Emily: Hi, guys. Welcome back to my channel. In today's
video, we're going to be sharing with you our top tips of living through a renovation. This is our
third and hopefully final renovation that we're doing. And we've definitely learned a lot along
the way and through the process. So we thought we would share with you our top tips, and I hope you
really enjoy them. I've also got Matt here, as you may see, this is my husband, and he's quite
involved in the renovation process. He's probably the project manager of it all, aren't you?
Matt: Kind of.
Emily: So he's got some good tips as well, and I
asked my viewers on my Instagram home account for their tips, and there's some really good nuggets
as well, so we're going to share that with you. If you're new here, please consider subscribing.
We have so much building and renovation content coming on this channel, and with all that said,
let's get into it. Matt:
First tip is if you can, try not to renovate your house straight away,
try and live in it. Even for like six months to a year, at least, so you can start to get a bit
more of a flow of the house where things would go better. We've already changed our mind twice,
haven't we, with the layout of the house? There's only so much you can look at floor patterns,
especially before you move into the home. And with the garden as well,
we probably would've lived here well over a year before we do anything to that.
Emily: Yeah. We're trying to find
the sunspots in the garden, like when the leaves fall. We've actually changed the position of our
kitchen, because taking the bins out is easier on the other side of the house. I think we got
a bit excited before we moved in and had our plans done because it was so delayed with the pandemic.
But then when we moved in, we were like, "Oh, that's actually not going to work."
And our next tip is to learn to live with dust, whether you're doing a big renovation or you're
literally just ripping out one bathroom, you will not believe how much dust it creates. It
gets everywhere. So make sure you have plastic sheeting for dust. We like to cover up the boys'
beds during the days, so that they don't get dust all over their beds. And our youngest
is actually struggling with the dust a little bit. So we've actually got him an air purifier
that we put in the room that he sleeps in. And that makes a huge difference to the dust. You can
also use things like draft excluders or we've gone one step further and actually taped up a door to
stop the dust from coming out of it. Matt:
Okay, next tip. If you can, if you have the space, try and allocate an actual area or a space for all
your deliveries. A lot of the stuff turns up way before it's needed for the builders
or the bath and fitness, et cetera. So we've actually just cleared out our garage to make space
for things like tiles turning up, vanity units. Emily:
Yeah. It's like constant, the deliveries aren't they?
Matt: Yeah. And we wanted to turn our garage
into something special. I was like, "No, this is going to be deliveries for the next two years."
Emily: Yeah. And it's full all the time with
building stuff. Our next tip is if you have little ones, try and keep your kids safe because
there are so many hazards when you're living on a building site, there's heavy machinery,
wires, nails, tools. Builders also leave` doors open all the time. So if you have toddlers,
it's not ideal. So try and allocate a couple of rooms that is literally for you and the kids to
live in, put all the toys in those rooms as well. And then you can feel so much safer.
Although the kids would probably love to just run around on a building site. Our last renovation,
we had a two year old and Fraser loved all the tools and the diggers and everything. Obviously
it's not ideal. So try and allocate a space. And the next tip is to get along with your
builders, after all they are constructing your home. And it's important to have a professional
relationship with them because you're going to be spending a lot of time together. And in our case,
they would probably rather be working in an empty house. So let them play their music, let them get
on with things, make noise and everything. And they'll get done quicker when it- shut up.
Matt: And whilst on the topic of builders,
I think it's good to sweeten them up. They love tea and coffee, they love biscuits. So what we're
doing for our next renovation is we're going to actually create a little tea and coffee station
for them and a supply of biscuits. Because we know they love a cuppa and a biscuit.
Emily: Yeah. That's a good tip.
Go to Costco and buy loads of teabags, loads of coffee. And like Matt said,
we've got a shed with electrics. So we're going to buy a 10 pound kettle and 40 P cups from Ikea.
Because when you are using your own cups, like my Emma Bridgewater cups. [crosstalk 00:04:23]
Set them up their own station. So they can just help themselves, they don't have to
wait for us to offer all the time. But with our bathroom guy at the moment, we just offer him,
and you can do things like go to the bakers, get them cakes once in a while.
Matt: Suddenly we have loads
of contractors, builders above us. Staying on the topic of tradesmen. I think
it's a good idea to give them their own entrance and exit. So it's an access to the building site.
I know not everyone can do that, if you're living in a terrace house, et cetera, we were lucky on
our last build, we could do that as well, because we had side access. We do here as well. It just
makes things a lot easier. Emily:
Then they're not coming through the front door. Our builders, they'll even get an outdoor toilet,
won't they? And some builders do that depending on the project that you're doing. But the more you
can avoid the mess and everything. Matt:
The builders. Emily:
But they do start work really early. There'll be here at seven 30. So you'd be
in your dressing gown and you're like, "Oh, hiya." So if they're not actually
in your space, you know what I mean? Matt:
Well if you're brushing your teeth. Emily:
My next tip is to make loads of lists, especially if you're project managing it yourself,
like we are. We're actually going room by room because it's a logistical nightmare. So we're
doing that one bedroom, ordering everything for that bedroom. We've got a big, long list of
everything we've ordered. And then as soon as it arrives, Matt ticks it off the list and it's like,
"Okay, that's come." But you really have to keep on top of it because there is just so
much involved. So have loads of lists. Matt uses obviously Excel and notes on his phone.
