It seems like a smart idea: If remodeling is the nightmare that even a fraction of homeowners and professionals describe it to be, why not escape the intrusion of strangers, the horrendous upheaval, mountains of dust, noise and stress by moving out and renting a place or going away on an extended vacation?
The idea has its advocates, and for additional reasons. “Work can progress faster since the crew doesn’t have to clean up daily to make the owners feel they’re not arriving at a construction site, which is exactly what they’re doing,” says architect Stuart Cohen of Stuart Cohen/Julie Hacker Architects in Evanston.
Adds designer David Kaufman of Kaufman Segal Design in Chicago, “It may not make it less expensive than renting or vacationing, but it can offset some of the costs.”
Also, it’s less disruptive to a homeowner’s daily routine to go and settle in, rather than stay and have to search for clothing under tarps, cook a meal on a hot plate and sleep in the middle of a living room or basement, says Tom Segal, Kaufman’s design partner.
After living through his own remodeling, Segal now says, “Never again.” Cohen echoes those sentiments because of the stress he encountered years ago, but which remains fresh. “It was worse than I had told clients,” he says. He stayed because of the costs to move out.
To move out and have work hum along smoothly to completion, however, two ingredients must be present. First, every decision has to be decided and spelled out in advance through detailed blueprints and lists and constant contact, says Chicago kitchen designer Mick de Giulio. Second, owners have to trust the professional in charge, whether an architect, interior designer or contractor, or all three, and have one person take charge to make final decisions, says Segal.
At the same time, opponents of moving out temporarily or heading off into the sunset on a vacation thrive. They cite numerous disadvantages.
“If you’re a hands-on person and like to check every detail, it’s tough to be gone. It’s also not smart to say to your professional, ‘I’m going to France. See you in two months when it’s all done.’ You may be disappointed,” says St. Louis contractor Don Bachmann.
Chicago designer Todd Haley concurs in the case of his own remodeling, though he prefers to deliver finished spaces to clients who temporarily live elsewhere.
“In my home, the television was supposed to hang from the ceiling, and the workmen were drilling the ceiling, but there wasn’t enough support,” Haley says. “There was white dust over everything, and it freaked me out. But, I was glad I was there and could help come up with the solution.”
Chicago designer Leslie Stern offers still another reason to stay, as she has done when her home has been remodeled. “There are so many little things that you might not notice if you fly in and out once or even twice a day. Even the best professionals may not be there to catch everything and correcting them can get expensive,” she says. In her home, she discovered a major problem with a new heating system during the night. “It was leaking, and if I hadn’t been there we might have lost the second floor.”
But Chicago architect Allen J. Grant counters: “That’s what I’m paid for. I never expect my clients to catch glitches.”
Designer Gary Peterson of Studio Group Ltd. agrees with Grant. “If the client participates too much and meets too much with the contractor, we lose control and we’re most cognizant of what should be done and in a certain way,” he says.
So, where does that leave average homeowners about to tackle a redo of their surroundings yet not sure whether to go, stay or not even proceed? The smartest weigh all the vital factors:
Assess the scope of your project. A small project may encourage you to stay; a big one to go. Other times it’s the placement of the room or its function that best determines the decision. For example, Steven Abruzzo, president of Abruzzo Kitchen and Bath Studio, a design-build firm in Elmwood Park, says whether a kitchen can be segregated and if it offers access to the outdoors may be the determining factors. “If not, and a family is involved, the daily routine may get too disrupted and difficult for everyone. They maybe should move out,” he says.
Mike Klein, president of Airoom Architects and Builders in Lincolnwood, agrees. “In 90 percent of our projects, our clients don’t move out because we’re not affecting the whole house, and we give them reasonable living conditions by segregating rooms with temporary walls and dust barriers.”
Stern adds that clients should put valuables in a safety deposit vault and store paintings and furniture off site, or consider working in stages.
