Currently there...and it's only been three weeks! We are pretty much redoing all of the surfaces in the first floor of our two story house, meaning putting all hardwood in the first floor, painting, changing out all the lighting, AND doing a kitchen and powder room remodel.

I guess the good thing is that the only structural change we are making is relocating a toilet, but this whole proccess is a mess.

I am sick of walking on exposed subfloors and tripping over nails (I know shoes would help the situation) there is dust everywhere...

I've eaten every meal out (with the exception of a couple) over the past three weeks. I currently have no sink, and I cringe every time I have to wash some vegetables in the second floor bathroom or laundry basin.

Ugh.. it's enough already. I can't wait for it to be over either.

So, yes, I feel your pain and I TOTALLY understand what you are going though.

Yeah, I've hit that wall a couple of times since our remodel started. Take a few deep breaths, take a walk around the block, do whatever you need to do to step away from the madness for a bit. Eventually you break through.

Today ends week 7 for us and they expect one more day, but I know what you mean. I equate renovation to childbirth; you forget the pain when you see the baby.

Well, I don't know if it helps, but I'd say that sounds about par for the course -- except for the fact that you dealt with all this for 6 months without hitting the wall. LOL

It will all be done and you will be loving it someday -- while I will still have a bathroom and utility room to work on. It's harder to get motivated the second time around.

Oh honey, I have been torn up since last October and thought we would be done in February. We added a master bedroom/bath, new laundry room, new mudroom, expanded the kitchen, new screen porch, expanded family room, added a second floor with game room and full bath, plus had the whole house painted inside and out, floors redone, kitchen down to studs, new driveway, and all new landscaping. I'm looking at a year now and certainly not done, still no completed kitchen. We have a house in a historical area and everything takes longer with all the paperwork. I have a carriage house with a working kitchen/bath/etc but our oldest daughter lives there while in college but we ate all meals there and laundry. We always slept in our house but it was in our laundry room for several months. It was the only place we could fit our bed in that wasn't torn up but couldn't open the dryer door with bed in there. My husband and I both work lots of hours and I had bilateral knee replacements last April in the middle of this and in the hospital 7 days and 5 days in rehab facility, plus had to make decisions without physically laying eyes on things. I totally fell apart in June when came home one day and found the painter tracking ivory paint on my new refinished heart pine floors and the other painter's teenage son lying in my new very expensive bathtub with dirty boots propped up on the edge. I just wanted everyone out, all workmen, I just couldn't stand them there anymore, not even outside. We are finishing the painting ourselves, it takes much longer but it is worth it to me. I finally got where I could take a workman for a few days to do a specific job but not these workers that had practically been here so long they knew everything about our lives. I totally understand how you feel. We didn't move out for lots of reasons and it was something I never want to do again. We still have to finish the landscaping, have the backsplash done in kitchen, finish painting some rooms, have the patio done, and a few other things. I got all my furniture out of storage and still putting things away. Hopefully it will be finished by the holidays but if not, I'm not stressing about it as it is livable. My husband has saved my life as he has been so positive about it all and very calm when I was either mad or all tears. I understand what you are saying about the economy as now worry if the house value will stay up after spending all this $$.

nomoreblue,

I could have written your post. Looks like you and I are on the same schedule ... my project started the Monday after Thanksgiving. The last bits of the project are dragging on, and I keep ranting inside my head "GET OUT ! GET OUT ! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE !". LOL.

And I am sad to say that I had a complete breakdown last week. It had been a really bad day at work, my contractor had called me at lunchtime to tell me that my final plumbing inspection went REALLY badly (due to Jailbird Contractor's handiwork, which has now been undone to the tune of ~$2k and counting ... just for the plumbing), I got a parking ticket, and I came home to find that I *hated* the colour of the trim that had been painted that day. I lost it and stood in the middle of the house crying in frustration. This was not helped by an unfortunately timed bout of PMS, I think ;-)

I had a good solid pity party, and things started to look up within a couple days.

C'mon, we can get through this.

