When my home is being renovated and I still live in it, I want to get through it, so I do not choose between renting elsewhere and enduring for months.

Job context

Who

A homeowner staying put during the work

When

Across weeks or months

Trigger

The third week without a kitchen

Situation

The house is a building site and a home at once

Constraints

Renting elsewhere adds substantially to the cost

5 Pains

• No idea how long each stage lasts

  High

  So nothing can be arranged in advance.

  Root cause: The schedule depends on several crews and nobody merges their calendars

• Dust and noise spread through the house

  High

  Including the rooms not being touched.

  Root cause: Containment costs effort and is priced by nobody

• Weeks without a kitchen or bathroom

  High

  The cost of eating out appears in no renovation budget.

  Root cause: Budgets count only materials and labour

• Crews arrive at unpredictable times

  Medium

  Meaning half a day waiting at home.

  Root cause: Crews run several sites at once

• Neighbours complain about the noise

  Medium

  And you are the one apologising.

  Root cause: The owner carries the relationships and the crew leaves when done

5 Desired Outcomes

• Know how long each stage will last

  Functional

• Keep the rest of the house clean and quiet

  Functional

• Have a plan for the weeks without a kitchen

  Functional

• Know which days the crew comes

  Functional

• Keep the neighbours on side

  Social

5 Existing Solutions

A solution is not the same thing as a product, a customer can hire a behaviour or a workaround too.

• Move out temporarily

  Behaviour

  A complete solution that adds a large sum to the total.

• Seal off the work area with sheeting

  Workaround

  Reduces dust markedly, and must be done or demanded by the owner.

• Ask for a week-by-week schedule

  Behaviour

  The only way to plan ahead, from a schedule that rarely holds.

• Set up a temporary kitchen

  Workaround

  Cuts most of the eating-out cost, needing space and effort.

• Tell the neighbours in advance

  Behaviour

  The most effective way to keep the peace, reducing no noise at all.

2 Opportunity Gaps

• The cost of living inside the work, eating out, temporary lodging, days off waiting for crews, falls entirely on the owner and appears in no quote.

  Why existing solutions fail: Contractors quote their own work and have no reason to cost the owner's side, so the true total of a renovation has never been written down in one place.

  Potential opportunity: A budget including the disruption costs, prepared alongside the construction quote.

• There are schedules for each crew and a final completion date; the schedule in between, what the house will be like this week, is made by nobody.

  Why existing solutions fail: Each crew manages only its own calendar across several sites, so nobody is positioned to merge them, except the owner, the one person without the information to do it.

  Potential opportunity: A schedule expressed as the state of the home rather than as construction line items.