How much work/stress is a major home renovation?
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Anonymous
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DH and I are considering a major home renovation to accommodate our growing family. But we are not sure we have the bandwidth to take on this project in addition to our jobs and kids.
Basics: Two FT working parents and two young kids in a 3 bedroom, 1500 sq foot home. No separate office (one of us works from home) or guestroom (we have semi-regular visitors, will probably be more regular as parents age), but our finished basement has served ok for both purposes. We don’t have an urgent pressing need for more space, but it has been feeling real tight ever since kid #2 arrived and feels like we could really benefit from more space as the kids get older, want more privacy, room to hang with friends, and if we both end up working from home. We are considering a major addition to add a guestroom/office, a family room, and a mudroom (we have no real entryway), and have already vetted an architect to work with. We have the budget to do it. We’d move out for construction (which we're told could take anywhere from 8-10 months, aka probably a year??). But…we are now getting cold feet, mostly because the idea of taking on *anything* major and stressful on top of our jobs and the kids seems like guaranteed misery. And we’ve heard all the horror stories from friends and neighbors about horrendous contractors, projects running majorly over budget and over time, etc etc etc. Then again, we know it will never be a “good time” to take this on, and maybe we should just rip off the bandaid while the kids are still young. 1) What are the most time-consuming and stressful parts of dealing with a major renovation, from a homeowner's perspective? Should we basically be thinking of it as a part-time job/gig that will need constant attention and time, alongside the rest of our lives? Should we expect to sacrifice major work/family time? 2) Should we renovate now? Wait until the kids are older, and we are busting out the seams/truly desperate to do it? Or make do with the space we have (declutter, reorganize, etc), knowing that Americans are overly obsessed with having huge homes? |
Anonymous
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It'll be a pain no matter what, but in most cases, the end results are worth it.
We went through ours when the kids were 2 and 5, both working full time. There's no ideal age. In general, I'd say do it sooner rather than later to get it over with and to enjoy the new space longer. We did not move out for 99% of the reno. It's really unpleasant at times, but the plus side is that we're on site everyday and can monitor progress and check for issues. Expect re-dos. We've caught some significant issues before the drywalls were put back in, so that's fortunate. When you're living offsite, make sure you check on the house every day. |
Anonymous
| It’s like pulling off a bandaid. It’s awful going through it, but when it is finished the stress from the construction becomes a distant memory. When I was debating about moving forward with a medium scale addition/ Reno, my thinking was that it makes sense to do it while the kids are young so there are more years for the family to enjoy it together. My kids were 8 at the time and are 14 now. They’ll be out of the house in 3 years and I’m so glad we improved our house when we did. We lived in the house during construction with a temporary kitchen for 6 months which was awful but totally worth it in the end. |
Anonymous
| I would move to a new home that meets your requirements. |
Anonymous
| It’s a pain in the ass. Contractor comes to you more often that you’d like asking to cut them a check for this for that |
Anonymous
| Do NOT live in a construction site. You will lose your mind and become the worst version of yourself. Trust me, I've been there. |
Anonymous
| Do NOT live in a construction site. You will lose your mind and become the worst version of yourself. Trust me, I've been there. |
Anonymous
Similar experience here although kids were middle school age. The time depends how much you outsource decisions, and how picky you are. Our architect was very good and the basic design process went smoothly but we still had to make a lot of decisions on finishes, tile, paint colors, light fixtures, bath and other hardware, etc. This required going to tile stores and other places to pick things. The kitchen was challenging but we used a separate designer at a kitchen showroom for that and she made a lot of the decisions for us, plus most of the things we had to decide on were right in the showroom. Plus we already had a good idea of what appliances we wanted. Some parts of that were fun if you like that part of the process. Living through the renovation wasn't ideal, but it saved a lot of money. And PP is right that being there helps to pick up issues right away. Even with meticulous plans, there were always things that were problems - like the tile contractor laid out the bathroom marble in a random way that was jarring. |
Anonymous
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We were in the same boat as OP when we did our reno and addition. We lived at home when the groundworks were being done for the addition, but moved out (for 6 months) when they were ready to "break through" and start the reno in the existing house. We didn't have a choice as it was a down to the studs renovation with many interior walls moving, all new electrical/plumbing, etc.
It was effectively a part time job keeping an eye on things, but totally worth it and good to have a larger family home when the kids are actually living here - we moved back in when they were 4 & 2. If you're house is older, any serious renovation is going to disturb lead paint. I wouldn't want my kids around the site until it was cleaned up and repainted. |
Anonymous
| I think it depends on your personality (i.e. how you handle the inevitable frustrations of projects like these) and how lucky you get with your contractor (i.e. a project is sometimes quick, sometimes cheap, and sometimes high quality, but rarely all three). We paid for what we thought was a straightforward basement finishing project. It ended up being reasonable pricewise and good quality, but was so slow that it drove us crazy. The contractor estimated it would take no more than 3 months and it ended up taking a year and an a half. There were times during that when i became despondent at the lack of progress and unsure if it would ever end, and became resentful every time friends would ask "how's your basement coming?" But I freely admit that I am the type of person who doesn't deal well with situations that are unpredictable or that can't always be controlled. Now that it's done, we are very happy with the results, but I am only now starting to recover from from the stress of it all. I think it was worth it, but doubt that I would ever recommend our contractor to anyone else. |
Anonymous
What made it so bad? We can handle "annoying"/"a pain in the neck" level of inconvenience, but don't want to be miserable. (New poster here, planning on staying in the house during an addition.) |
Anonymous
| We once did a major renovation that included a new kitchen, expanded family room and dining area and two expanded bedrooms. We did not move out and our younger daughter had her bed in our room which wasn’t convenient but we managed haha! We started in late May and we converted our laundry into a mini kitchen with a BBQ grill close by. We ate out a lot and made very good use of our underused dining and living rooms. It wasn’t ideal but we survived without any fights. The project was done by Thanksgiving. |
Anonymous
| People live in tiny homes nowadays. People are environmentally conscious. Just scale down everyone’s belongings. We all have way too many things. |
Anonymous
| Just move. Easier than divorce and ends up cheaper than reno. |
Anonymous
That is complete nonsense. GENZ just can’t afford to buy the homes they want. |