Until you’ve washed dishes in a bathtub, you’ll never truly know what it’s like to live through a renovation.

We lived in our home while it was being built.
Not exactly by choice—the pandemic forced us to stay on the island and finish the project instead of retreating to our house on the mainland.

It was messy.
It was uncomfortable.
And it was one of the best decisions we made.

Here’s how we survived:

1. Build a Temporary Kitchen

Forget fancy. Think functional.
We made a plywood kitchen. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
We cooked meals. We washed dishes in the bathtub.
It gave us structure and routine—something you desperately need in chaos.

2. Make a Bathroom Priority #1

You can live without a dining room.
You can live without all the bedrooms finished.
Mattresses on the floor for the whole family, in one room, would suffice.
But you can’t live without a working bathroom.
One bathroom, fully functional, became our lifeline.
Only then did we move in.

3. Carve Out a “Normal” Corner

We set up one room that felt like home.
An area rug.
A box of books and toys for our daughter.
It was our retreat away from dust, noise, and saws.
Outside? Sandbox play and chalk art on the plywood walls.

4. Treat It Like an Adventure

Camping chairs became our furniture.
Trips to the local pool gave us hot showers, a hot tub, and family swims.
We stripped down to the essentials and let the rest slide.

5. Work Wherever You Can

I ran client meetings from my car.
Parked outside places with Wi-Fi.
Answering emails, sending drawings, jumping on Zoom calls.
Not ideal. But it kept us moving forward.

6. Stay Out of the Way

Trades need room to work.
The more you’re in the way, the longer it takes.

Here’s how we handled it:

• Bedrooms get finished first (they’re the simplest).

• That’s where your “home” goes—clothes, toys, and daily essentials.

• Everything else? Packed up and pushed out of the way.

It keeps the trades moving, reduces accidents, and saves you from living in constant chaos.

The Truth About Living Through a Renovation

It will feel slow.
It will feel messy.
It will test your patience.

But it’s not forever.

Looking back, the challenges turned into memories. And those memories became part of the story of our home.