living in construction- with a toddler no less

Can someone boost my confidence onthis one. The house that we are buying Needs ALOT of work. But we need to sell our co op to get the eqiuty to close on the house, plus the buyer we have on the co op wants to move pretty quickly. Anyhow we are going to be living in a state of disrepair for a little while. The only Bathroom needs the most help and paneling and carpets needs to be ripped up and new tile and so on. Problem is that we dont have anyother place to stay in the meantime. We are going to *try to get a few extra days in the co op but thats probably all we will get. Any advice from BTDT fixxer upper owners?

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

Are you using a contractor or doing th work yourself??
We just had major construction done, too...but we stayed at my moms. Honestly, if you are using a contractor, the work goes so quickly. Maybe you can arrange to stay at one of those extended stay hotels for a week, and get the "big" stuff (bathroom, carpeting) done then, so you just have to deal with the smaller stuff...???

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

mostly, we are doing the work ourselves- with the help of family... We are thinking about a hotel- that might just have to be the way it goes. Carpeting will be done by Empire- next day.

Message edited 12/13/2006 1:43:32 PM.

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

the only protential problem I would see is the bathroom (we have 1.5 and I would love to do the full one over, but am fearful about living without a shower/tub!)


otherwise if it's not major sheetrocking (read: sanding) I don't think living in construction is too bad.


for carpeting, put all your boxes/furniture when you move in any rooms that aren't being recarpeted and have the people come ASAP - that way you don't have to deal with moving furniture etc.

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

It really depends on how much and what type of work. I just had my ktichen and downstairs bathroom gutted and all my floor downstair ripped up and replaced (we were on tar cement for a week) - all at once - surprisingly my toddler adapted real well. I'd worry if you don't have a bathroom but I am sure you can work things out in stages.

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

DH and I just finished renovating our only full bathroom (we also have a half). We'd toyed with doing the work ourselves and are very glad we didn't, even though we of course spent more. When the room was gutted, there were so many problems with the plumbing that we hadn't seen, and had we waited, it might have been worse. That's something to keep in mind if you are going to do it yourself. If it was new construction, that would be different.

We also had a night where the plumber and contractor turned off the water and could not get it back on. We had to go to a hotel that night. So my advice to you would be "expect the unexpected!"

Re: living in construction- with a toddler no less

Our buyer is letting us stay an additional 7 days...I"m not sure what you can get done in a week...but at least you can get some extra days.