I tried something similar once. Thought it would be a great idea to have floors refinished while we were out of town. They floor people came highly recommended and we had a contractor sort of over-seeing the job. What could go wrong? Everything! They did such a horrible job, not to mention they didn't put up plastic to protect rooms from wood dust. It was everywhere. I had some glass shelves wrapped in towels under upstairs bed. Even they were covered with dust when I unwrapped them. Had to have floors redone and it took weeks vaccuuming walls, etc. to clean the house. I decided after that, that it wasn't worth any inconvenience to skip town when work was being done on the house. We've both learned a valuable lesson. :-)))

We left while a large stationary window was being installed, when we came home we saw the installer had done the job inside out. We stayed home when he came back to do it correctly. What will you do about your situation.

I don't have that kind of faith in people. Plus I am home all day. I will stay out of the way as much as I can, but ultimately, I will be at home with them.

DSIL and husband were having both their bathrooms renovated, which involved removing and reinstalling drywall. They knew they couldn't live in their house while the work was being done, so they rented a condo nearby where they could be out of the way and yet be close enough to come and check on the renovation. Edited for correct language.

I had both the counter installers and the murphy bed installers here on the same day. Excellent job done from both... but even though they cleaned up, I did that again.

still need a backsplash... and am looking at tile.

still need a mattress

I have never left my house when stuff was being done. A whole kitchen reno down to the studs, a bath room one where I had to walk a plank to get to the tub, a keeping room one where there were no floors till the old attic ones were installed. I never left and wouldn't dream of it.

As much as I hate having people working in the house, I'd never leave them alone. Recently had ceiling sheetrock replaced in the living room. We had to come up with a plan to contain the mess and still allow us access through the room at night to get to our bedroom. We closed off the space using plastic sheeting and zippers. Dh did daily cleanup after the workers left.

Had painting done, twice; new hardwood floors put in the kitchen once. We did it while we were gone as at that time, we had multiple dogs and cats and it would have been a nightmare of pet hair/paint/poly.

Unfortunately, the painters decided to use corn cobs to paint the woodwork - I would have been happy to buy them new brushes. So, we had all the dust when they had to come back and do a lot of sanding, and then we still had pet hair problems when they painted again.

The floors? Our contract said "clear" tongue and groove hardwood oak flooring. They did do "clear", but did not use tongue and groove. I can see light through the cracks to the sub flooring/basement in the winter when it shrinks. He also did a lousy job with the polyurethane - 15 years later, it is starting to wear, and nowhere else in my house has this happened with good polyurethane. He insisted that he be paid on completion (we were not yet home), and a neighbor who must be blind said it looked fine and paid him. Grrrr.....

I need to have that floor refinished and it will have to be done while I'm gone this summer. It's the only door to the fenced in back yard and my dog must go in and out, plus I do need to be able to use my kitchen. Finding anyone to do a small job is proving very difficult....

I have learned the hard way that you practically have to hover over the to be sure things are being done as agreed and correctly. I swear the conversations you have with whoever is in charge never trickles down to the workers. I had my kitchen reno'd while i was still working. They did so many things not the way I wanted -- not always wrong, but not what i said. The thing that made me the most upset was the banister and spindles I had them replace. I had picked out something nice but got home one day to find they had gone to Home Depot and grabbed something and installed them by the time I got home. By this time I just wanted them out of my house, so the ugly HD items are there to this day.

Who in their right mind paints an entire room all one color?? Especially the ceiling and wood work.

Oh so sorry! I certainly hope they do not expect to be paid twice!

I have shiplap siding on bathroom walls with a small shelf running along the top. Even though I was here the contractor installed half of it upside down till I stopped him and then he ripped out what he did and did it the way I wanted, Hello? I was right here in the house. Did you think to ask?

I feel better. Misery loves company! With my asthma and sinus troubles, I could not live here or even visit while they did drywall repairs (beautiful work). The painter didn't want to drape for drywall, then drape a second time for painting.

We had gone over everything in great detail. The company owner will correct the MBA when they come back to paint the MBR. (That was left off the list because I hadn't selected wall color.)

Tuesday they will return to reattach one bathroom door handle. Both DS and I have inadvertently locked ourselves into that bathroom and had to be set free.

Tuesday they will prep and paint the door casing their carpenter put up on the sides of an uncased arched door between kitchen and back hall, and repair the wood floor that was revealed where he tore out preexisting baseboard. (How could anyone tell me the job was completed when that was left raw; the nail holes aren't even filled.)

Tuesday they will touch up not only the *bottom* cabinets in the kitchen, but also the dings on the *upper* cabinets. The bottoms are beautiful, but hey!

Tuesday they will paint the yellowed ceiling can trims in LR, DR and Foyer, as detailed in the contract. There are 14 of them.

Tuesday they will fix the central vac hose connection where they had removed the cover and all to paint the wall.

Tuesday they will fix the sprayer handle broken off the jet tub in the MBA.

AND... we ask that they fix three broken air returns, as DH and I have just discovered that TODAY:

I've been *cold* in the house since we returned. I read through my sheet of instructions for our DS, who was 'house minding' while we were away. We'd turned down the humidifiers on the furnaces because we were having zero weather when we left. Irealized DS had never turn the humidifiers back up, so I did that to good effect.

I still felt chilly, but put it down to returning from 80F days to much cooler ones. Today my eye caught that our air return registers looked 'odd'. We have dual returns: For 'winter' and 'summer'. Yup, the painters had put up new registers (well, OK), but all of them were open except three that are 'frozen' closed.

For a week now, the heated air from the supply vents in the floor was rising to the ceiling, and *staying* up there, instead of being drawn down to the returns near the floor on the other side of the room. I'm already more comfortable.

Did I mention that they painted the back hall powder room the same color as the back hall -- not the color I'd requested? (I said I could live with that.)

At least nothing was broken or ruined that can't be fixed. Sigh.