It’s without doubt that one of the biggest drawbacks of renovating is the disruption to life, the inconvenience and compromise. Sometimes it feels like there’s no end in sight! This is where Kitchen Pod Hire's Temporary Kitchen Pods can help you!
Whether you’re choosing to stay in your own house or move to temporary accommodation (move in with the in-laws at your peril!) there are a few steps you can take to help smooth your experience.
So you’ve chosen to stay in your house, and there are great reasons for doing that. It can be cheaper and you’re regularly on site to keep an eye on progress. Often you can still use the parts of your home that aren’t being renovated so it helps you feel like it’s still home.
Despite the perks, living in your renovation can be one of the most frustrating experiences and the compromise can sometimes make it feel overwhelming.
Projects often take longer than we’d like. You’ve heard it before. Plasterers can’t make it for another week, the painters have decided they don’t want to do any work, something you waited months has been delivered in the wrong size or colour. The list of potential issues can be horrifying.
From listening to lots of you and our clients’ stories, we’ve gathered some tips and things to consider if you do decide to stay in your house while you renovate.
Converting another room in the house for a temporary kitchen
This is one of the most obvious ways to be able to cook while the kitchen fitters are working on your new one. You can use a garage, utility room or a-n-other room that works for you. The obvious advantages of a utility room or garage is that they often have or can easily set up a sink and running water as well as have sockets for appliances.
The complication is that you need to be aware of any building control restrictions. Take a living room for example. The sockets in a living room are unlikely to meet the specification or be properly fused to allow you to run a normal kitchen oven. The obvious answer here is don't use the oven but then that may restrict you to just a microwave. Also, if using a gas oven, is it appropriate or safe to run gas pipe into your living room? Is it ventilated sufficiently?
It is possible in some cases to set up in a different room but you need to be careful with any restrictions. A microwave, bench and kettle with a small electric hot plate may just be all you’ll need to get you through
Another point worth considering is any making good (ie fixing) you might have to do after you've had a kitchen in another room. Maybe the carpet gets dented or the walls get scraped. One of our friends said this - "It was annoying we damaged a doorway and wall when we put some of the old kitchen units in [our front room]" But if you're careful or don't mind the odd repair, it's a good idea.
Takeaways
We all love a good takeaway. Who doesn’t? Hard to beat the Friday feeling of finishing work, no energy to start preparing a dinner and just reaching for your favourite Chinese menu. The warmth of it on your lap as you drive it home a new born baby, sneaking a chip or a little corner of naan bread.
It’s fair to say though that they don’t rate very highly on the health scale. But, if you’re not going to be without your kitchen for very long and can tolerate the cost then it’s a perfectly reasonable solution.
They do add up though. According to statista.com, in 2021, the average weekly takeaway spend per person in £12.33. Multiply that up by the number of people in your house and eating every night, it’s entirely possible to spend £100s per week on takeaways during a project
Be organised (or pay someone to manage your project for you)
There is a lot of planning in a renovation. Trades need to be there on time. Too early and you’re not ready for them, too late and you’re wasting precious time and having a knock on effect for other trades.
Clients who have managed their own projects tell us that you need to be ruthlessly organised. This starts by creating a detailed plan. Detailed enough that nothing is missed but flexible enough to accommodate plan changes. Things always change but without even a basic plan, you’ll forever be on the back foot.
At the end of every day, check progress against your plan. Did any issues crop up that need addressing? Does anyone else need to know what’s changed? The biggest advice from these clients is that you need to be on site every day. Checking on progress, answering questions, managing the plan.
Other clients employ a project manager. That could be the builder, the kitchen company or an independent project manager. The benefit here is that someone’s eyes are on the project the whole time while you carry on with your day to day. There is, of course, a cost to this. It’s certainly a good option if you’re not happy about creating a build plan, liaising with trades, being on site every day or just don’t want the hassle.
Read magazines about renovating for more top tips. Arm yourself with knowledge.
There are so many great resources for inspiration, tips and current products. A very simple search online produces a huge, often overwhelming, amount of information. Whilst, we’re not affiliated with any publications, a few that we and our clients read are:
Homebuilding & Renovating - link
Built It - link
House Beautiful - link
Grand Designs Magazine - link
Self Build & Design - link
Ulster Tatler Interiors - link (there’s a link on there to view for free)
Ireland’s Home and Interiors - link
Or, if you’d prefer to read a broad range of these magazines, have a look at the subscription services from the likes of Readly or Pressreader
Look for renovation hacks
Obviously, renovating is a process, a journey, that you have to go through to get the home you really want and deserve. And we have to accommodate this while we’ve already got busy lives.
Look for opportunities to make this easier for you.
Can you close off a whole part of your house to keep the dust out? If you can’t - use dust screens to build a barrier around a door to keep the dust contained (like this Amazon product)
Could you go on holiday for a couple of weeks while the majority of the mess is created? Or even if you’ve got a caravan, could you use it to help through your project.
Have you thought about a temporary kitchen on your driveway? This is something Kitchen Pod Hire offers and helps to solve a lot of the issues - keeps dust away from your food, cheaper than constant takeaways, full kitchen facilities for a Sunday roast, stay on site if you want and no building control issues.
We wish you massive success with your project and if there’s anything we can do to help, we’d love to hear from you. Good luck!!
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How to plan a Temporary Kitchen while Renovating | Kitchen Pod Hire 2023