Would you live in the mess of a Remodel?

Always have a tidy room where life seems normal. You can go there to recover from the confusion everywhere else.

This is good advice. As for me, id be grateful for the opportunity.

We live in a house that we are building ourselves, have been here for 4 years and have a long way to go. Some days I feel and as it cannot ever truly be cleaned, but I have to keep my eyes on the prize...we don't have a mortgage and will own a nice home outright in a few more short years.

And we totally understand what another poster said about having people over...we do have a few select friends who seem to "get" it or at least don't mind...but I think for the most part most people think we're wacky

Living in one here now. If you could do one room at a time and not have to live on that room it's not too bad. But when you are using every room stuff is all too easy to just leave, especially when incomes get cut and materials get expensive. Right now we are waiting for spring so we can get back to work on ds's house, get him out of ours, then work on what is currently his bedroom. And we have the bathroom remodel, totally unexpected when we bought this house, but required because of the sewer system. And we still need to replace the paneling in the livingroom which had to wait until we could rewire one circuit, but that had to be postponed until we had a person sized opening going to the attic where the wires run. Lots of little problems and wear and tear had to be fixed along the way too. And the drainage problem which causes water to run across the basement floor, looks like the beginnings of a moat in my front yard. Sometimes I doubt it will ever be done.

Took us 5 years of remodelling. 1870 farm house most would have said not habitable. Went 2 weeks with no running water in the house. 1 week wth no bathroom, floors were removed to fix the joist. We did have running water in our shop and a bathroom out there.
It is finally done except for 1 spare bedroom.
New wiring, plumbing, new sub floors and flooring, Vaulted the living room ceiling, new kitchen. All new windows and doors. Walls removed for a more open floor paln. All new drywall, etc. Outside was completley redone, new metal roof and vinyl siding.
We did 95% of the work ourselves. A lot of blood sweat and tears but it was worth it when it was all finished.

If it would make it easier financially to get the remodeling completed, then yes, I would live there while I re-modeled.
I would do as mentioned before and try to have a room or two where there is not re-modeling being done so you have a place to relax after all that work.

We started our house fall '87, broke into a couple times. After the 2nd time, moved. It was like camping out. We did 1 bathroom first, then kitchen. We washed dishes in dish pans for a while. You just move your rooms while you're working. The upstairs bath was a closet for a while. We're still not totally finished and have done some great remodels but we don't have a mortgage and pay no rent.

I am. We bought a house at the beginning of December. We knew it would need new carpet. Well, the walls were too ugly (1960's wood paneling that had been painted over umpteen times), the closet doors were mirrored panels and were too likely to be easily broken, the bathroom tub was beyond ugly... so we've been re-doing it all. Covered up the ugly painted-over paneling with sheetrock, primed and wallpapered and wainscoted over that, put in Armstrong ceiling planks over the ugly popcorn ceilings, got new carpet, replaced the tub... it's been a MESS! Now we're waiting to re-do the kitchen (cabinets are old and ugly and cannot be salvaged), but we're taking a break of at least a month!

We paid $79K for this house. Comparable homes in the area (same age, same size) that have been a little more recently updated are going for $20K-$30K more!

Yes, I've done it many times as DH is a remodeler by profession. Like someone said, have a room that you can use to get away to, to eat, sleep, etc. Have water and food and you are in your workplace. Of course you have to be able to make coffee where you are or I would not live there until I could.

Yes. Much more convienent. I have redone five houses and built one (current) from scratch while living in them.

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Awhile ago we bought "vacant" land with a "tear down" on it. We thought we'd tear it down and build a nicer house further up on the lot. But then where we were renting raised the rent and the "tear down" had a working toilet and running water so we figured we'd move in there and fix it up a bit until we got around to building a nicer house out back. Well, that was in '01 and we are still here in the tear down except now it has had everything from the floor decking on down replaced and there's electricity and HOT running water (oh joy!) and I guess we won't be building another house out back. Building new is a LOT easier than renovating but renovating is a lot cheaper when it can be done as cash is available.

Doing with 7 kids - 5 of them 9 and under. Are there days where I'd rather have a root canal without numbing...yep! But most are better. We do not have a dryer, a warm shower, a toilet without sawdust, running water in the kitchen. BUT we do have wires ran to about half the rooms, a bedroom upstairs almost done (dh and I can then move OUT of the laundry room, plumbing will be put to the kitchen before the creepie crawlies come out in a month or so and a warm living room with a wonderful woodstove.

I have always hoped my children would be mission minded - I do believe that this will help!

Would we do it again - well prayfully by next fall we will be adding on a "Dawdi Haus" for my parents. So I guess I can say yes.

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Been doing it for 15 years..... Now repainting the kitchen.
Hubby threatens to put the parental lock on the home improvement channel.

