Living in a home being remodeled

[Midpack]

We lived through a 5 week kitchen remodel (3 weeks waiting for granite counters). It was a PITA but we made do by using a toaster oven and microwave in the dining room and washing dishes in the tub and outside. And we were able to use the kitchen for all but 2 weeks by using plywood for counters while waiting for the granite.

We also did gut remodels of all 2-1/2 baths. If you do them one at a time, it’s a a pretty minor inconvenience.

Every situation is different. But the inconvenience and cost of moving out during remodel made it an easy decision to stay - what’s a few weeks in a lifetime?

 

[Scuba]

We lived through a 5 week kitchen remodel (3 weeks waiting for granite counters). It was a PITA but we made do by using a toaster oven and microwave in the dining room and washing dishes in the tub and outside. And we were able to use the kitchen for all but 2 weeks by using plywood for counters while waiting for the granite.

We also did gut remodels of all 2-1/2 baths. If you do them one at a time, it’s a a pretty minor inconvenience.

Every situation is different. But the inconvenience and cost of moving out during remodel made it an easy decision to stay - what’s a few weeks in a lifetime?

I think the dealbreakers are:
- our dog’s health
- removing walls
- demolishing existing tile flooring throughout home
- changing drywall from textured to flat finish

If our dog were healthy and/or we weren’t doing these things, it would be easier to stay. We don’t have quotes yet so we shall see.

 

[Katsmeow]

I think the dealbreakers are:
- our dog’s health
- removing walls
- demolishing existing tile flooring throughout home
- changing drywall from textured to flat finish

If our dog were healthy and/or we weren’t doing these things, it would be easier to stay. We don’t have quotes yet so we shall see.

We are 4 1/2 months into a major remodel, with about a month to go. We did this with 3 people in the house, one dog, and 4 cats (started out with 5 but one cat died during all this -- not due to the remodel, it was a very quick aggressive cancer).

About your dog, it would be less expensive for the dog to move out for the duration rather than you move out. Most veterinarians that I have had have offered boarding. So, in this situation you might consider boarding your dog. You could even board him on week days when construction was occurring and then move him back on the weekends.

Anyway, so lot's to say. We have stayed in the house for the duration. Before we started we said that if it became unbearable we would go get a nearby AirBnB. Our real estate agent had commented to me that she had moved into an AirBnB house nearby while she was having her house painted.

Anyway, it has been difficult but I am glad we did it this way and didn't spend the money to move out.

What we did/are doing:

1. Completely gutted our master bathroom and redid a totally new design.

2. Revamped several closets. We reconfigured some and added one to the master bedroom.

3. Doubled the size of our kitchen pantry.

4. Removed a wet bar in our family room (being used as my office) and added that space and some storage space from the garage to the utility room. This more than tripled the size of the utility room.

5. Upgraded our electrical panel and put in a hybrid hot water heater

6. Replaced the 18 year old HVAC with a new heat pump

7. Completed removed a massive brick fireplace and chimney. This is the current project. The remaining part is to enclose our covered patio and make it indoor space (this involves not just building a wall, but raising the floor, removing siding on the patio to put in sheetrock, added HVAC to the new enclosed area. We are also removing what were the windows in our living room and making them French doors going into the new sunroom (the enclosed patio).

8. Oh - yes - we removed a window in our bedroom to put a door in that goes to the patio. We were tried of having to traipse through the entire house dripping when we came in from the pool.

9. Minor remodels of the half bath and guest bath. Half bath we are changing a pedestal sink to a vessel sink on a cabinet. Also putting in new hardware and lighting. But, we are keeping the existing flooring and toilet (toilet is only a year old). In the guest bath we are replacing the cultured marble countertop with granite and a new sink and getting new hardware except in the tub as we aren't changing out the tile around the tub. Keeping existing toilet and cabinets. This work is in process right now.

So -- this has been a massive project. One thing that made it difficult is that we had no open guest room to use. We have one but our son is occupying it right now. While they were doing the master bath we couldn't sleep in the master bedroom. DH slept on the loveseat in his office (with the dog). I slept in a recliner, mostly in our exercise room with the cats.

I am not a morning person. So this past Friday when they were taking down the brick fireplace early in the morning, it definitely woke me up. But, I got used to it. I use the computer a lot and those noise cancelling headphones came in handy.

The dust has been huge. The big things causing the dust were when they were moving our plumbing in the concrete in the bathroom and when they were doing demo work in the bathroom and the utility room. Oh -- also when the brick fireplace came down. We covered the living room furniture with plastic but there is dust everywhere.

