You decided to remodel your home and want to stay at your residence during the construction. But how exactly should you prepare for the experience?
First, you will need to check with your contractor about the ability to continue living within your home while the company is working. If you are remodeling a large portion of your home, this will not be feasible. But, staying in your home is possible for less intrusive or incremental remodeling.
This article was written for homeowners endeavoring a less intrusive scope of work or incremental remodel.
Okay, now for our three home remodeling prep steps!
#1 Ask your remodeling company for their on-site practices
Your contractor should review their on-site practices with you before your start date. There should be a plan of action and system that is followed so that both of you are on the same page and you can know what to expect. We firmly believe that a homeowner should not feel like a visitor in their own home, so clarity of the plans is of the highest importance.
You should know the company's start and end times, how they prep the area they are working on, what they do to keep the work area clean if they work on weekends or just on weekdays, if they play music, if they smoke, how often and which trades and employees will be coming through your home, who will have keys or lock codes, and the days of most inconvenience (i.e., water or electricity temporarily being shut off).
For example, we hang plastic along the project boundaries and use a negative airflow system to contain as much dust as possible. You will hear an air scrubber and fans running as they clean and push the air out of open windows or recirculate during winter months. Carpet mask, Rosen paper, and cardboard of differing degrees are laid on top of flooring that is not being demoed. And no codes are shared with any trades or employees without express written consent from the homeowner. Plus a lot more, but you get the picture.
You should also discuss any specific needs your family has so that arrangements and a plan of action can be made together with your contractor. Open communication is always the best.
#2 Make arrangements for when the kitchen or bathrooms are out of service.
No matter what, your routine will be interrupted, and it's good to be prepared as best as possible.
If you plan to stay at home during your kitchen remodel, you can set up your fridge and a table with a toaster oven, microwave, slow cooker, air fryer, and electric skillet in your garage or another room in your home. During the warm-weather months, you can use your grill as well.
You might plan to eat out a little more often, especially toward the end, and can plan to budget ahead of time.
Having your routine interrupted for any length of time can affect us more than we might realize. So, planning to take extra care of yourself and your family during extended times of interruption is a good idea to prepare for.
If your home has one bathroom or you are remodeling multiple bathrooms at one time, staying home the entire time can get a little more tricky. You might need to plan at least one night where you stay at a hotel or with a friend or family member.
The water and electricity will need to be shut off periodically to the bathroom as the plumbers, electricians, and contractor work. This is where a one-bathroom home is not conducive to remaining in the home all day.
Because of the saturation of building in the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene areas, we occasionally run into inspection delays due to building departments becoming overwhelmed during peak building season. So, this is something to consider if you are building from spring to fall. (Wintertime is always a great time to plan a home remodel.)
Your contractor will be able to tell you if you should make arrangements, how long your bathroom will be out of service, and if your washer and dryer will be affected by the plumbing and electrical shut-offs.
#3 Clean out the project areas.
Before your contractor and their team arrives, you have some homework.
If you haven't been through your cabinets and closets in a while, you probably already have an inkling that there is some sorting ahead of you … and that you might have acquired a few more things than you remember.
So, depending on your home's storage availability and personal preference, renting a storage unit or pod to store your belongings might be an option worth considering.
You will need to empty the cabinets and closets within the remodeling area. It's a good idea to get a few boxes for your dishes, small appliances, toiletries, and linens, so they don't get lost or damaged. You might also want to have an extra box on hand for donating items you no longer want.
Regarding the furniture outside your project area but within the pathway through your home, we recommend moving it out of the way, covering it with a sheet, or removing and storing it.
Planning for a home remodel can seem intimidating, but with communication and planning, it can be an endurable experience.
We like to give our homeowners a check list of the things they should do before their start date, as well as a timeline of the process. But, the three steps we covered are pretty universal to preparing for living through a home remodel.
If you're still at the beginning of your bathroom remodeling planning and not quite ready to contact a prequalified company, we recommend walking through Home Depot, Lowe's, or ProSource to gather ideas on material pricing.
It's also very helpful to create an idea board on Pinterest. Make notes about the elements that drew you to the photographs you saved, and pretty soon, you'll start to see a trend in style.
Continue reading and researching home remodeling. Follow prequalified companies on their social media platforms, email lists, and blogs to get to know them. I highly recommend this as it's helpful to get to know the people you're considering working with, and you can always unfollow and unsubscribe.
If you have a specific question that you're not finding the answer to, message the company on social media or send an email stating that you are in your research phase and would appreciate a response to a question you have.
And if you're in the Coeur d'Alene-Spokane area, we would be happy to answer your questions. We are working hard to grow the ways we educate homeowners about what we've learned and continue to learn through our 20 years in construction.
We know it takes planning to decide when it's right for your family to begin a home remodel, and we fully support responsible homeowners!
Thank you for reading our article. We hope you found it helpful!