HANG IN THERE GIRLFRIEND!!!! It will all be a memory before long!! At least you have workers working on your projects..... After tearing out my kitchen in September 2007 (my 1 year anniversary will be Sept 29), I still am living with no sink, no stove, no pantry...and all of my kitchen STUFF still in my living room.. We had to stop in May due to medical issues and NOW cannot get the carpenter, plumber or electrician back in!!!! We have been home now for 6 weeks and have called at least twice a week to be put off another week. AM SICK OF THIS and like you, want my life back. I do hold on to the fact that it will all be over someday soon and I will have a beautiful and functional kitchen, just as you will have a beautiful remodeled home to enjoy.
I was reading another thread and I believe igloochic has the best idea.........Alcohol!!!!!!!
Good luck....

I know how you feel...our 6-week remodel lasted 6 months! There are still things to be done, but we're doing them...pantry & painting primarily.

Believe it or not, once all those people are gone for a couple of weeks you almost don't remember how bad it was (but you remember enough that you don't want to do it again....at least not right now!).

Bad memories fade but you have a long-lasting kitchen that you love!

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and remember your vision...

This will make your day :)

WE are on year 3 of a 6 - 9 month project. We just today signed a settlement with the bank, we fired our 2nd dishonest builder and are now waiting to begin the lengthy CCB formal complaint process.
We had everything picked and planned before we started. We gave the builder a book with every single detail all pictured out and where to get it. We have been stolen from, lied to, mis-billed, had liens filed due to bank & builder not paying bills, threatened, you name it, we have had it happen. This has been the worse experience of my life. I have been admitted to hosp. due to stress and continue to suffer ill effects from this mess.

I am thankful that my children & husband are alive and that we truly know this is just a house.
It could be worse.

Welcome to the meltdown club! Membership is free if you are remodeling but the remodel isn't! Been there and done that after they messed up on my granite. It is so hard to be patient when your life is totally disrupted. BTW, this is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life. Ranks right up there with death, divorce, changing jobs (which I did in the middle of my remodel--Yikes!) and moving.

Hope you can get a break away from the house for a bit. Hire a sitter for the kids and treat yourself to a day at the spa. Pampering will only help. That and their being finished.

Best of luck to you my friend. You can do it. It is temporary and we are here to hold you up.

Nomoreblue, for some reason I though we were on the same schedule - maybe it was just your kitchen beginning that was the same, as mine started two weeks ago yesterday. Clearly, you have been at the whole thing a lot longer. Anyway, I feel terrible for you, acountryfarm, mollie, flatcoat and dixiechick and others for whom this process seems to be dragging on WAY too long.

Acountry - yours sounds too horrible to be true. I am glad you are able to identify the truly important things in life and keep some perspective - although let's face it, shelter, neigh, a home, really IS one of the important things in life after family and health, so I really your situation improves dramatically soon and you stay out of the hospital! Plus I have loved your photos! I am glad you are taking steps to file formal complaints and hope you get some resolution from that.

For my part, I am up at 4:00 a.m. stewing because things haven't been done right, I feel I have been railroaded by cabinet company/KD into some "last minute" choices I told them clearly months ago I didn't want to do, and which are now having a trickle down effect on other trades, but on the other hand it has only been a few weeks, so I really can't complain. I can't hit the wall yet! Gotta pace myself for the marathon and I'm just in the opening laps.

Hang in there everyone. I hope it all improves for you all soon!

Meltdowns have got to be par for the course. I'm amazed you haven't had more of them! (I actually woke up hyperventilating the other morning because I was worried about the size of the bathroom tile, and my reno hasn't even started yet!)

I have to say, hearing all these stories about 2-week renovations going on for over a year now are TERRIFYING me.

Hang in there - you've *got* to be near the end now!!!