We are now able to use our bedroom and the new bathroom and the new utility room and pantry. We bought our house last year and it was very storage challenged. We have really tried to improve the storage situation. We are using a lot of the expanded utility room space for storage. We had Elfa put in the master closet, DH's office closet and the new pantry. It has helped a lot.

It has all been very difficult. There were weeks that we ate out almost every day. We want someone there all the time so it makes it hard for DH and I to get stuff done. But, we have caught so many things early on by being here. I would be nervous to move out and not be here everyday seeing the work done.

The big dust things in what you would do are the removing of tile (huge creator of dust) and the re-texturizing. Moving walls is actually not that big a deal in terms of dust in my experience. Friday morning in my living room I had a massive brick fireplace with a large brick hearth (the chimney had already been removed). By the end of the day, the fireplace was gone, the huge hole in the wall and been framed and sheetrock put up to close the hole.

Anyway - if you decide to stay research where you might go if it gets to be too much for you. Given your dog's health problems though I would probably board him during the most difficult parts of this.

They talk about spending $10-20K on a bathroom, and I'm appalled. The components in bathrooms are just not that expensive--tubs, toilets and fixtures. And since square footage is so little, there's very little money spent on ceramic tile and flooring.

I spent about $11,000 on the tile for the master bath. That is about $5400 for the tile itself and the rest for the labor involved. Granted I had a lot of tile as there is no tub but there is an 8' long shower with a tiled bench. And, of course, floor tile. The tiles we used weren't the cheapest but were far, far from the most expensive.


Cabinets - $5400. We had a lot of cabinetry. DH has a vanity. I have a long vanity with a seated area. We have 3 large floor to ceiling cabinets.

Plumbing - about $4300. We kept our toilet in its existing location so as to not have cost to move it. We did create our shower in an area that didn't have plumbing lines so that was expensive to move lines there. My vanity is in the same area where we had a vanity previously. DH's vanity was in the area where the old shower was so not much moving of lines there.

Shower glass - About $2100. We have a long frameless shower. The glass is expensive.

Paint, TBT - about $5600. We moved the door to the room. Much of the ceiling had to be replaced. We had a lot of new sheetrock in the room. All of those cabinets needed to be painted. We put in a light hand trowel texture.

Electrical - about $2500 -- We had lots of new lighting and outlets

Doors - about $650 - pocket door to toilet room, new doors to bathroom

Mirrors - about $850 - Standoff mirrors for the two vanities

Carpentry work -- about $11000 - this includes demo, framing (we demolished two closets in the bathroom and built a new toilet room when there had not been one before), sheetrock, baseboards, installing all the hardware

Quartz countertops for the two vanities along with sinks - almost $3200

Bathroom hardware - about $6300 - two faucets, 2 vanity lights, toilet paper holder, hand towel rings, robe hooks, Toto washlet seat, full length mirror for toilet room, drawer and door hardware, hinges for doors, rainhead shower head, hand shower, grab bar

Before we bought everything I went back and priced all of the tile and hardware using cheaper materials. I could have saved several thousand dollars doing that. I could have probably have halved the cost of the tile and the bathroom hardware if I just looked for the cheapest alternatives. Also, if I just didn't do things like have a rainhead shower head and just put in a regular shower hear. Or I didn't put in the outlet for the Toto washlet and just got a regular toilet seat.

If I had kept more of the original footprint of the bathroom, I could have probably saved another $10k. But -- we gutted the bathroom because it was non-functional for us. I was very big on having a functional bathroom that worked for us. And, I love it. It has been worth every penny. I will try to gather some of my pics and post a before and after.

But -- it was very expensive. When I first started getting quotes I was shocked at how much it was going to cost to redo this. The minimum was $25k if I used the cheapest materials and basically didn't change the existing layout (a waste of $25k).

 

[Teacher Terry]

Dogs with CHF on 4 medications have a likely life expectancy of between 6-18 months so putting the dog in boarding is a horrible idea for a long period of time. If the dog survived it would be extremely neurotic after enduring that trauma. We have lived through minor renovations but when we bought a house that needed the work you are talking about we didn’t move in until it was done.

 

[ponyboy]

What I've never understood is why it takes so long to do remodels. If a house can be framed and the roof put on in 1 week, why would it take months to do remodels even if they're including baths and a kitchen.

Because its much easier starting from scratch. With a remodel, you're correcting other issues left over from the previous ordeal. Not to mention, with kitchens, you have to coordinate a lot of contractors. Someone to gut it, electrician, plumber, someone to hang drywall and mud. Someone to paint. Then the technical stuff comes in, hanging cabinets. Someone to lay the flooring. Ton of moving parts. Yes, some of these items can be done by handymen who can do more than one thing, that may save a little time.

