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Do any of you ever work like crazy on a large DIY project and then on the home stretch slow down or almost completely stop?
My Scenario:
One day out of the blue.... I got up, grabbed my ladder went upstairs and started scrapping popcorn ceiling off. It worked great and was easy. So I scrapped the other room, the hall, stairs and landing. After looking it over, I decided I would re-texture the walls and the ceilings.
Well heck - I might as well rip up the carpet and put down laminate.....including on the stairs. And while at it... I should replace all the doors and trim.
Might as well put up dance party lights in the boys' rooms too. But can't have cords everywhere... so I need to use wiremold... and put them on a switch. The old outlets look yucky and yellow.... might as well replace those too! Oops! We need window coverings in the boy's rooms too.
As you can see it keeps going and going and frankly I don;t want to do it anymore even though all I have left is one piece of trim to hang (and then I need to putty my corners, holes an touchup paint). Paid the french door I installed at the Master BR, put in the flooring transitions and wire up the kids' dance lights. But I am soooo over working on it.
Does this ever happen to anyone else? You see the finish line and just really don't want to do it anymore?
Some of us can multi-task with dignity and grace.
And some of us have home improvement A.D.D.
Not saying you're either, however, it seems like an issue of focusing that's going on.
Try doing one (1), small project and continue until you finish it. That will provide a sense of accomplishment. Then move on to the next one. Seeing a finished product gives a good feeling.
Think through what you plan to do before you do it.
Be sure to have the right tools, supplies, and equipment when you start. That way you're not running to the store to buy something (which interrupts your schedule).
Don't be afraid to hire out work if you need it done in a timely matter.
Ask for assistance if needed. Maybe you know someone who's good at finishing.
Sounds like you've gotten alot done already though. Good luck with the rest of your projects.
But once I get started, they do have a way of snowballing. Repairing a crack in the ceiling one night turned into painting two bedrooms, tearing out carpet in the bedrooms and on the staircase, cleaning and polishing the floors and the woodwork, and reorganizing two closets.
FOr me that usually happens with cleaning. I am going to clean a shlef in the closet. As I get giong, I realize I just need to clean out the whole closet. I take everything out of the closet and begin sorting it, some goes in the trash, some into piles for each kid to go into their room, some into a pile to be donated, some to go back into the closet. Then I get tired of it, or called to do something else and it sits. My wife comes along shakes her head picks it all up and stuffs it all back into the closet.
That does make sense why the punch out guy is a separate contractor! Maybe I need to hire a punch out guy. LOL Glad to hear that I am not the only one. Would be great if my wife came and finished it up! But that's not going to happen.
Only thing about hiring a handyman or somebody like that to do the last few things is I just know they are going to do work that I'll be critical of and be upset that they didn't do it as good as I could have done.... and I am free. HA!
Only thing about hiring a handyman or somebody like that to do the last few things is I just know they are going to do work that I'll be critical of and be upset that they didn't do it as good as I could have done.... and I am free. HA!
This is always a big question for me too. For example, I enjoy painting and I am too picky to hire someone to paint.
Now . . . when I sold my last house and needed the whole interior painted and some exterior parts, I DID hire a painting crew. That was a good example of getting something done by a certain deadline.
Friends and family make fun of me because I am always doing a DIY project. An old neighbor joked with me that instead of a silver spoon, I was born with a paint brush. I am generally a finisher. Rarely do I rip something apart and not finish. Im too OCD for that, HOWEVER I am famous for starting off with what I think will be a small project and it turns into something bigger.
Earlier this year we decided to get new counters. Then we caught a sale on granite. Wow, granite. Cool. Well...if im gonna have granite I have to do something with the cabinets. So I painted them. Well if IM gonna change the look of the whole kitchen, I will add glass to the upper cabinet doors. Then during all this I saw a SS fridge on some sort of closeout. It would match our SS stove. So I put the old fridge on craigslist, took that money and bought the new fridge. Well now that we got a new fridge, doesnt make sense to keep the outdated and old white dishwasher. That should be SS too. By the time we were done, the whole kitchen had changed. My husband laughed and said, "remember when we were just gonna replace the counters with Formica?"
Last year we got a new patio table on clearance. A patio set that was extremely expensive and very nice but not in my budget, so when I saw it on clearance I squealed. We stored it all winter and when came time to set it up we realized our existing patio was a too small. So we extended the patio. Again, my poor husband...."when we bought that damn thing I didnt realize I would end up doing cement work."
Our latest project? The dog peed on the carpeted stairs too often. She is neurotic. So as much as I scrubbed it, I could still smell pee. So I found some DIY decor blogs where women ripped up their carpet and took raw stairs and made them look finished with some elbow grease, paint and stain. I showed my husband the photos. He said it looked cool. So we rip up the carpet. Well our plywood stairs didnt look as spiffy as the decor blogs. So we ended up replacing the treads and adding hardwood to the landings. So I totally get one project turning into 3, 4, 5.......
Friends and family make fun of me because I am always doing a DIY project. An old neighbor joked with me that instead of a silver spoon, I was born with a paint brush. I am generally a finisher. Rarely do I rip something apart and not finish. Im too OCD for that, HOWEVER I am famous for starting off with what I think will be a small project and it turns into something bigger.
Earlier this year we decided to get new counters. Then we caught a sale on granite. Wow, granite. Cool. Well...if im gonna have granite I have to do something with the cabinets. So I painted them. Well if IM gonna change the look of the whole kitchen, I will add glass to the upper cabinet doors. Then during all this I saw a SS fridge on some sort of closeout. It would match our SS stove. So I put the old fridge on craigslist, took that money and bought the new fridge. Well now that we got a new fridge, doesnt make sense to keep the outdated and old white dishwasher. That should be SS too. By the time we were done, the whole kitchen had changed. My husband laughed and said, "remember when we were just gonna replace the counters with Formica?"
Last year we got a new patio table on clearance. A patio set that was extremely expensive and very nice but not in my budget, so when I saw it on clearance I squealed. We stored it all winter and when came time to set it up we realized our existing patio was a too small. So we extended the patio. Again, my poor husband...."when we bought that damn thing I didnt realize I would end up doing cement work."
Our latest project? The dog peed on the carpeted stairs too often. She is neurotic. So as much as I scrubbed it, I could still smell pee. So I found some DIY decor blogs where women ripped up their carpet and took raw stairs and made them look finished with some elbow grease, paint and stain. I showed my husband the photos. He said it looked cool. So we rip up the carpet. Well our plywood stairs didnt look as spiffy as the decor blogs. So we ended up replacing the treads and adding hardwood to the landings. So I totally get one project turning into 3, 4, 5.......
You guys sound just like us. I guess a home is always a project in progress and one thing will always lead to another.
Last edited by FloridaKash; 09-12-2012 at 08:06 AM..
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I am generally a finisher. Rarely do I rip something apart and not finish. Im too OCD for that, HOWEVER I am famous for starting off with what I think will be a small project and it turns into something bigger. 
