"-----So we just have to keep telling ourselves it will be lovely when it's all done. If we are still sane then ;-)"

Yes, it will be lovely when it's all done.

No, you will not still be sane then.

Good luck.

dcarch

Remodeling is pure and utter torture. Nothing will go as planned and it will cost twice as much. However, the day will come when the last check is written and the contractors are gone. That's when you can sit back and say "aaaahhh!" and enjoy your new space.

Best of luck getting through.

Oh, it sounds maddening. Remodeling is so strssful, even when things are better coordinated.

But if it gets around that the problem is "there aren't enough men and too much work for them" you may soon see an influx of American workers!

My BF is a carpenter. I am AMAZED at the variety of how well these contractors run their businesses. Guys who are handy with tools aren't always very savvy about how to manage the people aspects. Some are pretty good but many are downright lousy. Sometimes it amazes me how they have him running from job to job, when a little pre-planning could have avoided it and been a much more efficient use of his time. However, in their defense, they are often juggling jobs of great variety in the variables, and not everyone has the natural talent to figure out how to make all the work flow well. Even if they did, they have to deal with suppliers and other tradesmen, who also varry in their delivery skills, so it's just part of the landscape for them. Also, their profit margin is getting lower these days, (at least in the US where there is NO labor shortage) and taking time to plan just isn't in the budget. Not sure how much money they could save by being more efficient, but so far it seems like there isn't a great demand for the time management/work flow set of skills in the trade. A lot of times it's, "Hurry up and wait."

Believe me, it is frustrating sometimes for the workmen too, but they are used to it, they have to deal with all kinds of snafus on a daily basis, due to all the variables involved. If they seem a little insensitive, it's because they have to develop thick skin or they'd have imploded from frustration long ago.

That's one thing I love about my Honey, he doesn't frustrate easily. Except for when we go on vacation, oddly. I think he saves up all his frustration and then releases it when he's finally away from work. Geeze, any little hiccup (like a fly in the motel room) and he goes ballistic while on vacation, lol! He wants everything to go perfectly smooth. That's his idea of vacation, never having to deal with a single personal issue or snafu!!

Oh my. You already have an inkling of how your contractor works. That red flag is flapping in the breeze, to get your attention. What kind of time-line is this supposed to be finished in?

The best thing you can do for yourselves if GET OUT NOW. Of your house I mean! Trying to live there while all this is going on is insane. I know this because that's what I did while our kitchen was being added on. That's not counting dealing with all the personalities, problems, delays, communication snafus and added costs...or what I finally had to let go of because I simply didn't have the energy to fight/fuss about things while living in the midst of dust, debris, chaos and confusion.

You'll love it when it's done, but hate it while it's going on if you're still there while it's happening.

If you can rent a small house or apartment by the month while this is happening, you will have a place to get away from it at night and maintain your sanity. (You will need all your sanity so preserving it as best you can is the right thing to do.) The cost of a short-term rental is negligible compared to losing your mind.

Great suggestion Claire but unfortunately rentals in this town are scarcer than hens' teeth and short term rental non-existent.
We're not getting bent out of shape about it, because the builder is someone who we have known for years, does a great job and is a nice guy. And there's absolutely NO percentage in p!$$!ng off the builders.
They certainly seem to be working quickly, the plan is to be finished in three months. Hope it works out that way ;-)

Colleen,you have my sympathies! We're NINE months into our third remodel project and we've lived here through all of them. Ours haven't been as disruptive as yours-- we've always had at least one bathroom that's functional! But I highly recommend that you sit tight and become great friends with your neighbors! :) We're lucky, my mother lives nearby and I've always had her washer & dryer or a place to be if it has become too dirty, dusty, noisy or unliveable. We've even spent the night at our neighbor's home after the kitchen floor had been sealed-- the smell was unbearable and they opened the door and gave us a spare bedroom. It was actually a pleasure to be there!
Good luck!