I think we've all been there at least once--if not a few times. I got so overwhelmed a couple weeks ago trying to find a solution when we learned that our range didn't fit that I just decided I was done. I didn't want to talk about it, think about it or make decisions about anything anymore. I didn't want anymore contractors in my house screwing things up and I certainly had no desire to talk to my obnoxious cabinet guy to hear why none of this was his fault. I felt like the only conversations I ever had with my husband were about the kitchen and how it needed to get done and all the things that were wrong or he needed to do. He finally pointed this out to me one day and I took a moment and realized--its just a kitchen. It may be a very expensive and time consuming kitchen but I am ignoring my husband and my child for the sake of the kitchen. At that point I handed the range problem over to my very capable and wonderful decorator and she was able to work it out. I also decided that even though it was a bad time to spend money frivolously, my family deserved a break from the house and this whole nightmare. We just spent last weekend at Disney World and had a wonderful time. We didn't talk about the kitchen at all and I didn't have to deal with any contractors. We just got to spend time together having fun for the first time since this process began in April. After we got back I was able to refocus on the last details--ordering different hardware, installing the backsplash, painting the walls and installing lighting. Hopefully it will actually be done in a few weeks...or more likely by Christmas if I'm being realistic!

Hang in there and if possible, find a way to escape the process for a while.

To each and every one of you who responded, thank you! Although I'm scared to death by the stories of schedules gone wild, it makes me feel less insane to know others have felt the way I feel right now.

Those of you who have endured jailbirds and crooks and jerks have my sympathy; I had a guy steal $500 from me (I paid a deposit and was delivered a stained and unusable countertop and I never head from him again) and that was upsetting enough. I'm lucky to have a good contractor and great subs.

My schedule right now calls for the kitchen / mudroom to be done by the first week of November, so my cynical view is that I'll be thrilled if they're gone before Christmas.

I was supposed to do the driveway this fall, too, and I'm sure my neighbors would greatly appreciate it if I did...but I think for my sanity I need to wait until fall. The best decision I made all along was to do my son's bathroom now instead of waiting a few years. After they're done with this project, I cannot foresee needing to remodel anything -- we'll have new laundry, mudroom, all bathrooms, kitchen, master.

Thanks! Anita

I can totally sympathize. No contractors coming and going as DH is insisting he do it ALL himself (with the exception of granite and electrical). We've just started week 10 with no kitchen - I've got a fridge, micro, toaster oven and a single burner induction cooktop set up in the basement laundry room and a bbq outside. Up and down the stairs to prepare, cook and serve a meal is driving me nuts. Every time I ask when we may be finished DH gets defensive and says he is working as fast as he can. I know he is, he has weekends only as he works 60 hours/week, but I don't know how much longer I can take it. The tile floor is 90% done (almost 450 sq feet), electrical complete, plumbing is roughed in, Ikea cabs are built, and all is painted. It just seems to be moving soooooo slowly. I hope to grout the floor this weekend and then he says we can start cabinet install the following weekend. I know once these things start we will begin to see results, and then I'll feel better, but until then, I'm pulling my hair out. All this while chauferring one DS to football 4 nights per week, working full time, trying to keep the remainder of the house in semi-order, getting to my weight watchers meetings each week, trying to help other DS with wedding plans, and remembering to keep in touch with other DS who is away at school, oh yes, not to mention trying to get the dog out for a walk each night.
OK - thanks, now I feel better. Its feels good to be able to vent to others that understand. Someday we'll all laught about all of this - soon I hope.

When we were nearing the end of building our last house, I lost it out in the yard one day. We'd torn down our 75 year old house, where we'd lived for 25 yearw, and were building on the same site, living and running our business in a tiny house next door while building. I'm a hosta collector . . . and I'd dug up and potted well over 100, leaving ONLY ONE of them in the ground, WAAAAY away from any work. We were days away from moving into an unfinished house with no kitchen -- and I saw a workman walk all the way across a trashed lawn, step over a brick border into a flower bed, and drop a huge piece of scrap lumber right in the middle of my ONLY remaining hosta, which was huge, beautiful, and obviously not a weed. I ran screaming across the lawn, yelled at him, and sat down and cried right in front of him. I couldn't believe I did that . . . I'm sure he was glad I didn't have access to power tools at that moment. . . "Demented Homeowner Nail-Guns Worker to Tree"

Hang in there!!! It really is true that these projects are like childbirth: you won't think twice about the pain as soon as it's over.