It becomes particularly tough to stay when adding a second or third floor, says Grant. “If the roof is off, you’re vulnerable to inclement weather and other problems.”
Assess your living space. If you’re remodeling the kitchen and you can set up a makeshift cooking and clean-up area in an adjacent laundry room or basement, it will be much easier to stay and have some homemade food rather than all takeout.
Additionally, if you are redoing bedrooms and bathrooms and have places for family members to sleep comfortably, as well as one bathroom you’re leaving intact or can redo later, you’re much more likely to be able to survive if you want to stay.
Assess your coping techniques. Remodeling is stressful for individuals under the best of circumstances, and if constant interruptions and commotion upset you, think twice about staying. If you have young children or a fragile marriage, you may not want to test the waters by staying.
“Living in a basement, even if nice, can be fun the first few weeks but wear thin after three to four months,” says Klein.
In the case of accountants Diana Scott Jonas and her husband, Greg Jonas, who both travel frequently, they found living through the remodeling of their 4,100-square-foot apartment not that bad. “We thought of it as a 14-month adventure. We also don’t have children,” she says. Their biggest disappointment was having to cook their first dinner in a neighbor’s apartment because their kitchen wasn’t finished.
Assess your need to make daily or hourly checks. If you’re obsessive, you may want to remain to see daily progress. If on the other hand, you can move fairly close by, you may find it advisable to do so and swing by your home before you head to work or head to your temporary digs.
One client of Kaufman Segal Design took that route, going back daily since her temporary home was five minutes away. In doing so, she caught some errors, including the misplacement of an electrical outlet and light switch. “Even with good professionals, everybody looks at a problem in a certain way and may see a different solution,” she says. “We also solved a problem with a newel post, even though it had been done to plan. Once done, it didn’t look right.”
Assess your professional’s attention to detail. If you’ve worked before with your professional or have complete faith in him or her, you may feel comfortable letting that person make decisions about problems or surprises that can easily arise such as termite damage, rotted timber and old wiring in opened walls, says architect Cohen. “If you’re lucky, it’s only little stuff.”
But still another problem is that certain designs may look different on plan than when completed, adds Kaufman. “You often have to make modifications in the field.”
Assess the ease or difficulty of staying in touch. Cell phones, e-mails and faxes make keeping in touch simple, even across several time zones. If workers hit a pipe that can’t be removed, your construction manager may want to consult with you on a solution, even if you’ve given him or her carte blanche to make the decision. Being in the middle of an ocean can make fast contact harder, though not impossible. Grant recently worked on an apartment in London, and says, “It worked fine.”
Assess your patience level. Some projects get completed on time; many don’t. “It’s best to think that things will take twice as long and cost twice as much,” jokes Haley. Even though the economy may be slowing a bit, there’s still enough remodeling and building work in the pipeline to make delays commonplace. If you want to host Easter dinner, you may put yourself and work crew under undue pressure to get the work done if you’re not starting until March. Decide on a schedule you really can live with.
Finally, if you’re still not sure whether you want to stay or go or even be gone just for part of the work, there are better times to go than others.
Demolition may be the best time to vacate since it’s the messiest and noisiest. It can also be emotionally gut wrenching to see rooms or your entire house attacked, even if you disliked many features, says Segal.
On the other hand, a good reason for some not to leave is that demolition is the period in which surprises usually are found, so decisions may have to be made on the spur of the moment.
Other good times to go are when drywall is sanded. This creates more dirt and dust during the roughing-in stage because an army of subcontractors — plumbers, electricians, heating and cooling experts, painters, tile layers and more — descend on your home for what may seem to be an interminable time.
When floors are laid or walls are painted with oil, it’s also convenient not to live on the premises since you may not be able to walk freely and you should not smell fumes.
Being present during the finishing stage — when doorknobs are screwed into cabinets or light fixtures hung — can be exhilarating, however. This is the time when everything comes together, you get back your home, your calm nerves and all the pain vanishes.