April 7, 2023
Home Renovation – What It Feels Like To Live On-Site
If you really have decided to stay on-site while renovating your home then kudos to you..! It is the first right step towards gaining a successful remodeling outcome. It’s also important for you to know, what can you expect during this period? It is not going to be easy but after work will be finished, you will look back and say to yourself, it was worth it.
Staying on-site will not only help you save money but also secure your house from potential losses. You’ll always be there to answer any builder’s queries and handle any confusion regarding the activities yourself. Eliminating the chance of any error because of miscommunication between parties. Plus, you will get the most personalized final outcome possible.
With all its benefits, there are some hardships as well. It’s better to understand them to get yourself mentally prepared. You may have heard people talking about the ugly and the bad of remodeling projects, but let me tell you there is nothing like experiencing yourself.
If you’re still deciding whether to stay or shift somewhere else, read this guide on how to prepare yourself and your home for renovation. If you’ve already taken the decision to stay on site then we are going to discuss some experiences which will help you survive the ugly, stop the bad, and embrace the good about a remodeling project.
Say Goodbye To Daily Schedule:
It may sound a little disturbing but it’s going to be the reality. Say goodbye to the peaceful morning routines where you like to check your emails with a cup of brewed coffee. Now, your breakfast will be under the wildness of construction work. Contractors like to do noisy and messy work near the job, so you may have to create an additional zone for all the wilderness of remodeling. Ask your contractors to do the messy work in that zone. Make sure that the zone is little away from bedrooms or the kitchen to avoid loud hammering noises.
Plus, it will take to adapt to new habits. Firstly, you will feel headaches or frustration but eventually, you’ll fall in love with the sound of the much-needed transition of your beautiful home. You have to adapt to the situation, like, get breakfast on the way to work. Something like this, I hope you understand the point.
It Gets Dusty. Like Really Dusty:
You may have planned to keep the dust barriers and broom around every corner and wipe out all the dust. Still, it will not be under control. As soon as you wipe the surfaces, you’ll notice there will be dust again. Finally, you will leave it until the end. We don’t recommend total defeat but keep reasonable precautions. Else, you cannot do much about it.
Some construction work gets very dusty like tearing apart flooring or existing walls. Dust floats through the air. It will travel through the air to other parts of the house as well. You’ll find dust in the corners you would not even have imagined. The worst thing about it is, the dust we inhale mostly consists of dirt and dead body cells. It keeps settling on kitchen countertops, bedrooms, and in our lungs. So it’s necessary to take precautions although the situation seems out of hand.
Some things you can do is to keep certain doors closed which opens toward the remodeling area. Also, you can talk with the contractor and ask him to use air scrubbers because air scrubbers with traditional cleaning will be the most effective method to follow. Some contractors take care of these kinds of situations themselves but sometimes it becomes hard to keep the environment clean before the work is finished.
Be Prepared For A Emotional RollerCoster Ride:
Imagine, a bunch of strangers coming to your house and start tearing down your house. This image may seem a little hyped but that’s exactly how a remodeling project will feel like. It will be stressful. Period. Now, it depends upon the person how he manages this stress. Your home renovation project will be an emotional rollercoaster ride, mixed with joy and fear. It’s just the way it is, you’ve to just deal with it.
Another stressful thing will be, you will have to be a decisive person at every moment to keep the project flowing. Either, it’s little change in layout plans or going with different light fixtures you have to take decisions immediately to avoid delay in activities. Your supervision responsibilities will demand from yourself the well-being of your house while ending the project on time. You may have been shaken by this information but it’s not really bad at all. Yes, stress and frustration will be a part of it but you just need to manage these emotions for the desired satisfying end outcome.
You Will Have To Wear Multiple Hats:
Living on-site meaning, wearing multiple hats at the same time. You’ll be a safety inspector, project-manager, and chief of a health office. You’ll have to keep logs of all the details i.e. materials, labor hours, activities, and supplies tracking, etc.
It’ll be best to keep track of activities yourself, like what differed from original plans, how much more material was required, or what was your decision on an unexpected issue. All of them should be in your log to keep you informed all the time. This will help you to make better decisions in the future and avoid fraudulent activities from activities by contractors if any. It would be better to say, consider yourself as project manager of your remodeling project by jotting down all the timetables, payment plans, and delivery schedules.
Managing projects does not only mean to track records. It also means to be aware of the well-being of people working or affected by that project. Accidents are not entirely under human control, but they can be avoided most of the time by considering some basic precautions. Especially, if you have children then you should always have an open eye to keep them away from the working zone.
Communicate to your family about wearing hard hats while going near the zones where remodeling work is being carried out. Your family needs to take precautions against dust as well to avoid any potential skin disease.
Things Will Make No Sense Especially at Start:
Nothing will make sense, especially at the start. Your children will take everything as it is for play. Even if it is a pile of dust, of heavy machinery in the house. They will find a way to make it a playground. It is best to aim for an extra room where your children can play without enduring any hazardous situation.
Navigation around your house will be hard. You may have to climb semi-constructed walls, stack of fixtures or pile of material to access things from time to time. So keep your spiderman spirits high. Good contractors tend to use an extra room as a storage facility. Plus, keeping everything in one place will stop you from buying things twice.
Call it a stereotype but builders, and contractors tend to drink more coffee, tea or a bottle of beer. Consider C their addiction. So it is cost and time-efficient that you invest in tea bags or boxes of beer to keep them entertaining. You may consider it a waste of money and time but you will actually find going your project in the right direction with smooth speed.
Everything will not go as planned. Most of the activities will get delayed without any obvious reasons so keep yourself calm in this time of uncertainty. One major problem while living on-site is, contractors may have to plan their activities around your temporary living space which can result in slower progress. However, you’ll save money by not paying rent in second place.
It Will Be Worth It:
Okay, you may have throttled up by reading everything we explained before. Don’t worry, there is always light at the end of the tunnel as scary as it may seem. You will feel the joy and satisfaction whenever an element of your project will come to life. You’ll be the best-informed person of the entire project, having all the details why it is there, how it was built, what kind of planning went into it, and what things you had to modify to achieve the desired outcome. It will actually feel like your own house. You’ll already be mentally prepared to fix any maintenance issue or modify the design flaw if there is any.
When those shiny countertops will get installed and that feature wall exactly makes the whole ambiance of the room, your jaws will drop. It will sound like this “Ah” filled with joy and empathy. You’ll feel proud of yourself how you were able to manage to cope with all the stress, uncertainty, and chaos. It may give you new hope and self-respect as well. So let’s conclude this by establishing, yes it will get dirty and chaotic but it will be worth it just like at the end of a dark tunnel. Hell! You may think to start another remodeling project again.
