How about "It'll be done when we get finished". I've used that one and it often prompts a quizzical look as the person figures out that you've spoken but haven't told them an answer they expect to hear.

There's plenty of comebacks that basically say "mind your own business, butt out, etc" but I figure the more polite route leaves me feeling better.

How about this one?

"Haven't you heard, my hobby is renovating, perhaps if you had a hobby you would not be here bothering me."

Next weekend we will be painting/hanging drywall/laying flooring/... Come over at 7am on Saturday in your old clothes. It will get finished a lot quicker with your help. (Deliver this message quickly without giving them time to interrupt.)

We expect it to be done in time for a big party we are planning for our 60th anniversary/Christmas 2110/...

It won't ever be done. This is our hobby. We just want to keep renovating forever.

This is the one I used when people asked about my kids. (When will they...? Why are you...? Don't you think they are to young to...)- Why do you ask?

My reply would be, "why are you concerned?"

My neighbor once asked me why it's taking so long to repaint the interior of our house. I told him, "I'm having it done professionally". "But I thought you were doing it?". "Exactly!", was my reply.

Now he NEVER asks me anything about our ongoing improvments, but he does ask me advice about his.

Michael

"why are you concerned?"

I love this answer!

In my Village the local weekly paper lists all Building Permits that have been issued, oddly as soon as ours BP was published I did receive a few calls from neighbors that I have not even seen in a few years. These kind of people lead very boring and sad lives. BTW, I never let the conversation even get close to my business and OH how they tried! LOL!

sharon's first response was perhaps the best. While my inclination is for the snappy/sarcastic response, it does not help. These folks never see themselves as they are. In our community there was one woman, now deceased, who was a GOSSIP first Class! Her husband used to keep her in line, but she lived years longer than he did. Her specialty was medical information. Once she came to church and during announcement time, she got up and announced that Eva did not come today because her bowels had not moved that morning. Once she called my Mother, now deceased, and told Mother that lots of people gossiped about others, but she did not think that was right. Then she asked my Mother for details about a recent medical problem. Her reason was so that she could be sure that she was telling others the correct information.

I've just been asked, "So are you STILL working on that house?? When is it going to be done?" maybe three times in the past couple of months. My response, is.........."We're slow and poor."

Red

I heard a toast on a commercial for Sienfeld the other day, and it's very appropriate here--

"May our friends always wish us well.
And if they don't they can go to hell!"

Our stock answer is "two weeks" --

It's worked pretty well for the last five years.

Why is the remodel taking so long?

"Everythng is held up because we are having trouble coming up with the final design for the automatic feeder that's being installed in the snake pit."

Cheers, Mongo

Tell them you are building your own Winchester House {{gwi:529114}}

"It will be done when the war is over"

"We like the unfinished 'rustic' look!" :-)

I like the Winchester House comment!! LOL

I have so many things on the go that my wife calls me Beethoven...you know...the guy with all the unfinished symphonies! When my friends and nosy folks ask when it will be done, I give them an answer that could only originate in my home town of Glasgow, Scotland. I'm afraid I can't put it in the forums for fear of being cut off.

The neighbors might be asking for reasons other than noseyness. I was talking about remodeling with a neighbor down the block the other day. The house next to them has been undergoing a major remodel (almost a rebuilding plus they put in a pool did a total relandscape and put in a guest house). This has been going on for half a year and they seem to work on it almost every day - even weekends starting early and often make a lot of noise. He wasn't mad or anything but it is a inconvenience to him to have such a protracted remodel going on and he will be glad when they are done.

I remember when we did a major relandscaping job on our previous house that included the front yard. It took a couple of months and the neighbor across the street remarked upon it looking like a war zone. It sorta did look that way for several weeks - all torn up bare earth with trenches. It was very nice when it was all done but during the renovation it wasn't an asset to the neighborhood.

Renovations often involve at least minor inconveniences to neighbors - temporary assaults on their ears or eyesores. So it might be best for good relations to reply with something that acknowledges that it may cause some inconvenience for them and enlists their sympathy for the greater inconveniences you have living with the renovation.

Sometimes I think I live in a Winchester House - our master bedroom has no less than SIX doors.

Thanks for the witty comebacks. I love sharon's --we are wallpapering, etc. next weekend come over at 7 in old clothes.
Cloud swift--it isn't my closest neighbors who are asking.It is people who are out walking their dog, etc.
I have seen the Winchester house often, and her theory was that she would live forever if she just kept building.
I like Mondo's idea for the automatic feeder for the snake pit. I will tell that one at least once. Everyone around us has either remodeled or are in a new house where we had to endure the teardown and the rebuilding of a McMansion so I don't really feel all that sympathetic. Also our beach town is strict on times of work, holidays, parking, noise.
We just finished the sprinkler system on the lower floor, (new code requirement) and will be scratch and brown coating the exterior so we are moving along. But I think the problem we have is people we know who don't even own a house act so anxious to have it finished you would think they were moving in. We don't talk about it much either. Thanks for the great ideas.