My renovation: How to stay sane when the builders are in

In part 4 of Sophie's home renovation series, she shares her top tips on coping with life on a building site, helping you turn the chaos into a manageable and less stressful experience

We’re now four weeks into living on a building site, and so far, touch wood, it’s going well. We’re enjoying seeing the daily progress, having daily conversations with our builders and being on-hand to answer any questions. Don’t get me wrong, the dust is slowly driving me crazy; it gets everywhere. However, since we’re investing nearly all of our life savings into this project, renting a home while work is underway was never going to be an option. A lot of people have called us crazy, questioning how we intend to survive without a kitchen or washing machine. Yet we’ve yet to resort to eating out or ordering in a takeaway so we must be doing something right! If you’re renovating a house and, like us, are considering toughing it out and living on-site, there are several measures you can take to make the experience more pleasant for you and your family. Follow on for my top tips on how to survive living on a building site.

Create a safe environment

Our architect, George of Woodrow Vizor Architects, advised that our builders Otterburn Construction block off the ground floor building site to prevent little ones from wandering in and potentially injuring themselves. They boarded up the side of the staircase and moved our existing kitchen door forward to align with the foot of the staircase, adding a coded padlock for security. The added bonus is that it has also helped (ever so slightly) in preventing some dust from spreading upstairs.

Make storage a priority

We’re really lucky that my sister, who lives nearby, has a garage with space to store some of our belongings. What wouldn’t fit there has been squeezed into our master bedroom and our two daughters’ bedrooms. Before building work began, we also took the opportunity to declutter, sorting through toys and clothes that Ada and Lily have outgrown.

Build a temporary kitchen

When we met with George and our builders Pete and Adam before work began, we discussed transforming our spare bedroom into a kitchen space, but I never imagined it would turn out like this. Pete and his team re-used some of our old kitchen cabinetry (what hadn’t been destroyed by damp and mould) and installed it upstairs in the spare bedroom. They even plumbed in a sink (with hot and cold water), a dishwasher and washing machine and brought our fridge-freezer upstairs, too. The setup has made our lives so much easier.

For storing food and random small kitchen appliances and cookware, we cleared out our end wardrobe and converted it into a temporary kitchen larder (above) using an Ikea Trofast wall unit with metal mesh baskets to store herbs, spices and condiments etc.

Invest in an air fryer

We already had a slow cooker that’s been useful, but we had never owned an air fryer before and haven’t owned a microwave in nearly eight years. Knowing we wouldn’t have access to an oven, we decided to buy a basic (and inexpensive) air fryer from Amazon since we don’t anticipate needing it after the project is complete. It’s been incredibly helpful during this interim period. Who knew you could cook a whole roast dinner (which is Lily’s favourite meal) in an air fryer? While the roast potatoes aren’t as crispy as they would be when cooked in an oven, they’re still better than nothing. Plus the cooker is ideal for whipping up quick dinners for the girls in between their after-school activities. If you decide to buy one, make sure you choose one with at least two baskets so that you can cook two different dishes simultaneously and avoid having to cook in batches. We’ve also borrowed an electric hob from my sister and kept some essential small appliances – like our Sage coffee machine – out of storage. A decent coffee certainly helps with the stress of living on a construction site!

Do you have any top tips for surviving living on a building site? If so, we’d love to hear them. Add your advice in the comments below. And, if you want to see more of Sophie’s home renovation, go check out her family bathroom reno and her daughter Lily’s bedroom makeover.