When it comes to house renovations, It can be difficult for full time working professionals to know exactly when the best time is to undertake the work. Throw a few kids into the mix, along with all the other life obligations and tasks and it may seem like there is never a good time to renovate your home.
I mean, let’s face it! When our lives are super busy, we try and put off doing anything that is not urgent right? But eventually, those non-urgent things become more obvious, more annoying and eventually get to the point where we just can’t overlook it anymore.
Have you ever gotten to that point? Have you ever gotten to that point with your home?
More and more things start to break. rooms become smaller as your family grows. You’ve reached your limit at having to look at daggy 70’s decor! Your home is in desperate need of renovations.
We hear you! And we also hear that almost silent groan of dread at the thought of going through a renovation.
Honestly, there may not be an ideal time to undertake house renovations, especially if you work in a fast-paced professional roll. But with the right builder and the right process, you may find that having a renovation carried out on your home while you work through it may not be the worst thing in the world either.
In fact, we’ve put together our top 5 tips to help you save your sanity while working through a renovation. Check out what they are.
1. Have Realistic Expectations with your House Renovations
Being realistic about expectations is probably one of the best tips we can give you. While we strongly believe that at the end of the renovation, you’ll agree it was worth it and you’ll be so glad to be able to improve your home for your family and for better living, we also acknowledge that the actual process of renovating is not all sunshine and rainbows.
As professional renovation builders, we are going to do our best to minimise disruption while working on your home. However, there is going to be some degree of disruption. And you need to be realistic about this.
There is going to be a lot of dust, equipment and material in your home while work is being carried out and depending on the scale of your renovation there may be times when parts of your home are unusable and inaccessible. Having full knowledge of what is going to take place and when will help you manage both your work and home obligations throughout the process.
Effective communication is one of the best ways to make sure expectations are managed by both yourself and the builders, which leads us to tip number 2.
2. Maintain Good Communication
Communication is absolutely essential for all house renovations and extension projects. Finding yourself a good quality builder who has good communication processes in place is going to make all the difference to the experience you have renovating your home.
But communication is a two-way street and while having a good builder who effectively communicates what is going on is great, it also helps for you to keep the builder in the loop from your end as well.
The more you can tell the builder about your work schedule, your family schedule and any important family dynamics the better. If the builder knows what time you and your family leave each day, what time you’ll be home, what events or activities are planned to take place throughout the renovation, the better they can work to accommodate your needs.
3. Be Organised
Just like communication, organisation is critical for surviving a house renovation with your sanity intact.
If you know the builders are going to be there early in the morning, arrange for breakfast and morning prep to take place before they get there. Or if you know you won’t be able to access parts of the house at any given time, make sure everything you need for work, school, activities etc are out of that space and placed where they are out of the way and easily accessible.
There may also be times throughout your house renovations where power or water may be turned off. The builder will let you know in advance, and it will save a lot of stress on you and your family if you prepare for this and adjust accordingly. This may mean eating out more than you generally would or making arrangements to shower elsewhere for a short period of time.
Anything you can do on your end to be a few steps ahead in planning throughout the renovation is going to make the process much less stressful.
4. Be Adaptable and Flexible
On the whole, you may find that your house renovations are not as disruptive to your lifestyle as you originally thought. Or you could find that they are exactly how you imagined and you struggle with the disruption.
In our experience, we have found that the clients that seem to breeze through a renovation without too much stress are the ones that are more adaptable and flexible to change.
While we, as builders, will do our absolute best to keep your project on schedule, keep you in the loop as to the progress and minimise the noise, mess and disruption to your lives, there are times when schedules change, problems arise and things don’t exactly go to plan.
It is during these times when both you and the builder have to work together as a team to simply get through it. And being adaptable and flexible during these times is going to help you get through it more quickly and with much less stress.
5. Remind Yourself Your House Renovations Won’t Last Forever
Our final tip is to remind yourself that your home renovations will not last forever. It may not seem like they are going on forever, especially when you are in the thick of it, but it really is only a very short period of time in the grand scheme of things. And while renovations can be disruptive, especially for working professionals, the long term rewards of a beautifully renovated home can far outweigh the short-term disruption.
Working through House Renovations is Possible and Can Be Stress-Free
At the end of the day, only you will know what level of disruption you can handle in your life. If you are a flexible person by nature and inclined to go with the flow then remaining in your home and working full time during home renovations and extension may not be a big deal to you.
On the other hand, if you like order and structure and your occupation is simply not compatible with a home renovation, then it may be more beneficial for you to seek out temporary accommodation while your house is being upgraded.
The best bet is to speak to the builder and be open and upfront about your fears and concerns about your renovation and share with them your expectations and how you imagine the renovation to take place.
The builder in turn will give you a run down and what their processes are and what the possible scenarios are for your project. They will also advise you on their recommendations on both living in the home and working throughout the renovation or opting to move out until the work is complete
If you want to talk about your renovation plans and any concerns you have about working while renovating, give us a call today and we can walk you through the process of home renovations and help you determine the best plan of attack for you and your family
