Real talk time.
I sat down to write today’s post about the latest video that I just put up but I quite literally cannot find the words to form a coherent sentence. So instead you get a behind the curtains glimpse into the mental and emotional side of this renovation. Cause honestly, that’s just as real at the drywall and stucco.
I’m not going to lie, I’m straight up exhausted, to the point where I don’t know if I’ve ever experience this level of exhaustion in my life. I can’t even type an exclamation point, thats how tired I am. Ok fine. ! <—- I squeaked that one out just for you.
Obviously going into something like this you know its going to be hard, but it is a second just keeping up with it the way that it’s happening now. Who knows what my mental state is going to be once we’re in the throws of doing the work as well. Its actually a little terrifying. In fact while I was editing today’s video I was like, Daaaaaang girl, you look like death warmed over!
The crazy thing is that this is my DREAM project. I feel so content and at peace with what we’re doing, I know we’re on the right path but gosh dang it I just want to take a nap.
Those that have gone through a hard reno, do you have any tips for me? Besides Rockstars and B-12, cause I’m at my limit with those. We’ve come so far already, and it feels so good, but I’m just ready to be living there and not driving across town 4x a day. Ya know?
Ok for reals though, tell me I’m not the only one that has experienced this. When does the second wind kick in folks?! Give me allllll the advice!
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We did a 6 week renovation of our kitchen, floors, and some other stuff (moved a door, added a window, etc.) and it was the longest 6 weeks of my life. We lived in the house during the reno and it was brutal. I had to keep reminding myself to just grit my teeth and get through it because it would be amazing afterward. But man, do I relate to this.
I’ve been on the same construction project for five years. So, the secret to dealing with renovation fatigue is….
Take one day off where you don’t answer any questions, take any calls or make any decisions regarding the remodel. No, seriously. NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PROJECT.
Also, realize that while it is your dream project, know that it can’t/won’t be perfection. No one else will notice the little tiny “imperfections” you do. Give yourself a pat on the back for taking this on.
Get enough sleep. Every night.
Thats all I’ve got.
What she said ^^^. Hang in there and take a day or two off to get your energy back.
We are currently renovating our entire home ourselves. I am talking roofing, drywall painting flooring, insulation, landscaping, lighting…..and we both work full time and have a 4 and 1 year old. I have no advice, it is crushing my soul. BUT I feel you at least.
Try not to overthink every little detail – you won’t notice once you are living there and will just drive yourself crazy.
Also it sounds weird but decide between you and your husband that you are going to have a good attitude about the Reno. It really helped us that we made an intentional decision to be positive when we did our 7 month project.
Finally keep reminding yourself how lucky you are to be in this position of doing such a wonderful project. Whenever one of us would get down the other one would make a joke about our terrible first world problems building our dream house. And be reminded that our “problems” didn’t really compare with real problems of the world. Hope these help!
We did a 6-8 week kitchen renovation that I was SO EXCITED to do and am now (mostly) THRILLED we did, but it drug on for 5-6 MONTHS and turned into a complete nightmare!!! We ended up firing our GC half way through the project and I had to become GC to get it done. We also made the mistake of ordering cabinets through our original GC and I have regreted that decision every.single.moment.of.every.single.day since they were installed. We WAY WAY overpaid for what turned out to be mediocre cabinets and with all the other hiccups along the way, we way over spent on this renovation and I so wish we would have opted for more budget friendly cabinets from the beginning. That would have led us down a different path completely and maybe we could have avoided the fiasco with our GC!!! ?
I took on the whole house renovation of the 1924 bungalow my great grandmother had built on the farm. I was living in another state, so I would drive to the farm, stay with my dad in the main farmhouse, work on the house for 10-14 days til I was ready to drop, then leave and go back to the northwoods where I’d crash on the couch and watch hgtv for a week while ordering supplies for the next trip on the internet. Lather, rinse, repeat. I touched every surface of the house and love it. The pain of all the reno faded with time.
