Living in a home being remodeled

[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.