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When you do a job that needs you working on your knees, wear knee pads. It will save your knees.
I do a project on my home when i feel like it. I go fishin' or boating when i feel like it. I explore the BLM lands or take photos of beautiful scenery when i feel like it. Noone knows how long they will be alive. Enjoy life.
You own the house, don't let the house own you! Take a break when you need to. The home improvement projects will still be there when you've rejuvenated and are ready to take them on again.
When I got to the big stuff I hired people. This is a different kind of exhausting (and to be honest the brunt fell on my wife since she works at home), easier on the knees at least.
I'm in an even more embarrassing position: I started moving into my house six months ago and never finished! I've still got unpacked boxes and bags in the basement from the move that I have yet to go through, stuff is still sitting down there where the movers left it, I can't get motivated to organize things, my mattress is still on the floor in the living room where I'm "camping out," and furniture isn't placed in the proper rooms yet. Nothing is hung on the walls. "Temp" window shades up. Oh, nor are the area rugs down! I do keep up with the dirty dishes and laundry, but I seem to be fine with this. I will "stage" it before I go to rent it out or put it on the market when I retire, but possibly not before.
Maybe we're just so highly evolved that we've reached the Buddist goal of "needing nothing"?
I vacillate between thinking I should kick my own butt and feeling I should go with the flow...
Take a break. Seriously. Enjoy what you have and what you've done thusfar. I went through that. We built a house in 1999, thought it would be our forever place and built around our young family. I toiled for 7 years on it, made it exactly what I wanted then we relocated to Montana.
I bought a house here, did some minor updates to the basement family room (made in comfortable and cozy), said " 'F' IT- I'm done for a while" and I enjoyed the last 6 years having fun raising my kids and enjoying the outdoors. The house can bloody well wait.
Life's too short. Don't toil over an object and miss out on the rest of life.
Throw a party! Kudos for all the work you've accomplished. But seriously, throw a party. Nothing motivates like anticipating guests!!
That is funny but so true! I started painting my kitchen last year and never finished, but now summers here and I know I'm going to have guests over so I have the desire to finish it again. Of course, I'll probably have to redo the whole thing again..
OP, I go through the same thing. I start a project and then life get's in the way and I have to stop and then I lose motivation, but you'll get there. Take the time you need and get back to it when you feel up to it. It will wait for you, trust me.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Thanks to all of you. I had planned to have everything done by Dec, but I'm going to take this summer off and if I'm not completely done by winter, oh well.
All of you are right...life is short, it's just a house, and I'm missing out on a lot of other things.
In retrospect, I think I probably should've started with the kitchen b/c then I would have entertaining space. The kitchen is functional now, it's just sooooo in need of painting and some minor repairs. Eh, but it's nice to sleep in a space that is completely done.
Anyway, I think I'm going to do as suggested and create a flexible plan, get better knee pads (or I might get someone else to do anything that requires kneeling), and then actually enjoy the house.
I think my next house is going to be a new build. And don't tell me about any potential problems with a new build. Just let me have the fantasy for awhile, lol.
I was in the same position. After years of starting and stopping endless projects I got mad and hired someone to come in and do a major remodel. We replaced the roof and garage doors and re-landscaped the front yard. We gutted and expanded the kitchen, reorganized the downstairs laundry/powder room, opened up and added wood floors in the dining room, replaced carpeting and painted the living room and painted the front hall. The house was a mess for several months but we are done and it looks great. Because of the addition we had to redo our backyard which we added a pool and patio. We still need do some landscaping in the back and remodel our upstairs. The next big project will be to redo our master bath. We are likely going to gut it and do new fixtures, paint and tile. The hall bath will also likely be repainted as well. This will likely happen in the fall. Do not look forward to the hassles but not much we can do. Jay
I will never do a house piecemeal again. Did that, got severely burned out and depressed, and it's never done. This time we lived in it and did absolutely nothing that wasn't necessary for the house to function while we saved $$ and refined our plans, and then we hired a pro to do the whole shebang. It was definitely an exercise in patience to get to this point, but the remodel is in full swing. In two more weeks it will be done, the mess will be cleaned up and taken away and then we kick back and enjoy. Waiting and saving took discipline, but it's been such a relief to not be in the middle of one project after another, and after it's done - we still won't be in the middle of one project after another.
I did wonder if there would be a time while we were saving up that I would be itching to jump in and start doing stuff myself. Nope. Didn't happen. In fact just the thought of starting up some project was enough to make me budget with a smile.
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