How to deal with the stress of DIY renovation

advicerenovation

I've done a few DIY projects over the years and over time it starts out as fun and exciting and then it detoriates to stressful and not so fun.

Our latest project was to redo our basement. This involved basically adding a floor to our house. We are adding a laundry room, bathroom, kids playroom and bonus room.

My typical day during this renovation is work to my normal job until 5-6 at night, then when I get home until 8 do any noisy work, put the kid(s) to bed, and then continue to with less noisy work until 10 or 11 at night. (I have a 7 year old)

Working by myself was a challenge (I wish I had 4 arms) but I found overall that my family relationships suffered as well a my normal job has less productivity.

I deal with stress pretty well, but my family had a hard time dealing with everything. Additionally, I found that over time I found that it was me versus the project and nothing went as smooth as planned.

How do you deal with the stress of a major project? Do you have any tips or suggestions that make things easier on anyone?

Best Answer

Working on a house that you're already living in is a lot more stressful, because you're living in a construction zone. Here are a few tips:

  • Select a part of the house to be construction-free. Your family can be comfortable in that space while other parts are in chaos.

  • Clean up at the end of each day. This will make the construction space less stressful.

  • Get help, so you can get the job done sooner, which means less stress. Sometimes that means hiring a crew to hang and tape drywall, much faster than I could do it. Sometimes it means hiring a handy acquaintance to work with me.

  • Break the project down in to smaller pieces, so you can carry a subproject to completion before introducing new chaos. This isn't always doable, because of interdepenencies, but do it when you can.

  • Keep an eye on the well-being of your family and be ready to adjust your project expectations to care for their needs. Family is more important than house.

  • Get out of the house. A picnic together can help you reconnect. Send the spouse and kids to grandma's for a week while you get a lot of work done. And so on.