FAQ - Renovating with small children on-site
When you have small children on-site, renovating an Investment Property (or your own home) becomes a major challenge. However it IS possible and hugely rewarding if you follow some common-sense guidelines.
Our Experience
In the renovation of a 3 bedroom house we did early in 2003 our two small children (3yrs and 5yrs old) spent about 6 weeks living in the property, during a lot of that time with only one parent.
During that period our children gained a new appreciation and respect for what their parents did, they became closer friends, learnt a number of new skills and became more confident and responsible.
There were no injuries suffered by the children during the period, and no more than usual episodes of unacceptable behaviour.
Guidelines
The guidelines we developed and followed to make it a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone were as follows.
When you have small children on-site, renovating an Investment Property (or your own home) becomes a major challenge. However it IS possible and hugely rewarding if you follow some common-sense guidelines.
Our Experience
In the renovation of a 3 bedroom house we did early in 2003 our two small children (3yrs and 5yrs old) spent about 6 weeks living in the property, during a lot of that time with only one parent.
During that period our children gained a new appreciation and respect for what their parents did, they became closer friends, learnt a number of new skills and became more confident and responsible.
There were no injuries suffered by the children during the period, and no more than usual episodes of unacceptable behaviour.
Guidelines
The guidelines we developed and followed to make it a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone were as follows.
- Maintain a schedule
Your children probably have set schedules for getting up and going to bed, meals and bath time. It's important to maintain these schedules while in a property under renovation to give your children a sense of security and purpose and reduce their opportunity to use boredom or frustration as a reason to play up.
- Allocate kid-safe areas
A property under renovation becomes a construction site. Children love construction sites because of all the fun things to play with. Unfortunately those fun things include planks with sharp nails, power tools, loose electrical wires, hot water pipes, poisonous liquids and other fun adult toys that children simply cannot be trusted with.
Set aside several areas in the property which are kept kid-safe. These should include rooms with clear paths to a toilet, snacks and the great outdoors (if your children are allowed into the yard without supervision). You should also have an outside area where children can play.
In our renovation we set aside two rooms, one for sleeping and one as a 'living' room where the children had toys and activities. In the yard was a sand pit (paved area with the pavers removed) where the children could play.
Outside of these areas the children were required to wear shoes and during periods when the toilet was under renovation the kids were escorted to it, the rest of the time they had free access and the same with the kitchen.
The children learnt to not stray into rooms that were not kid-safe and it was easy to close the door of their playroom to control dust and loud noise. Most kids, being sensible, don't want loud noises or dust getting in the way of their play anyway.
Kid-safe areas can change as you work through the house, or painting and other minor work can be done after your children are asleep (they can sleep in the 'living room' when you need to work in the 'bedroom')
- Store tools and supplies in out-of-bounds areas
Once you have set the kid-safe rooms, set the areas children are not allowed in. As there is nothing a child enjoys exploring more than a place they aren't allowed to be. It is best if you can lock these areas or otherwise put them beyond reach.
Make sure that your children understand that these areas are off limits and why (they have dangerous and sharp things) and what the consequences of exploring them will be.
We escorted our children into these areas and told them what they were used for and what was going to happen to limit their need to explore on their own.
Most importantly. ensure your children are kept entertained in their kid-safe areas. A bored child will go looking for excitement. We found that simply by reinforcing the danger of these areas and providing plenty of distractions was enough to keep our children in their safe areas most of the time.
- Provide plenty of entertainment options & add new options regularly
Children often have short attention spans, so make sure you have plenty of toys and activities in the 'living room'. A TV and console platform (with a DVD player for movies) can be wonderful provided you manage the kids' use and keep an eye on what they watch. Colouring-in books, jigsaws, lego and blocks (perhaps wood offcuts) are also great, and bring a selection of picture books both for looking at and for bedtime stories. Talking storybooks with a CD or tape are also great and have lots of replay value.
Every few days add a few new toys and activities and take a few that your children are no longer playing with away (they can be recycled as new toys later).
Outside toys are also good - kid-sized gardening tools, balls, Frisbees and so on. It is important to make sure your kids play outside as well as in, so toys and activities that lure them out are good.
We found that inside toys such as a ball tower (where you build lots of tubes for balls to roll down), and outside toys such as gardening tools kept our kids busy for hours. Playstation games work a treat too (go Crash Bandicoot!)
- Involve your children
There are lots of renovation tasks children can help with, carrying, digging, glueing, sweeping, destroying stuff.
Even when not helping, many children like to know what is going on and what you are doing. They may shadow you and ask questions about your tasks.
I believe it is important to encourage this participation, but not force it. Answer the questions, no matter how many times they are asked, your children are trying to digest new concepts and add them to their worldview. Let your children help you - in minor and non-critical ways - and they will feel involved and gain a feeling of ownership and pride in their workmanship.
We found that by encouraging both helping and questioning that our kids became more aware of how you improve a property, safety and responsibility. They also learnt a lot of new skills and gained increased confidence in their own abilities.
During the renovation our oldest learnt how to use a hammer correctly and built his own toys including a play-radio, a plane and a sand smoother using scrap wood and nails. Our youngest became indispensable with a screwdriver, and was always ready to help saw or hammer with her plastic tools.
One of the things we did towards the end of the reno was to write their names and ages on the plasterboard inside one wall using a glue gun & with their help. While our children weren't so interested at the time, several times since they have brought up proudly how their names are written in the house they helped build.
- Follow the rule: Safety first!
Any construction site is dangerous. Leaving tools and poisonous substances out, exposed nails in walls or planks and electrical wires hanging is unsafe when only adults are onsite and even worse when there are children.
Following some simple safety steps will protect both your kids and yourself:
a) Always keep the reno site clean and tidy
b) Put tools and supplies back when you finish or need to stop a job
c) Pull out or nail in any exposed nails
d) Cover or blunt sharp metal edges
e) Wrap exposed electrical wires with electrical tape and tie out of children's reach
Even if it takes a little longer to finish tasks due to packing and cleaning up, think of how you would feel if one of your children seriously hurt themselves on something dangerous that was left out.
- Use the reno opportunity to teach your children other things
During the reno we set several tasks for which our children would be paid, such as moving paving stones (which also had them exercise outside). This gave them an opportunity to earn some pocket money to spend as they liked, learn more about counting (5c per paver moved as counted by the kids) and start connecting the ideas of their labour and money.
Out of the success of this, our kids started their own garden maintenance business, taking their kid-size gardening tools and offering to help in neighbours' gardens...making some more money for themselves in the process.
There were also many opportunities to practice reading, learn maths and practice shopping (price and value comparisons). Disguised as part of the (mostly) fun process of renoing a house you'll find that children are quick to learn.
- Explore the neighbourhood, make new friends
In most cases your reno will be in a different area to your home, even if only a few kilometres away.
This is an opportunity for your children to explore a new area and find new friends.
Every few days, go exploring on foot in a different direction with your children. You will find new playgrounds, interesting leafs, rocks and animals and possibly find new friends for your kids.
- Use the opportunity to spend more time with your kids
This speaks for itself - don't reno all day and forget your children, they are only in the next room.
Talk to them, take breaks and play with them - your work performance will probably improve and your life enriched for the experience, as will theirs be.
- Remember that kids will be kids
If your children find an uncleaned paintbrush and decorate a wall or themselves, if they smash pavers with a rock or hammer, if they plant drill bits in the garden or cover themselves with mud while digging in the sandpit, be patient!!!
All of these things and more happened during our reno. While they were distressing at the time, none of these incidents made the reno longer or more difficult and put in perspective, well kids just want to have fun!
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Aceyducey
