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Imagine buying a house that needs a lot of work. If your father-in-law was a retired contractor who wanted to do the renovations himself, would you let him, or would you insist on hiring someone?

In this story, one couple is in this situation, and the pregnant wife agreed to let her father-in-law do the renovations. However, now that some time has passed and her due date is quickly approaching, she just wants the projects done. She’s thinking about hiring someone but feels bad since she knows her father-in-law enjoys helping out.

What should she do?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for wanting to hire contractors rather than have my in-laws over?

My husband and I bought our first house a few years ago, and to say it was a fixer upper would be an understatement.

The whole house needed re-doing, down to the electrical and plumbing.

We were excited about making the house our own.

The renovations went from exciting to stressful.

My father in law is a retired contractor so we were very excited to have him help.

Over the last several years, however, projects have become more and more stressful.

Him and my mother in law come over almost every day and stay very late.

We almost always end up getting some sort of carry out dinner and I don’t feel like I can relax when they are over.

They also need to get the work done quickly.

I’m currently 21 weeks pregnant and our house is a mess.

Projects are taking longer than planned and I’m stressed they won’t be done before the baby gets here.

We’re almost done with our master bathroom, but our hall bathroom needs serious work.

I’d like to hire a contractor just so the project can hopefully be done faster than if it were just my in-laws helping.

She has several reasons she wants to hire a contractor.

We have the money, my husband and I both work, so I’d just like to feel more in-control of our house.

My in laws are great people, but they tend to only do what they think is best. Like I’ll suggest something and they won’t think it’s the best idea and do something else.

It’s very frustrating and takes a long time to get anything done.

They definitely enjoy helping us though since they’re retired and it gives them a lot to do, so I feel like an ungrateful jerk for refusing their help. So, AITA?

It’s nice that the in-laws want to help, but the parents to be have the luxury of money and not time. Maybe they could hire someone to complete at least one of the projects so she can feel less stressed out when the baby comes. Although, it’s easier said than done to find a reliable contractor you can trust.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

Maybe there’s a middle ground.

This is a good question.

Another person was in a similar situation.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who totally rearranges her schedule, only to have her boss change plans last minute.
Here’s a suggestion about how to explain it to the in-laws.

The biggest problem here is that her due date is approaching, and the work is far from done. There might be too many projects for the  baby’s grandfather to complete them by then. Phrasing it that way might help. They don’t have all the time in the world. It needs to be done quickly.

Maybe the father-in-law has some friends he could call in to help speed up the work, or maybe he’d admit that he doesn’t have time to finish all the projects and understand that the priority is getting the work done before the baby arrives.

If they focus on what’s best for the baby, hopefully everyone will be on the same page.