The wisdom of starting major house renovations and moving three into same room, when expecting number 4!

[MoshiMoshi]

We have delayed necessary renovations to our house for a while now and, as these things always happen, are now in a situation where we may be able to start major renovation work to our house around the same time as number 4 arrives. We are not keen to further delay work in case we can't then get started. In my experience there is never a good time for these things! We would move the three kids into one large room to share and put the baby in with us when it arrives. The builders have said they can build a makeshift kitchen complete with appliances, sink and stove top in the rear reception room.

I have renovated before - the last time was when DC2 arrived a week after we moved in and we then lived with 9 builders for several more weeks - so know what to expect in terms of noise and dust etc. But it was a few years ago and I am wondering if I am overlooking anything that suggests we ought to really wait a bit...

Any thoughts much appreciated!

[notagrannyyet]

Go for it!

We have had 2 major extensions and a fair few minor moving of stairs etc..

Our first extension was adding a large ground flour extension and 2 new bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. The work was started in the May and I gave birth to our 5th child at the begining of July. The first people to welcome DS4 when we came home 6 hours after his birth were the 2 plasterers who were doing the walls upstairs.

The worst part was while I was still pregnant. The noise from the drilling/hammering was awful. 3 eldest were at school and in the morning I started staying at playgroup with DS3 just to get away from it all. In the afternoon we had no option but to go home and put Thomas the tank engine on and turn the volume up!

Of course we din't tell the hospital that I was coming home to a house without a bathroom. We did have a downstairs loo and a kitchen sink, and DH did manage to rig up a tempory shower in the old bath. I had to be careful though because there were several floor boards missng.

[notagrannyyet]

sorry....temporary shower.

[MoshiMoshi]

Thanks for your response, notagrannyyet! I sort of thought it was a bit mad but then renovations are always a bit ill-timed. Just wanted to make sure that my placenta brain wasn't completely skewing my judgment! I am conscious of the noise but as it will be springtime will just have to take my three littlest ones out for most of the day once we have dropped my eldest off at school. On a brighter note it might make DC4 less sensitive to noise from an early age ?

[Astarte]

Careful planning is all that is required I'd say and given you'll be bored of waiting at the end of the pg, planning should be a breeze.
We refitted our kitchen knocking 2 rooms together when ds1 was 6 weeks old and we didn't plan for it properly. It was a nightmare....but Dh was doing all the work himself whilst working f-time (he insisted) so it took 3 months in total before everything was fully functioning and was a constant source of arguments.

We also had a ground floor extension built when ds1 was 9 months old. Company we used were a nightmare and even though they started in September, we had to threaten them with legal action when it was looking likely they wouldn't be finished by Christmas . Very stressful!

I agree no good time to do it, so sooner rather than later sounds good x

[MoshiMoshi]

Thanks, Astarte. The more I think about it, the more I think now is a great time with spring and summer on its way and more daylight hours to get around and escape from the noise if we need to. We also live near lots of shops, cafes and restaurants so it will be easy to make the most of local resources to get the kids fed. And with night-time falling later, it will seem less urgent getting everyone home to do homework, baths and bedtime (we always shift bedtime a bit later when the clocks change as the kids are so wakeful). I do appreciate your post - it makes me feel slightly less loony doing all of this .

[Astarte]

how are you doing? it'll not be long now eh?
very exciting

[MoshiMoshi]

Astarte - OK, just feeling more tired now so (a) making concerted effort to not lose my temper and be more patient as sure my temper and patience goal posts have moved somewhat and (b) recently stopped running pushing my two youngest everywhere in the buggy in a bid to conserve energy! I need to get this house into order with final decisions made on renovations and a good spring clean done so we can move into the parts of the house which aren't being done initially. So there is lots to do! It is exciting and I can see time flying by before baby is here. This is the last one for us so I will be making the most of enjoying a newborn (or at least trying to with everything else going on!) Thanks for asking .