Fridge in the living room,washing machine in the hall!!

[miffy]

We are undertaking a major makeover of our home, starting tomorrow.

We are having the old range chimney ripped out in the kitchen, end walls knocked out, bathroom out, floors dug up, drains sorted, new electrical box installed, chinmey rebuilt, kitchen installed, conservatory built and sash windows taken out and repaired.

Since breaking up from school I have spent the last three weeks sorting out ten years of junk out of our utility, shed, under stairs and kitchen cupboards, chopping back trees, moving plants etc.

We have today moved all our appliances out, given away our existing units, and unwanted appliances to some really lovely people on freecycle and every room in the house has 'stuff' piled up in it apart from out bedrooms.

Hubbie is totally stressed, dog is sulking, I am cream crackered. This is just the beginning, tomorrow the real mess starts!!

Any tips on handling this amount of mess and up heavel whilst still living in a house, never done anything on this scale before and your advice would be most welcome. Running away seems like a good idea at the moment!!

[Glutton4...]

Yup - I'm with the running away option too, sorry!

[dogsbody]

Having been through being without my lounge whilst flood damage ws repaired and without the kitchen whilst that infamous prize was installed I can sympathise Miffy.

Best advice, treat it as a time limited "adventure", plan to eat out fairly often, finding the good eating pubs is part of the fun (We ended up out in dense fog with a pub to ourselves - and the food was great).

Keep reminding yourself the end is in sight, and once it is done, ENJOY IT!!

[rustylady]

Keep the kettle, tea, coffee etc handy. And try to treat it as an adventure.

[zazen999]

I'm afraid all I can offer you is this:

click me Miffy when you feel it is all going wrong...

[miffy]

Thanks guys, have decided that the best way to manage the stress is to plan and mark out my new home plot, have cleared all the plants etc away including a monster bamboo with canes twenty feet high, i found some Japanese prisoners of war in there and a panda!!! Eating out sounds good advice, love doing that so what a good excuse.

[jacob marley]

Just wondering Miffy where are you keeping the coal. you have my sympathy.. jacob

[Florence Fennel]

Just remember it's not forever Miffy and look forward to when it's all done. Oh, and I'm with Zaz's advice too!

[Marthaclematis]

My advice is to add ten weeks to the date you think it will all be finished and put this in your diary. Then, when it only goes EIGHT weeks over you will have something to celebrate. Book Christmas dinner somewhere nice now; that'll be one less thing to stress about.

[bramble]

We did this. We took out a big loan and decided to get all the modernising done at the same time.
Walls knocked down, fitted wardrobes installed, new windows, HIS shed, central heating and attic conversion.
I retreated to the kitchen and kept telling myself "look at the big picture and think how great it will be when it is finished"
That was in 1990 , and all I can say, "it was worth all the hassle"
Hang in there, it will be well worth it.

[jackie j]

Our neighbours are near the end of having a kitchen extension and new bathroom extention that is upstairs, it started this time last year. They were told it would be finished by christmas but not wich christmas. The builders are so slow. Make sure yours keep at it.

[Hilary B]

The things you must keep 'to hand'
Kettle (and all the things for hot drinks)
Bread-bin (and bread-board+ knife, if you can't survive on sliced)
Toaster
Fridge (you've done that, very wise)
Tin opener, and assorted tins of things you can eat straight from the tin

The things that, if you've got them, now is when you need them
Microwave (and all the associated cookware)
Bread machine
Portable gas cooker (the sort with 1 ring) and a few saucepans, 'just in case'
For the rest, eat out and save the washing up (which would be the tricky bit anyway......)