It’s a small condo. I don’t have anywhere else to go and I’ve been told it’s an 8-10 week thing.
I can’t think of anything to do away from home for 3 months. I wonder if I’ll just sell to avoid this. I have never looked into extended hospitality somewhere but I imagine it’s a bundle.
Kitchen is easy: You move the refrigerator and microwave to the living room, and you eat a lot of take out. In our case, we set up a camping stove in the back yard and used that for times when we wanted to cook something hot. We also grilled in the yard a lot. We scheduled the work for summer for this reason. Used a lot of disposable cups, paper plates and flatware. Hand washed pots and pans in the utility sink in the laundry room.
Bathroom is harder: We have two bathrooms, so we staggered the work so we’d always have one working bathroom. It took longer, but was better than moving out for 2 months. If you have only one bathroom, then that won’t work. When our entire block lost water pressure for 2 days (drunk driver took out the hydrant on the corner), we went to the local grocery store to use the restroom. I was able to take a shower at work, but that’s probably not be an option for most people.
Yes, an extended stay in a hotel is going to cost a “bundle” as you put it. But so is the renovation of your kitchen and bathroom. You just need to figure the cost of a hotel stay into the budget. And you can check Airbnb or similar services to see if an apartment or house could be rented for weeks at a time for less than an extended stay hotel. Also, extended stay hotels might give you a break if you tell them how long you’re going to stay.
And sure, you could just sell your place and avoid the hassle. But then you have to find a new place to live and move all of your stuff. If you like where you live other than the kitchen and bathroom, the renovation might be worth suffering through.
I’ve had both done. The rooms aren’t completely out of service all that time. As noted, you put a microwave in the living room, wash dishes in the bathroom sink or tub, and eat a lot of take out food. As for the bathroom, you and the contractor work out the exact days it will be completely out of service. If you belong to a gym, you take showers there for a couple of days.
My bathroom was a mess for a couple of weeks, but there was only one night and the next morning I was completely without a toilet. That’s the night you stay with a friend, or go to a hotel.
Your bathroom isn’t going to be completely out of service for the entire reno. If it’s your only bathroom a decent contractor is going to leave it in a not dangerous state when they leave for the day and can probably have the actual toilet out of commission for only a day or so.
Either get a gym membership close to work/home or quickly become friends with a neighbor.
8-10 weeks seems a huge amount of time for either a kitchen or a bathroom renovation (or even both). Why is it expected to take so long? My kitchen was done in less than two weeks; the bathroom took about four days IIRC.
I also raised my eyebrows at the 8-10 week estimate. Our kitchen was unusable for a full week, but no more. Granted, I did some pretty rigid planning beforehand, so several contractors coud do work in good succession.
I let the painter come afterwards, when the kitchen was already in use, and he did prep and ceiling painting (one layer) in one day.
When our bathroom was renovated, ( four days total) we washed in the kitchen with washcloths. Our toilet is a separate unit.
Also, how about renting a camper or unit and put it in your garden, or your apartments parking space?
I moved my kitchen into another part of the house completely. It took quite a while (and Mrs. Floppy is rather high maintenance when it comes to this kind of inconvenience) so I was surprised that we survived easily on a microwave, a toaster oven, coffee maker and a camping stove (for boiling water and frying stuff).
We moved the fridge into the living area.
Family of three - one kid around 10 at the time.
You’ll have to be really diligent about sectioning off the remodeling area with plastic. Dust, grit and fumes get everywhere.
See if your condo association has ‘guest’ condos available. Or if they have vacant units, ask about moving into one of them temporarily while this work is done. (It sounds like this work is not of your own initiative, but is being mandated by the condo association?)
And yes, 8-10 weeks is an outrageously long time for such work.
When the kitchen in my house was being redone, I moved the microwave to the dining room, got a cooler & ice for cold storage, etc. … and ate a out a lot, or got take-out meals. But it was arranged with the contractor so there were only about 4 days when the kitchen was completely unusable.
For a gut job where the plumbing is being moved, and with new floor, cabinets and appliances, for one example, it can easily take this long. We did a kitchen, bathroom and reconfigure the hallway job, which included new wiring and new plumbing, and it took about 3 months. There was some fussy tile work that took a few extra days as part of that time. Fortunately, we had a 2nd bathroom. We did eat takeout a lot.
Great replies. He reps for a firm here, and I am going to gut both rooms etc. He gave rough estimate of work, (minus appliances) at $80,000.
It was my first exposure to this. Going forward I’m going to figure on maybe dividing the job so I can get out of town for the bath but be here for the kitchen. Get a more informal relationship with someone, unless he is flexible.
I am overdue for a vacation. Maybe try to get it done with a couple vacations worth of time.
Did you get additional bids? Because this seems like a real high estimate.
Not yet. I hope this guy is the real high end too. Also I need cooperation from the vendor. I don’t think he even thought about it.
Yes, it sounds like a unfavourably high bid. The term “gut” doesn’t say much, really. My kitchen was:
Rewired, including new electrical outlets in the wall; new stucco; new sink, cabinets, appliances and above and below in new places / new tiles and window sills, and it cost all in all 15 K dollars.
We recently had a full kitchen remodel. We used it as an excuse to dine out.
We have three bathrooms for two people, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
For the kitchen, it was a galley style (so cabinets and appliances on either side of the central walkway), and it was possible to do half at a time, leaving a fully functioning kitchen at all times. It helped that we were adding a second sink to the other side so there was always a working kitchen sink.
If you just translated from € through a currency converter it’s not quite the same, though (cost of living is higher in most of the US than in the Netherlands), although it would still be nowhere near 80K.
When my mother redid the big bathroom, it involved removing all tiles (floor and walls), the tub, toilet, sink and bidet. Pipes and electrical were replaced; the new ones go to the same spots but the wires were put inside these plastic tubes which weren’t even in the market when the house was built and which make later work much easier. The whole thing took two weeks but the toilet was usable all the time except for one day; other parts weren’t anywhere near as important. She spent that night at my brother’s.