Our next tip is to set up a makeshift kitchen if you are renovating or redoing your kitchen. And it
can be quite stressful to think you will be living without a kitchen for awhile. But the truth is you
can live with some basics. There's a great plugin induction hub that you can get from Ikea. So you
can do loads of one pot pastas. You can cook so much in your microwave and a toaster and a waffle
maker. And we actually do so much in our AirFryer because it's essentially just a little oven.
We've also got things like a pizza oven and your barbecue is an amazing tool as well. My mom, when
she was redoing her kitchen, she actually cooked her entire Christmas dinner on her barbecue,
turkey and everything. So there's lots you can do. We also used to go to your mom's house for dinner.
[inaudible 00:06:39] cafe used to do deals. We'd go to that. But you don't want to get
into the habit of constantly ordering delivery and take out because chances are, it's going to take
a good six weeks or even longer. So you don't want to like get into the loads of bad habits
and you'd be surprised how much you can actually cook without an oven, really.
Matt: Yeah, we actually cooked so much now that
we don't use the oven. So, the kitchen has almost become a social space rather than cooking.
Emily: We don't actually need a kitchen anymore.
Matt: Let's not have one.
Okay, next one going on from that, obviously the kitchen's really important, but it's also just
important to keep up with your usual routines. So bedtimes, bath times, meal times, if you create a
space that you can keep those up. I think the kids won't even notice that you're renovating.
Otherwise it can just be chaos if you don't do that. If they're life really is put on hold.
Emily: Yeah. I think as well,
you really worry how it's going to affect the kids when you do something like a big build. But in our
experience, our kids literally don't care. Matt:
They love it. Emily:
They don't even notice, they're just happy if they've got their normal
routine, they don't care. Matt:
And there's diggers on the site, and builders, they actually enjoy it. But like you say,
to keep to their daily routine. Emily:
And if you can at all possible, look at your life and look at the seasons of when you're building.
So we're starting our build when all of our children are at school. So they'll be out of the
house during the day. But also if you are doing a knock through, it's worth thinking about when that
will happen and making it the summer months or the spring months so you don't freeze, if you can.
Our next tip is to take loads of photos during the process as well. Obviously it's what I do for
a job. And we've set up a home Instagram account to literally documents this build because we don't
feel like we did it enough last time. And it's so cool to see the whole process. You feel so
proud of it at the end as well. Cool to show the kids as well when they're older. And Matt
goes one step further, when they're doing work on the floor, et cetera, he'll take pictures.
Matt: Under the floorboards and stuff, so
the bathroom, with the pipes where they go, where the waste goes. Just so if there is any problems,
we don't have to put up the whole floor. We can sort of work out where things are. And then I
email the pictures to myself. Emily:
Yeah. He is not alone. Matt:
So interesting. Okay next up for all you cleaning parents out there. Try not to get
too obsessed about keeping your house really clean and tidy because at the end of the day,
it's going to be chaos. Maybe you stick to a Friday night cleaning routine or something. So you
clean up on a Friday. So the house is semi clean for the couple of days when the kids are home.
Emily: Yeah because it is just chaos. So
you just have to lower your expectations. We've got boxes everywhere, our spare room is a joke,
isn't it? Matt:
Just get over it. [crosstalk 00:09:20] Emily:
But we have to just think of the end goal. Matt:
Seems minor, but it's quite a good little tip is try not to park your cars near skip. Because you
don't know what's going to be on the ground and it can damage your tires. Just generally, I think
what I'll do is we sweep the drive probably every few days anyway, especially around that area.
Emily: Yeah, when they're chucking stuff in, you don't
want to, it hit your car. [crosstalk 00:09:44] Matt:
Yeah, it can hit the car as well. You don't want to drive over the stuff because we don't
want flat tires. Emily:
No. And the last tip we wanted to share with you is a really important one and it can be like a
sensitive subject sometimes, but it's to get along with your neighbors, involve them in the process,
communicate as much as you can. With this house because it was so delayed with the pandemic,
we actually got our planning before we moved in. And so when we actually did move in we made a
bigger effort to go and speak to our neighbors, swap numbers, talk to them about the build,
show them our plans and involve them. And in the last house, when we did up our kitchen,
our neighbor who we were attached to, actually worked nights, pretty much, he worked in a pub. So
he would sleep in later. So you just try to speak with the builders, get them to maybe do the really
loud stuff later in the afternoon. Matt:
Communicate more. Emily:
Yeah. Just communicate. Feel like you're involving them rather than you're at some sort of war. Give
them wine as well and drinks. Be friends. Because at the end of the day, when all the work is done,
you have to live next to these people. And obviously you want to get along don't you?
Matt: It would be nice.
Emily: Yeah. Ours seem very lovely don't they?
Matt: We haven't started the building part yet.
Actually, they're doing some at the moment. Emily:
Yeah, they're doing some building work, so that's actually really good.
Matt: Nothing compared to ours.
Emily: Right, so those are all the tips that
we wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. Please add your own tips
in the comments below because I'm sure everyone would love to see those. And if you'd like to see
any other building, renovation content. I know not everyone's doing this at the same time, but
obviously we'd be happy to make that. And yeah. Thank you so much for watching
and we'll see you in our next one. Bye! Right, the next [inaudible 00:11:29].
Drunk. Matt:
Friday night. Emily:
Right the next tip is to get along with your builders. Shut up! You didn't do bye.
Matt: Go do it again, I'll do it. Go on.