Whenever I watch a home renovation show and the homeowners wrinkle their noses at the idea of living through a two-month renovation, I snort into my coffee. “Try 15 years!” I shout at them. My ex-builder husband, Chris, and I are at the tail end of 15 years of chaotic living arrangements. We extended and extensively renovated our dated three-bedroom home while working, raising kids and living in it the entire time. We’ve had weeks of boarded-up windows, months of wind howling through unfinished walls, and years of living on bare plywood floors.
Raewyn Court and her husband, Chris, are at the tail end of a 15-year renovation. Photo / Ted Baghurst
If you’re a would-be renovator thinking of embarking on a major renovation, there are a few things you need to know that should ease the process and hopefully stop you heading for the divorce courts.
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Should you even renovate?
We have undoubtedly increased the value of our home but, had we left it as it was, the Auckland property market’s upward trajectory over the past 15 years means it might have increased nearly as much if we had done nothing to it. Undertaking such an extreme renovation cost more and took longer than we ever imagined. It meant missing out on time and money that we could have spent on enjoying family time with the kids. In hindsight, we would have been better off doing a superficial renovation and moving on, or building from scratch, because one of the dangers of renovating is that one thing leads to another and before you know it, you’re replacing everything.
Time frame
Try to keep the renovation within a reasonable time frame. Taking too long means trends can change faster than you’re able to keep up with. We have taupe walls downstairs and white and grey upstairs. I’m now grateful we left the kitchen till last, as it would already have been looking outmoded if we’d done it early on. Council regulations change over time too, meaning early renovations may not measure up when you finally apply for your Code Compliance Certificate.
Noise and chaos
Living through a major reno means piles of building materials in the middle of the lounge floor, tools to trip over, sawdust and plaster dust coating everything, and ear-splitting noise. Power tools each have their own unholy sound. The skill saw has a piercing scream, but the worst offender is the impact driver. Known in the trade as a rat-a-tat, the benign nickname belies the soul-destroying noise.
Earplugs are no match for it. If Chris ever started using the rat-a-tat while I was working, I’d have to close the laptop and walk away.
Plaster dust gets everywhere and it destroys electronic equipment and vacuum cleaners. You can buy rolls of plastic sheeting to cover furniture and electronics, but a more planet-friendly option is to use old bedsheets, curtains and towels. Chris is a stickler for site tidiness and at the end of every day, he’d sweep up sawdust and make neat piles of tools and building materials. Having a relatively clean and comfortable environment in the evening is a sanity-saver.
Flexibility
Living among renovations requires going with the flow. As each room is being worked on, other rooms have to do double duty or take on alternative uses. The dining room was our bedroom for months and later became a temporary mini-kitchen. It was convenient being able to use the en suite while the family bathroom was being done, but not so convenient when the kids had to tramp through our bedroom to take a shower. And when a reno is very drawn out, the intended use of a room can change.
The kids were primary-schoolers when we started, but by the time we’d finished the rumpus room they weren’t interested in building forts in it, so it morphed into the media room. Our daughter left home before we’d done up her bedroom so it became the guest room, and I had planned on taking over my son’s sunny bedroom for a craft/writing room but in true Gen Z fashion, he’s moved back in.
Keep calm and carry on
One year we had a tarpaulin over the lounge extension instead of a roof, and the rain splashed over the gutter on to the coffee table. We joked about our “water feature”, because if you don’t laugh, you’ll scream. I’m pretty tolerant, but I’ve done my share of internal screaming over the reno years. I realised early on that being impatient wasn’t going to serve any practical purpose. There was no point in complaining because (a) he was suffering too, and (b) a hissy fit wasn’t going to get it done any faster. Chris is a perfectionist, which means measuring, adjusting and rechecking on repeat. Spending hours on the end of a tape measure or string line while he got levels and measurements just right was frustrating, but it did pay off when new kitchen, bathroom and laundry cabinets fit perfectly into their prepared spaces. Inevitably, of course, there were times when emotions boiled over.
The only thing to do at the end of the day is apologise and hug it out before sweeping up the sawdust.
I will say that one of the few upsides of living through a years-long renovation is that when the room or feature you’ve dreamed about for so long is finally done and you can stand and admire it, it’s sweeter by far than any old quick-turnaround project.