I have a couple of tents I could put up in my back yard if I needed to. I hope you are getting good before and after photos and maybe some video. Kevin did video of our hot tub installation. Any renovations we will be doing will take place in the back yard.

The last place where I lived in San Francisco had two water closets that were separate from the main bathroom. Do you call them WC's in Australia?

What are you plans for landscaping? Do you spend a lot of time outside?

Lars

They can be called WCs Lars, more often just "loo"s :-) We don't really spend a heap of time outside but perhaps that will change post-renovation with the big deck. I'm planning to get a big fancy-schmancy barbecue for the deck and then with luck we can cook out there more in the hot summers. In a perfect world I might also get a wood-fired oven :-)
We're fairly basic gardeners, I like the "set and forget" kind of plants, though we do have a lot of rose bushes which do remarkably well here and which I need to get out and prune soon as we move into winter. We have reticulation so at least it all gets watered regularly. We also have two orange trees and a lemon which haven't really done anything fruit-wise for years but which have fruit this year; I suspect my fertilising them for a change has something to do with that ;-)
Another landscaping plan is to finally put a fence between us and the neighbours on one side as we've never been overly friendly with them and their yard is not that edifying to look into. Will probably plant some bougainvillea along that fence once it's up as this is pretty standard here and I like bougainvillea. Or possibly Hardenbergia Comptoniana, or Kennedia Nigricans or Coccinea.

A wood fired oven would be great for making pizza, and I've wanted one of those myself.

I used to have a lot of rose bushes, but we took a lot of them out and gave them away to friends who wanted them. We also have a sprinkler system, but I don't know how to change it, and I would like to water the front yard less since I am planting it in succulents and cactus and taking out some of the previous plantings of things I can't identify. We had aougainvillea on our back fence in Venice, and it's very standard here as well, and so I have not felt the need to plant any more. We were lucky that our back yard was completely surrounded by a concrete wall on all sides (except for where the house and garage are), and so nothing can get in except over the wall, and no one can see in either. I'm less familiar with Hardenbergia Comptoniana, Kennedia Nigricans, or Coccinea, which I believe are more common in Australian/NZ than here. We do have some Proteaceae, but they are imported from South Africa to here. I'm really going for a South African look myself, and that will save on water.

My orange tree has not done anything yet either, but it was nearly killed by the dogs who lived in my back yard from before. I may decide to get a new orange tree - possibly a blood orange, although it might not get hot enough for the fruit to be as sweet as in other areas further inland from me. What kind of lemon tree do you have? You really should feed them regularly to get more fruit. I have my lemon and lime trees in wine barrel planters because I don't trust the soil in my yard yet.

I don't go out in the yard when it is really hot - only on the mild days, and I prefer it to be a bit cool for gardening, which it has been lately. I do like to cook outside when it is hot to avoid heating the kitchen, but we really have very few hot days.

Lars

The lemon tree came with the house so I've really no idea what kind it is. If I was guessing I'd say it's a Eureka as that's the most common kind here. When we moved in there was an apricot which was stuggling due to having been butchered by someone who thought s/he was pruning and despite nurturing it died :-( I would like to have had that still going. I am told it used to supply the whole neighbourhood with apricots back in the day.
We lost our fig tree with the remodel as it was in just the wrong place, but truthfully it's been struggling for years. I may plant another when it's all done as I love fresh figs.

Colleen, were you sane before? (grin)

So, how long until you have a bathroom back? I've never done a remodel on any place I've ever lived, and I've been in this house for 27 years now. Elery says we have to remodel before we can put it up for sale, and I just don't want to. I hate to decorate and as long as things sort of work, it's good for me. He's going to have to arrange that.

And I only have one bathroom, so you've convinced me that Elery can do whatever with the rest of the house, but I am NOT remodeling the bathroom!

Annie

Colleen I feel your pain!

Remodeling is never easy especially when you're living in it. I always found watching the craftsmen work to be the most frustrating. I was forever wanting to organize them, or tell them to get on with it.

Good luck, soon it will be over and worth every bit of the pain.