We worked closely with our builder because we accepted a contract to sell the previous house and would have to move. The date kept changing by 2-6 weeks, until we said we are writing this date into the contract, and now we are locked. We gave ourselves a 2 week window just in case; we only needed one week of it. We also were in the final stages of the build, and didn't forsee any major reasons we wouldn't have a certificate of occupancy.

Ask the kids what they plan to do with the stuff when you move. It's their problem, not yours. My mom kept some of my stuff for years after I left home. I didn't know she had it, and didn't want it. If your kids have to deal with the stuff themselves, they may discover they don't really care about it either.

Thanks Karen! I am feeling better but still have my low moments for sure. I am really trying to work on my mindset. It is good but can be exhausting. I am constantly trying to push out the sad and dark thoughts. Just taking things day by day. I do not think being a designer would be a possibility for me given I have no formal experience, no degree etc and I feel doing it as a job would take all of the fun out of it. I did do some staging for a while and it was hard work and I started to loathe it. I am currently working on getting into a an alternative teaching certification program. I have my Masters in Counseling and would like to ultimately be a school counselor. I would have to first teach for two years. I am trying to figure out which route I would like to go in teaching (grade levels and subject matter). I do need to get out and exercise more. I have never been big on exercising but need to try and start. I do love nature and agree that being out in nature is a great help to lift one's spirits!

I am just finishing a four month reno that affected nearly my whole first floor (and half the second) and left me with no kitchen or eating area the whole time. I have a fridge in the garage but the fridge portion was no good to me bc it’s winter and everything froze in there. I set up one end of my living room with a long folding table. I had some very lightweight thin sheets of wood cut to fit it at Home Depot and laid that down for heat protection, then put a table cloth over it that hung down to the floor. I put a dorm fridge at one end of the table, and on the table I put a toaster, microwave, and toaster oven. At the other end was the trash and recycling bins. I kept one plate, one cup, one bowl, two knives, two spoons, and two forks in the house, along with salt and pepper, a spatula, some tongs, and several disposable food storage containers that could either store leftovers or act as additional bowls if needed. All of it went in a basket under the folding table, behind the tablecloth, which gave me some sense of neatness and order. Another basket under the table held food basics - bread, pb&j, cereal. Almost every single other thing in my kitchen was packed up and put into storage. I cooked tons of stuff ahead of time and froze them in individual serving sizes and put them in the garage freezer. My best advice is to get the stuff you will not need out of your house. ALL of it - put it in storage. I put a lot in storage, but there were some misc hard to pack things (like bottles of liquor, and a large wall mirror, and a clock) that I decided I could just stick in my living room or office. I also didn’t want to put any sort of pantry food in a storage facility so anything I hadn’t used up before the reno I put in boxes and set it in other rooms. I regretted these decisions big time. I’ve spent four months tripping over that stuff or shuffling it from place to place - I should have just found a way to pack it and store the possessions and given the food to a food bank. It seems like every available surface had stuff piled on it that I should have stored. I hated that way more than not having a kitchen. And remove any excess stuff from the room you’ll be living in - pare it down to only what you need. Otherwise it will just feel cramped and overwhelming. I just found it’s super important to create some order and visual calmness in the spaces you are living in. Other advice - take everything off the walls, even in rooms adjoining the work area, otherwise it may fall during work that vibrates. Buy extra filters for your HVAC and change them frequently during the work. And absolutely do not use your garage as storage for what is normally in your house. The very best advice I saw on Houzz before my remodel was to ruthlessly purge and organize my garage ahead of time. I did it, and thank goodness I did - both the house and garage would have been sheer chaos if I hadn’t, because the garage was used to stage materials and set up saws and other tools. Even though I had completely cleared both bays, this stuff completely filled the garage at times, leaving only a narrow aisle up the middle, so thank god I didn’t try to also use it to store stuff from the house. One of the big surprises to me was the amount of money it costs to deal with the reno but is not being paid to the contractor or designer. Examples include: movers to move things in and out of storage, storage fees, post-reno deep cleaning, post-reno duct cleaning, area rug and carpet cleaning, service charges from my home security company to come and put sensors on my new windows, appliance delivery and installation fees, packing supplies, etc. It adds up. BUT it will all be worth it!! Good luck!