6 Essential Tips to Survive a Live-in Renovation and Enjoy Your New Home

*This is a collaborative post.

Renovations can be a large part of owning a home, but they’re not always simple. You could need to survive a live-in renovation you’re planning for more than a few reasons. While this seems like an overwhelming process, there are more than a few ways to make it easier.

By focusing on the right live-in renovation tips, you shouldn’t have much to worry about during the renovation process itself.

Why Pick a Live-in Renovation?

First, it’s worth looking at why you should have a live-in renovation in the first place. Why bother when you can just live somewhere else while the work’s done? It’ll help you avoid a lot of stress and hassle, after all.

But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few benefits. You could see more than a few of these, like:

1. Saving you money on accommodation and similar costs.
2. Letting you oversee the work being done.
3. Being able to communicate with contractors better.
4. Helping you get hands-on when needed.

These could make it a lot more appealing. But, you’ll need to know how to survive a live-in renovation if you’re going to start on this.

While it’ll be an adjustment, it doesn’t need to be nearly as hard as you’d think. Taking the right steps and focusing on a few renovation tips should be more than enough to help with this moving forward.

Survive a Live-in Renovation: 6 Tips to Help

1. Avoid Winter Renovations

It’s always worth picking the right time for your renovation, and this is especially true for a live-in renovation. The work itself could create multiple holes or gaps in your house, like if contractors need to take down part of an exterior wall. Nobody wants to be dealing with the winter weather when this happens.

Try to go for a spring or summer renovation instead. While that could mean paying a little more to have the work done, it should also avoid you needing to be extremely uncomfortable during the work because of the weather. It might be more than worth the slight bump in price it comes with.

2. Declutter to Protect Belongings

Any kind of major renovation work could be a risk to your furniture and other belongings. It’s easy to see why, as there’ll be quite a few tools, dirt, and other factors that could damage them. You’ll need to put a little effort into protecting your belongings, with this depending on how major your live-in renovation is.

If you’re only renovating one room, for example, you could just move your belongings into the other rooms. For anything larger, though, you could be better off going for a self storage unit. It protects your belongings during the renovation and gives your contractors more space to do their jobs.

3. Manage Dust & Noise

Noise will be one of the more notable issues you’ll have to deal with during the renovation. While you can often escape this when you’re at work, it’ll be a major problem if you work from home. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be too large. Noise-cancelling headphones can be one of your best friends during this time and they’re well worth it.

Then there’s the dust you could have to deal with because of the renovation work. While most of this collects where the work is being done, it can breeze through to the rest of the house, causing more and more of a mess. Spend a little time dealing with this every day, at least in the rooms you’re using most.

4. Escape When Necessary

There could be plenty of times during a renovation where you could feel overwhelmed, and that’s before even mentioning it’s a live-in. You’ll often feel like you can’t get away from the renovation work, which could then affect your stress levels and even your mental health. Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be too large of an issue.

Getting away for a few days is always recommended. If you have the budget for a hotel, booking a short stay or even a weekend could be enough to give you a break. Even on days you stay home, setting up a comfortable outdoor area with a few chairs and some good lighting can give you a retreat away from the chaos. Outdoor fixtures from a website like Coppersmith’s can help you create a relaxing space right in your own garden.
It’ll help you get through the renovation much better, especially when it’s one of the more time-consuming renovations to go for.

5. Keep Some Areas Nice

You’ll already know that your live-in renovation will create a lot of dirt and debris as time goes on. It’s often not worth putting too much time and effort into cleaning this straight away, especially if there’ll be a lot more messy work the following day. Put a little effort into them, but focus your efforts more on keeping specific areas nice.

This lets you have a part of your home that isn’t as messy or as torn apart as the rest of the house, and you can spend as much of your time at home there as possible. This makes sure you’re not in the way of the work while letting you have a relaxing space where you don’t feel too overwhelmed.

6. Try to Stay Positive

It’s natural to feel stressed and a little overwhelmed during your live-in renovation. There’ll be a lot of work going on every day, and you’ll often need to balance this with work and your other obligations. This could wear you down more and more as time goes on. But, this shouldn’t mean letting it get the best of you.

You’re much better off trying to stay as positive as possible during the renovation. Focus on what the end result will be and how much it’ll add to your home and overall lifestyle. This should help you survive your renovation better than you’d think. At least, it’ll stop you from feeling worse and worse during the process.

Summing it Up

It’s difficult to get through and survive a live-in renovation, but it’s a position you could end up finding yourself needing to do. While this can be tricky, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Focusing on the right tips and tricks should be more than enough to help with this.