels, so preparing your family for an upheaval of routine is crucial. Daily life will look a little different until the remodel is done.
Most of all, be prepared to be surprised with the unexpected. You’ll likely decide on and order new pieces like entry doors or bathroom sinks ahead of time, which on its own keeps renovation on schedule. However, necessary parts for your remodel may be on backorder due to high demand, so your renovation could take a little longer than expected. Going in with the knowledge it may take longer than you anticipated at no fault to your or your contractor’s plans is a key part of a smooth home renovation.
During the renovation process, you’ll likely be speaking to your contractor or contractors on a regular basis. Choosing a contractor you trust with your home helps ease your mind, so do some research on the Texas licensure board and check reviews or ask around your neighborhood for a contractor with plenty of satisfied customers.
Be upfront with your contractor with clear communication throughout. You’ll only meet the goals you have for your home if you are completely transparent with contractors about your expectations and what you’d like the end result to be.
If you have small children or pets at home, the renovation areas may seem like an indoor playground. Creating designated working, living and play areas at the start of renovations mitigates this risk and saves you the hassle of keeping kids and pets out of potentially hazardous spaces with exposed wires or heavy machinery. Seal work zones off when workers are done for the day as best you can to reduce temptation for curious children and nosy pets. Plus, this will keep some of the dust and debris that come with renovations out of the livable areas in your home.
Let’s face it: Your home is going to be noisy during the day, when workers are hard at it creating your new space. Dust will also be a problem, no matter how much you try to manage it. These two factors are part and parcel of renovating your home. That doesn’t mean you can’t take some preventative measures to make living in your home more comfortable. With noise, a good set of sound-canceling headphones is your best bet if you’ll be there during the day. However, if you can get away, take the kids to a park or work from the office or a coffee shop when you know it’ll be a loud day at the house.
For dust, tape off any vents in the room being worked on if possible during demolition and when sheetrock is being sanded. This alone works wonders in preventing dust from traveling to other parts of your home, though it won’t prevent it from happening entirely. Your contractor will likely also perform their own preparations in order to keep dust out of the rest of your home.
Your kitchen and bathrooms are the two places in your home you truly can’t live without, but you can work around their temporary absence if you plan ahead. Planning out your meals week by week and relying on meals that don’t need a lot of prep, like sandwiches, can make this easier and reduce the expense of constantly eating out. For bathrooms, create a daily schedule for each person in the home to have a designated time in the bathroom and use caddies to reduce clutter in the room.
If your kitchen and one or more bathrooms are under renovation simultaneously, you may choose to give yourself a break with a staycation. Booking time at a hotel, when multiple key rooms in your home are out of commission, will give you a break and let renovations happen without further stress on your part.
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