Conflicted As To Whether To Get Contruction Done Because Of Noise

Hi, if anyone can give me advice on this. we moved into a new house two years ago, and also integrated two older cats with two newer cats. also one of the older cats takes buspirone for anxiety. it was a very long difficult integration, and they are doing pretty good now. i was thinking of getting some home remodeling done, but am super nervous if the noise is going to cause a relapse in all the work I have done to intergrate these kitties. we have a large basement we would keep the cats in while work is going on upstairs, and my husband is retired so would be home with them while the work going on. I'm just really nervous about causing any anxiety. any thoughts or has anyone gone through this?

Hi. If your husband will be spending time with them while they are in the basement, that will help. You might want to consider having him start a routine of spending time with them there - long before the construction would start, so they have an expectation of being down there with him and consider it as a normal part of the day.

You can also use music or TV down in the basement to help block out some of the sounds. There are noise insulating blankets that you can buy to help mute some of the noise as well, place them on the floor of the area under construction, if possible, and on the door to the basement. You can also - if able to - staple the blankets to the ceiling of the basement as well.

I would also consider having cat perches/trees, toys, and all of their other needs duplicated - one for the basement and one for upstairs.

thanks, that's good advice about him spending time with them beforehand. while they have no problem being in the same space with each other, they have never been FORCED to do so.

Start making the basement a haven for them well ahead of time. Make it a place where good things happen. Start feeding down there early, well before the remodeling begins. LOL, other than that, FeebysOwner beat me to all of the good stuff!

thanks! they have a lot of toys down there already, and its completely furnished and nice they just don't go down there too much because we don't really and all four of them like to be with us, constantly. so we need to start watching some television down there. thanks again. need to take anxiety cat to vet tomorrow so I'm going to have my husband ask what they think as well. sounds annoy him so............. new bathroom and mudroom may wait. we shall see!

Or do one at a time, spread out with a good long break between! New bathrooms can quickly go from "it would be nice" to "WE GOTTA!"

thanks we have started some of the smaller projects and so far its been ok

My Willow does not like strangers or noise and is prone to complete panic when either are present. But we are about six hours into a loud bathroom demo and she is doing great. Whenever the workmen take a break or are even quiet for a short while she is coming out of hiding fairly quickly to see where I am before and seems pretty calm.