Most people have no idea how much is involved...especially those who do not get their hands dirty. They just think everything should be done in a week or two. My inlaws fall into that category. They're just clueless on what it takes to do a "simple" remodel of a room/bathroom.

 

[ponyboy]

Thanks for all the responses. Our house is 2,600 sq ft but all one level. The contractors we’ve met with have all recommended moving out, partly because of dust and partly because of noise.

Make no mistake, dust is going to go all over your house and will cover everything. This is by far the worst part imo. You can remodel a small room and have the door on it, throw a towel at the bottom to "seal" it off, and dust will still make its way to a couple rooms that are closest to it.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Because its much easier starting from scratch. With a remodel, you're correcting other issues left over from the previous ordeal. Not to mention, with kitchens, you have to coordinate a lot of contractors. Someone to gut it, electrician, plumber, someone to hang drywall and mud. Someone to paint. Then the technical stuff comes in, hanging cabinets. Someone to lay the flooring. Ton of moving parts. Yes, some of these items can be done by handymen who can do more than one thing, that may save a little time.

Most people have no idea how much is involved...especially those who do not get their hands dirty. They just think everything should be done in a week or two. My inlaws fall into that category. They're just clueless on what it takes to do a "simple" remodel of a room/bathroom.

our first kitchen remodel we had to have a water heater moved from a kitchen closet into the attic - what a PITA

 

[always_learning]

Make no mistake, dust is going to go all over your house and will cover everything. This is by far the worst part imo. You can remodel a small room and have the door on it, throw a towel at the bottom to "seal" it off, and dust will still make its way to a couple rooms that are closest to it.

This. A friend had her walk-out basement's hardwood floors sanded and stained and even though there was a real door leading to the upstairs that was kept closed and sealed off from both sides, she was still cleaning that dust from her entire house.

I survived a 'two week' repair that became a six week ordeal and it was so bad that if I never had to have people in my home to repair anything ever again, it would be too soon. I'm feeling my anxiety level climb just reading what some of you have had done to your homes.

In all seriousness, OP, with everything you're wanting to have done, I would vacate the premises but go over every day to check on things.

 

[gerntz]

We lived thru Option 2/3. DW thought it was great - we ate out a lot.

 

[Scuba]

This. A friend had her walk-out basement's hardwood floors sanded and stained and even though there was a real door leading to the upstairs that was kept closed and sealed off from both sides, she was still cleaning that dust from her entire house.

I survived a 'two week' repair that became a six week ordeal and it was so bad that if I never had to have people in my home to repair anything ever again, it would be too soon. I'm feeling my anxiety level climb just reading what some of you have had done to your homes.

In all seriousness, OP, with everything you're wanting to have done, I would vacate the premises but go over every day to check on things.

I think moving out makes the most sense for us. We wouldn’t consider boarding our dog given his health issues and likely remaining lifespan. And we wouldn’t want to live with all the dust and mess. If we had no other option I suppose we’d find a way to deal with it, but we can afford to rent another place nearby and I think that will work best for us. I admire those if you who can put up with the hardships though!

 

[Badger]

We have done all 3 while living in the house. Total gut and remodel of kitchen and one bathroom including rewiring, 2 additions, tiled all floors except for the hardwood, repainted inside and out, installed fans in 5 rooms, etc. I did all the work although they were done over a long period of time.


Many projects took a couple of months or more and my wife was pretty understanding about them.
I don't have a background in construction but I can read and ask questions. Everything has been done to standards as good or better than a contractor and I saved a boat-load of money and have the satisfaction of learning new skills and knowing if things got really bad I could provide shelter. Gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Went from a house needing a great deal of work with 1465 sq ft to 2000 sq ft.


But you need a supportive spouse who has confidence in you, understands the large financial payout in the future and has been consulted on choices of layouts, design, fixtures, tile, paint, etc.


I really got lucky when my wife chose to marry me. Without her support this would never have happened.



Cheers!

 

[Scuba]

We have done all 3 while living in the house. Total gut and remodel of kitchen and one bathroom including rewiring, 2 additions, tiled all floors except for the hardwood, repainted inside and out, installed fans in 5 rooms, etc. I did all the work although they were done over a long period of time.