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have lived in our little house while still under major construction, and it depends on you. I remember walking on tar paper (down for the plaster work) that was a mess, having everything we owned stuffed into one little room, and scaffolding taking up the entire space. I often wonder how I managed to cook..lol...but obviously I did. it was winter, and while it was much easier to be living here to do the work, it was by no means pleasant. when it was completed, I did appreciate it all the more tho!!!!! your stone house isn't just a remodel, it's a massive undertaking. not a bad thing, but I honestly wouldn't live there just yet. I'd want the plumbing, water, and at least the bathroom and 2 rooms completed first. it's a longggggg process, and nothing beats having that area to relax in as people have stated.

been doing it for 9 friggin years while I work on this 170 year old house. basically everything down to bare stud walls have been replaced and I've done all the work myself as a single over the hill woman.

NEVER again and I do mean never. or at least not a house that's two small and needs major building to increase space. remodelling as such I probably could have lived with (thank god I live alone).

log house is a great idea, i have been building ours for the past 7 years. We are nearly finished now, been living here for almost a year now. i did camp out here for almost a year once before we were married but she wasnt having any until i had a kitchen and bathroom finished. its a bit unhandy but doing our own work, and living here isnt all bad once a few of the rooms were nearly finished. still going to have a dust mess when we start sanding and finishing the hard wood floors though.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

i am in a current remodel at the moment. the life saver for me has been a laundry room with a slop sink in it and an outdated but functional bathroom. with those 2 rooms i can tear out, reinstall, paint, and clean up daily to make it all bearable.

the plumbing has been completed. all electrical has been updated. a new kitchen framed but without cabinets at the moment. i use an Aero bed which can be moved around easily to any clean space i can find for sleeping that night. my clothes closet is a linen closet.

i am lucky because i have no little ones in the house. its all very doable but like others have mentioned, i think its the dust that gets to me the most. keep the shop vac handy and best of luck to you.

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mama said don't argue with stupid people, its not nice

i have been living with one remodle project or another for years i have a few peices of trim to put up in the bathroom yet but it is done , we showered in the basment Portable stall for about 9 months while i had gutted the bathroom , i never intend to let things take that long but they just do , rewiring the upstairs then insulating better is up next,
then front porch and back porch , then fixing/replacing windows, thenrefinishing the hardwood floors we tore the carpet off 4 1/2 years ago then the kitchen needs redoing

you just learn to live in the part of the house you are not remodleing , having young children makes it more difficult if it was just the 2 of us and not 3 young kids it would be a breeze to live and remodle at the same time.

by the way the saw dust toilet works fine if you are thinking about replacing plumbing , we were without water for 2 days when i replaced every inch of hot and cold water plumbing in the house , hot water took till the next weekend
i have a shower at work , my wife would stop at her parrents to shower on her way to work , it worked out fine.

think of it this way , when my grandparents got their first house 1947 and 60/40 houses where popular thats what theirs was it had 4 outside walls a roof and floor decking a front and back door and i think windows there was water run in but terminated same with electric
my grandma talks about tacking sheets up around the toiilet and tub till proper walls could be built it was a build as you can afford it house.

After the 2004 hurricane season (we got hit by Charlie, Francis, and Jean all within a month) our house needed a major rebuild let alone a remodel. Our house was a 4 bedroom/2 bath 2000 sqft one story, which after the storms was only a 1 bedroom 2 room house.

We lived there for the entire 1.5 yrs it took to complete the repairs moving from one room to another as repairs were being completed.

Would I do it again, probably not but it was an interesting experience.

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Bob D. in FL

"Good decisions are made from knowledge, not from numbers" - Plato

BobCat Acres - blog.bobcatacres.com
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Yes I have and I would do it again. My DH and a contracter worked on the house, along with a number of other subcontraters. The kids were 10 to 2 years old. We rebuilt the foundation and tore down the house to the studs, rebuilt the roof, etc.. I was there to watch everything going on. When something didn't seem right I was there and could call the DH to come home to deal with the problem, Now! It was hell for awhile, when we had no floors in the house and we walked on blanks around the house other than one bed room. The kids would wake up and say there is something under the house. The cats really loved it. I guess what I'm saying is that I was there 24/7 to make sure the contracter and subcontracters were doing a good job. We all so bought a small trailer so I could at least cook dinner, and if we had to sleep in it. The trailer cost about $500.00 We our planning to do it again. And we still have that little trailer.

Yep, I would if it means I'm saving money. I started this house in '02 and did all the building myself. I did hire the flat work but that was all. We had two saw horses and a 3 X 8 piece of ply wood for a kitchen counter and a plywood box with a toilet seat and a 5 gallon bucket under it for one winter that was out in the shed. About every two weeks I had the "burning duty". Since then we have modernized and now have a 3 bed/2 bath berm home with a real septic tank and heat with wood. And my DW put up with my dream God bless her.
I can only say if you dream it and want it to happen come h*ll or highwater it will happen. Because YOU want it to happen.

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