Home Improvement Survival Tips

Move into a hotel while your bathroom’s getting renovated? Eat out every night while your kitchen is updated? No way! Here are some ways to tackle home improvement projects without interfering with your everyday life.

The novelty of washing dishes in the bathtub or joining a gym just to use the shower and toilet while your home is being renovated wears off pretty fast.

“It’s amazing how quickly you get irritable if you don’t have the amenities you’re accustomed to,” says Sal Alfano, editorial director of Professional Remodeler, part of Chicago-based Scranton Gillette Communications.

But if you undergo a full-blown kitchen or bathroom remodel that’s likely what you’ll do — especially if the projects are expected to take some time. It’s just not economically feasible for most of us to move out of our home temporarily, so here are some home improvement survival tips to get that new kitchen or bath without disrupting your routine too much.

Temporary Kitchens

If you’re getting your kitchen updated and you’re not going to spring for a hotel, you can have your remodeler set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house.

For a fee, your contractor can create a two-part kitchen. Ideally, one area is in an adjacent room, like the dining room. You can put a mini-fridge in there, and create counter, storage and food prep space.

Then comes the tricky part — the water. The other area would be a laundry tub or the like for washing dishes, filling pots, etc.

Fridges and ranges usually stay put because the electrical connections and gas lines can’t be moved.

“There are some fancy temporary kitchens that include water hookups,” Alfano says. “But some contractors have made their own portable units with a sink and drain and set it up in a place where they hook the drain into the house system temporarily.”

Working With Sears

If you’re getting your kitchen or bathroom updated with Sears Home Services, we’ve got some good news: We’re in and out so quickly, it really doesn’t disturb your lifestyle.

Even though a kitchen remodel might be two weeks from start to finish, you should be able to use your kitchen in a couple of days.

A Sears crew is dedicated solely to one project — yours. Workers unload new cabinets from their truck, remove the existing ones, load them on the truck to haul them away and can begin cabinet installation all in the same day. For an additional cost, they’ll also set you up with a temporary sink and countertop, which you’ll typically use for five to seven days until your new countertop is put in.

Appliances can be removed and reinstalled in the same day, and if you’re just getting cabinetry refaced, the crew may not need to disconnect any appliances.

If something does need to be disconnected and moved, we’ll put it back in at the end of the workday and then move it again the next.

The same goes for a bathroom remodel. If you only have one bathroom, you can pay to have Sears install a temporary toilet for you. The project is usually a quick turnaround — maybe three to five days, depending on what they’re doing. Worst-case scenario, if we’re taking out everything, we’ll leave the old toilet bowl and replace it all in one day.

So go on — get that kitchen or bath you’ve always dreamed of. Don’t worry about disrupting your routine.

For a free in-home consultation, call 1-888-565-4048 or sign up online.