We recently wrapped up a 5-month reno, which took over half our house (and we lived here during construction). I went THREE months without a kitchen (cooked in the laundry room), and still managed to make meals at home (we have a 4 and 5 year old) five nights/week, and pack lunches. The last two months were SO BRUTAL. There’s no describing it, it’s just the constant drag of discomfort and always-present unsettling undertone that’s painful. While we had a fabulous contractor, I had selected all materials and even determined the kitchen layout (a tricky one); it was my obsession for about 9 months – the only thing I thought about. (My husband would say quietly and quickly to me all the time “house-house-house-house-house”; we still laugh about that today!) We’re now tackling the master bathroom and bedroom, but thank goodness that’s at one end of the house so we simply don’t go down there. Thank goodness I love our laundry room, as it also functioned as a kitchen and now my dressing room.
The only thing I can share is to remember it’s ALL WORTH IT when it’s over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We did a small reno for a few weeks and I was exhausted through it and after for several months. Make sure to get enough sleep every night! You will run yourself into the ground and be no use to anyone. SELF CARE! you probably don’t have time, but you have to take time to rest and listen to your body. Meditate for even 15 minutes could be helpful. You are around a lot of chemicals and dust so that can also cause fatigue and various symptoms.
Take care!!
We turned our attic into a second floor, which impacted every room in the house except for two small 9×9 rooms on our first floor and a bathroom. Our kitchen was unusable for about 90% of the time as the new stairs overlapped the kitchen ceiling. We lived there the entire time except for the first two weeks of a five-month renovation (we had initially been planning to stay for demo until my contractor leaned over and quietly asked if I was pregnant, at which point I no longer felt like it was safe to stay, even though I wasn’t). It got very long, especially during the timeframe we had no roof (about a month in October) and at the end when it just. wouldn’t. end. My best advice is to get away from it when you can and to do something that doesn’t give you the opportunity to talk non-stop about the renovation (our favorite was long movies in the theaters where they have big recliners for extra comfort).
Is the obligation to the blog a source of stress or a source of comfort? We love your updates but you gotta look out for #1.
I can’t offer words of wisdom, but I can offer serious empathy. We’re in the middle of a full renovation where we’re doing almost all the work ourselves (at night and on weekends). Oddly, one of the things I thought would be worst is one of the things that’s working out the best: living in a fifth wheel in the driveway of our project. Being on site, but still having a clean (albeit tiny) kitchen to cook in, has made it easier. When my brain’s spinning in the late evening I can go sit in the (still windowless, doorless, un-plumbed space) to daydream or take measurements or compare our current status to the photos on my phone of where we started. Not helpful advice for you, I know, but I can really feel how extra hard it would be to drive across town all the time.
We’re heading to the coast for a weekend trip and I’m hoping that a couple days away from the constant lists will be rejuvenating, not anxiety-inducing – I’ll report back!
Sleep in one morning.. get breakfast at your favorite place.. step out of the routine just this one day. Go with friends. Talk about the exciting purchases and ideas.. and bitch a bit hahaha then get back at it!! For me full days off make me anxious $$$ hahaha but a morning where you come back with good vibes to share just keeps everyone going. Our latest reno flooded three ft from Harvey just after a week on the market, with an offer already on the table. Offer obviously gone, but demolition is completed and now sheetrock back up. There are good days and bad, but most will be good.. picture the end result!!.. rap music also helps pump me up haha
my husband and i have done two house reno’s now, one before kids and one right in the middle of having our second. we did more work on the first one (ie, the whole house, whereas the second, we’ve mostly just done kitchen/dining and then floors throughout) and i’m so glad we didn’t have kids the first time cuz even without kids – it took FOREVVVVVVER. we didn’t live there, which was nice to not live through reno, but also the most annoying to drive back and forth 124583 times, like you said. and we got burnt out. we did a lot of the work ourselves, didn’t have a contractor or anything, and it was fine. but about 3-4 months into it, we both just did not want to go back! after work every day, every saturday…. it was just too much to even think about going and working another late night. so we took probably 6ish weeks and barely worked on it. seriously. not exactly ideal, especially when you’ve waited to dang long to just live in the house you’re already paying for, but we just needed that mental and physical break. we still did things, we didn’t just completely quit working that whole time, but we went like once a week rather than 5-6-7 days a week ha. and then we got the gusto to finish strong and FINALLY got her done. man, it was long and grueling. i totally feel ya girl. it is exhausting to the max.