Our project stayed on schedule (thank goodness!), but we still ran into glitches along the way. Nothing truly awful like some I've read here, but enough to make you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, desperate, miserable, done. I had more than my share of sleepless nights, lost 15 lbs due to stress, and missed out on family vacations and time with friends. I must have said hundreds of times that I would never do this again, wouldn't wish this on anyone, even--at those really dark times--that if I had it to do over I wouldn't.

But the morning after we moved in, I woke up and, to my enormous surprise, genuinely felt it was all worth it. I thought it would take a lot longer to get over the pain. Every day I appreciate my home, loving every room and grateful that I took the time to make every detail perfect. It's heck getting through it, but you will be sooooo happy when it's done.

I found mmme's pounds due to stress :oP (Take them back!) and while I'd love to tell you this will all be over soon...I'm surely not the person to say that since my job seems to never plan on being finished. I had to sit folks down this week and show them pictures of moving vans coming to my home SOON and I'M NOT KIDDING!!!!!

My GC is great, but he's strung too thin, and his worker nephew flaked on us this week so he is on his own, and we're a week and a day past our "FINAL" inspection dates. I'm moving into the damn house in early October, with company (hi mom!!) coming to stay in mid October. And the danged place will be done!

Now while going through this hell, I've decided to ramp up the stress and try (through the intervention of several drug companies LOL) to get pregnant. I'm on hormones, off hormones, on again, off again, can you say "Wildly swinging moods???" I swear to god...should I shoot anyone with a nail gun, it's going to be blamed on one of these stupid drugs that aren't working.

This week I get to give myself shots. I bet I could let my contractors do it and they'd really enjoy it :oP

I don't know why we started these danged projects....I think it was the booze talking :oP In fact, I hear a glass of pinot gris calling us now.....

Hugs!!! That's all I can offer....Lots of HUGS!!!

nomoreblue - I know that you know this already but just remember that it's only a house (a vessel for all our wordly crap, really!) and we're all blessed to be able to take on these dumb projects and see them through.

I stupidly went on vacation about 1/3rd through our project and right before I left I discovered that to me some wall measurements were way off - I kept arguing with my project manager that something was off and that it was impacting the mudroom and powder room. He took the path of "leave the framing details to us, nothing's wrong, we're the professionals" route which did nothing but piss me off and make me worry further (losing loads of sleep). I left out of town out of family necessity but was a wreck most of the trip. I was so convinced of problems that I brought my blue prints with me and digital pictures for a reference point. Suffice it to say, too much time was spent on the phone continuing to argue the point long distance until one day my lead carpenter stepped in and realized "lo and behold" I was right!

Yes, I was quite smug and had a few harsh words for my project manager. I returned to town over the weekend and was curious what our interaction would be come the next Monday. When the carpenters arrived, they were suspiciously quiet but I figured they'd heard about the exhange of words and were keeping a low profile. Soon my phone range and it was the owner of the company - I tried to lighten the moment by asking whether my project manager was hiding from me or trying to avoid eating crow. He hesitated and asked me if I had a moment....I realized that work around me had stopped and my carpenters were all looking away...the next words I heard were "He's dead." After the room stopped spinning, I learned that my PM, who was truly a great PM and wonderful guy on whom I had selfishly unleashed my stress, had taken his daughter to the beach over the weekend, was playing in the waves, felt ill, went back to lie on his towel and suffered a massive, fatal heart attack at age 50, right in front of his 9-year old and wife. I can honestly say that it no longer mattered whether the powder room was 12" wider than framed let alone whether the kitchen would be done for Thanksgiving and the arrival of my big extended Greek family.

It was a tragic, tragic situation and one that really made me step back, release all my stress, frustration, disappointments, etc and take myself and the project out of the "center of the universe" role that I had allowed it all to be!

So, hang in there but keep your healthy perspective and give thanks that you can be in the position you're in :-)