I am glad that it’s the beginning of a new week. All our doing last week just about did me in. It was stressful.
On the upside, we finished 3 projects. The mail box post, which we repaired & painted, is now sporting a new shiny black mailbox. The inside molding around the new [non-leaky] window in the bathroom is caulked & painted. And the dingy old sheer panels on the home study’s French doors are tea-dyed a lovely shade of tan, ironed & back in place.
On the other hand, we started about a dozen more projects that for one reason or another we couldn’t finish. I really wanted to have more projects completed by now, but everywhere we turned we encountered obstacles. Weather. Indecisiveness. Lack of supplies. Whatever we wanted not available. No-shows by tradesmen. Hours spent online trying to find furniture/accessories that will fit into our small room dimensions. And on & on it went.
Four years ago when we decided to stay in this house & remodel/update it, I had no idea that we’d still be working on it today. I thought that 1 year– maybe 2 years, tops— would be all the time that we’d need to re-do the house. Not that I thought that everything in the house would be completely finished, mind you; I just figured that we’d be where we should be for people living in a thirteen year old house.
However, despite my above grumbling, I will say that the progress we made last week is wonderful & encouraging. I’d even venture to say that with one more week like this last one, we’ll have all the bones of our house in place. Then there will be photos for you, my gentle readers– & a long-awaited sense of completion & belonging for me.
Until then, ever onward go I.
{An observation: this situation reminds me of when I got my Master’s degree. I planned for it to take me 3 years, but for one reason or another it took my 6 1/2 years to complete. Near the end of my studies, I didn’t care what courses I took. I just wanted the whole process finished so I could move on with my life. Same feeling here & now.}
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Home improvement projects never die. They re-create themselves in other areas of the house 🙂 And once they are finished and a little time passes, you will want to re-do that room again anyway. Cheers and congrats on getting some of your listed items crossed off!
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Cheri, you are so right. I tell you, this decision to stay here in this house has, in the end, sent me down a rabbit hole a la Alice.
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It’s like painting the Forth Bridge, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge) once it’s done, you have to start over again. Projects expand to fill the time available. Any other trueisms I can mangle? Erm..there will always be something else you want to do. Glad you got a few items completed and had a productive week. Polly x
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Polly, I know that you’re correct about projects around the house. I’m just tired of the whole re-do everything approach we’ve been wrestling with for 4 years now. I’ll be much happy when it is just one or two changes here or there. Doing it all is very overwhelming when interior design is not your area of expertise.
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Alice, you have a lovely home….and you’re a much better interior decorator than you think! You could move frequently, like we do! Friday is our big day.
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Elizabeth, thanks. We moved so often up until this home, that now that I’m here I’m sticking. Which is part of why I want this all to be a memory– and not an ongoing activity.
I’ve been thinking about you and your move. So, did you find a house? Or back into an apartment for a while?
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We found a house and hope to hear by tomorrow if they’ve accepted our final counter offer. I’m very excited–it’s exactly the neighborhood I wanted. So we will be in an apartment for awhile. Packers come Wed an Thurs and the truck comes Fri.
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Hey! Great news. Hang in there & let me know what happens next, ok?
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Oh, my, big changes in Beanyland! Now that I am out of allergy hibernation I plan on stopping by more often. 🙂
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la peregrina, I’m happy that you’re feeling better. Our big changes seem to be taking FOREVER so I’m sure you’ll get to read some more of my home decorating angst & irritation posts!
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Sometimes it really is easier just to move! Unfortunately, the “newness” doesn’t last forever. 🙂
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Margaret, you’ve got a point. We decided to stay here and fix it up thinking that it’d be easier/less expensive to do that. Now, four years later, I wonder if it was.
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Ha,classic home improvement…gets you every time. I swear, the more we plan to do this and that, the more things (big and small) tend to go totally wrong. We’ve learned by now to just decide on something to do and go with it and somehow it gets done a lot faster!
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Kristen, good advice. I try to stick to one project at a time, but something always involves waiting for some piece of the project that we don’t have. Then we move on to the next project without finishing the first one– and the same thing happens. Pretty soon we have 10 half-finished projects, and I’m losing my mind trying to keep track of the status of all of them. *meh*
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Good job on getting those things done! I totally know what you mean about starting up new stuff: it’s always something. 😦 And then, just when you think you’re done, the FIRST projects you did start needing repair. Ugh.
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Melisa, thanks. I think that it is this never-ending cycle of working on a home that wears me out & makes me feel stressed about doing anything more around the house. Yet there’s no way out unless you rent, I guess. Or let the property fall to bits.
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