Many projects took a couple of months or more and my wife was pretty understanding about them.
I don't have a background in construction but I can read and ask questions. Everything has been done to standards as good or better than a contractor and I saved a boat-load of money and have the satisfaction of learning new skills and knowing if things got really bad I could provide shelter. Gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Went from a house needing a great deal of work with 1465 sq ft to 2000 sq ft.


But you need a supportive spouse who has confidence in you, understands the large financial payout in the future and has been consulted on choices of layouts, design, fixtures, tile, paint, etc.


I really got lucky when my wife chose to marry me. Without her support this would never have happened.



Cheers!

Wow, that’s amazing, well done! Neither DH nor I has the skill or desire to take that on, but more power to those who do!

 

[Badger]

Wow, that’s amazing, well done! Neither DH nor I has the skill or desire to take that on, but more power to those who do!

You might be surprised at how well you could do. When I started out I had to learn how to use a hammer and screw driver.

The worst that could happen when attempting a repair is that you have to call a repair man/women. But that is what you would have had to do anyway. Although when I first started there was no internet so I read a lot of books. The library was my friend. But now there is lots of information on the internet and youtube to help you.


Cheers!

 

[FIREd]

I just completed an "option 3" remodel before moving into my new place. Had I been living here already, I would not have done the remodel without first moving out.

Two years ago, I did live through what you describe as an "option 2" remodel without moving out. It was easy enough for me to bear. I did the remodel in stages to minimize the nuisance - always keeping at least one part of the house in a livable state.

 

[meleana]

Our first house was a handyman special and our second home was recently remodeled over a 5 year period and we always lived in both homes as the work was done by either us or contractors.


Really the worse is the kitchen but it can be done if you are organized and set up a makeshift kitchen on another room with just basics and using the microwave to heat stuff up and/or frozen meals.

 

[Canoeboy]

We are currently living A 2 phase option 3, while living in the house. Expect phase 1 to wrap up by Christmas.

We bought our early 70’s 1200 sf ranch because of the location, not for the house, as it’s on a small freshwater lake in the Middle Peninsula of coastal Virginia. Total gut down to the studs for conversion into a 2100 sf walkout (lake side). New roof, Doors, windows, flooring, kitchen, baths, Retaining walls, along with all new systems: electric, plumbing, HVAC, etc. Reused parts of foundation, framing, well and septic - not much more. Phase 1 is heavy on Replacing all the systems, creating walkout (Excavation and retaining walls), 66’ x 12’ Deck, standing seam metal roof, Converting unfinished basement into fully finished spaces (full bath, family room, bedroom, office/bedroom, storage room, utility room). When phase 1 is complete we plan to move into the finished basement, the start phase 2 (main floor gut and rebuild).

Our plan is not for everyone. We have a great general contractor and are pretty adaptable to go with the flow. Some days, like today, can be overwhelming as we had about 16 workers onsite: inside, on top, underneath and just outside our living space - roofing, decking, HVAC all going on.

We like being onsite to deal with any issues, answer questions and view the work as it’s done. If we had started at the start of the Summer we would have moved into the camper and attacked both basement and main floor at the same time.

We considered lesser and/or slower projects before we jumped in, but decided on total gut because:
- my history of finishing home remodeling (3 homes) just in time to sell the house after a decade or so of ongoing projects.
- our desire to do more than home projects during Many years of early retirement.
- our desire to make the house exactly what we want - no plans to move (not a flip).
- the house had potential within its original footprint
- only minor renovations since it was built in 1972 - time for a complete rebuild.

Best of luck on making a decision.

 

[Bamaman]

And to think I'm complaining about our recent move. Major renovations are difficult on the nerves, and they can really take a toll on personal relationships--making decisions everyone agrees on. It's even worse trying to live in a construction zone.

While I've built a 1,800 square foot lake house from scratch, rebuilding bathrooms and laying tile and hardwood flooring has almost become a hobby. My wife's hobby (when bored) has been looking for homes that can be purchased for an advantageous price (cheap.)

We're in the process of moving our furniture into our new to us 3900 square foot home. We're saving the cost of a private school and substantially less utilities moving from a 5 bedroom 5 bath house with 5200 square feet and 4 car garages. Thankfully we have no Alabama property taxes due to my wife being disabled. But we simply have too much fine furniture after the relatives started dying off. Now, I've got to figure out how to move an 800 pound hot tub and its electrical system and reinstall it all.

Now that we're of real retirement age, we're going to slow down and stop all the house projects and especially moving. We're going into body saving mode--no more heavy lifting. We're wanting to save our bodies for the next 25 years, and we still have a few more places in Eastern Europe to visit.

Good luck to all that are making changes to your homes. Hopefully you can promptly get life back to normal.