How to Take the Stress Out of Home Improvement Projects

The time had come for a few home-improvement projects. In the scheme of things, it was nothing much — three rooms and the stairwell painted, a couple of hardwood floors cleaned and re-finished, a few light fixtures replaced, an old tub swapped out with a shower. Even so, these relatively small jobs created a big disruption in our household. Read on to hear what the experts say — and what I and others have learned — about staying sane while everything in your home is turned upside-down.

Setting a firm list of priorities and budget will help you make confident decisions and stick to them, says Paul Morimoto, lead of Design Experience for home renovation platform Block Renovation. “Seemingly small changes like adding a light switch or swapping a tile material may require a lot of work to redesign, re-spec and re-scope your project, and certainly will impact your timeline and budget, even before construction begins,” Morimoto says.

At the very least, prepare the rooms that will be affected by the renovation before the work crew comes in: clear shelves, move breakable objects, secure or isolate pets, protect or move anything that might be damaged or vulnerable during renovation or painting, suggests Lee Shaw, a painter and handyman in Nashville.

If you’ll have different work crews doing different projects (painters in one room and bathroom installers in another, for example), try to schedule the work to be done at different times, if possible, so they don’t get in each other’s way. Also manage your own schedule so that the disruption is not happening during otherwise stressful times, suggests Lu Ann Curlee, a certified public accountant in Woodbury, Tennessee. “I don’t schedule renovation work during times such as the holidays, or tax season,” she says.

Can that Zoom meeting with your work colleagues compete with the noise of the nail guns on your roof or the demolition of the old tile in your bathroom? Try to schedule any potentially noisy or exceptionally intrusive work inside your home on days when you have a light (and solitary) work load.

When renovation takes over a whole house, you’d really rather not be there. “Keep in mind that if you’re renovating your bathroom or kitchen, they likely won’t be usable during your renovation,” says Paul Morimoto at Block Renovation. Pack up and store unneeded furniture and household items. “Include potential alternate living arrangements in your budget, or make sure you have a plan for maintaining your quality of life before you break ground.”

From the perspective of the builder or handyperson doing the work, a lot of stress on both sides can be avoided by letting the person (or people) doing the job know what you’re expecting. “Make sure you have someone who cares about the work, and who will listen,” says Lee Shaw. “Tell them what you want. Be specific. A good builder wants to do the best job they can, but we’re not mind readers,” he says.

During the demolition process, you could be upset by any number of unsettling sounds: workers crashing tile, hammering plaster, ripping through wood with a power saw. While they’re building, crews may be using hammers, saws, nail guns and other power tools that make a lot of loud noises. if you have to be at home with all that racket, use noise-cancelling headphones to dampen the din, if you can.

During major renovations, there will undoubtedly be times when the power or the water — or both — will be shut off. If you will be at home, plan your days so the inconvenience of interrupted services is not too much of an intrusion, and make sure the utilities are back on before workers leave at the end of each day.

We live in a 100-year-old house, and know from experience that any reno job is going to uncover something unexpected — in our recent renovation, it was old wiring in the ceiling and gunked up iron drain pipes in the basement. “No matter how well you budget or plan, renovation work almost always comes with surprises,” Paul Morimoto says. “Work that occurs behind a wall, like relocating plumbing or recessing a fixture, is by its nature not verifiable until you open the wall up.” Try to account for this uncertainty to avoid things like relocations or budget adjustments, he suggests.

Sure, you can change the flush valve in your toilet tank, but could you really install a whole new toilet yourself? Maybe painting walls is easy and you enjoy it, but how do feel about hanging wallpaper? For some home improvements, no amount of how-to videos can adequately teach the average homeowner enough to tackle the jobs that may require special knowledge and training. Remember that plumbers and electricians are highly trained and skilled laborers. If you’re looking at something that requires a huge learning curve and thinking, “Maybe I can do that myself,” think next, seriously, about hiring a pro.

Prolonged stress can wreak havoc with your general well-being, so keep yourself grounded with techniques that can reduce your anxiety. “Your mood is a product of your thinking,” says Gay Welch, Ph.D, a counselor and therapist in Nashville. “What you’re paying attention to is what you put your energy to.” So take some time to focus on yourself, she suggests. Lu Ann Curlee, in Woodbury, Tennessee, agrees. “During the remodel I try to keep as normal a schedule as possible with exercise and regular meals. It sounds obvious, but having strangers in your house, tearing it up and making noise can really upset the schedule, and meals are skipped and regular activities ignored,” she says. “It's not easy to do some days, but I find I'm in a better mood if I keep to my daily routine.” Even small relaxation techniques — journaling, meditation, muscle relaxation, breathing exercises — can have a big impact in reducing stress, suggests the National Institutes of Health.

“Once the plan has begun, I try to keep a part of the house not under construction, where I can go in the evening and forget that anything is going on,” says Lu Ann Curlee. “I have a glass of wine and watch an HGTV design show where the project comes in on time and in budget with a beautiful result,” she laughs.

Halfway through our painting projects, the painter called to let us know that his young daughter had played with a friend who later became symptomatic and tested positive for Covid-19. His daughter was in quarantine — which meant, of course, that his whole family might have been exposed. He would not be back, he said, until they all tested negative. In the end, everyone was fine (including the daughter’s playmate, who recovered after a few days), but the lost week stretched the job and the disruption out that much longer. Remember that unexpected delays — for whatever reason — are part of the experience, and plan to go with the flow. The ability to be flexible goes a long way toward reducing stress.