just before thanksgiving i began painting one of my son's bathroom... lots of brush work around tiling, vanity, toilet, mirror, etc,etc... then christmas happened and then it was chilly and i don't like painting when it's cold (and cleaning up outside-we have septic)... i am thinking that i should start again on it soon-mainly just need to roll now! (but, i've just decided he really needs a new light in there, and that should be picked out before i finish that room.......

i'm a big starter in lots of things, but don't necessarily follow through til the end... i often need a specific motivator/deadline (real one-not imaginary!! a big party, company, a move, etc,etc!)) to help motivate me to follow through on lots of things... :( i definitely struggle w/ ADD!

That's totally me. Like busybee, I need a forced deadline to get certain projects accomplished. Last year, we were having guests stay for a week, so that forced me to finish making panels for my living room and have the chairs recovered. Now I have BIL and his family coming in mid-March, so that has forced me to finally get the carpet in our basement replaced as well as buy new furniture for it. My kids use it as a rec room but we had to rip up the carpet nearly a year ago and hadn't bothered to replace it (incontinent, dying dog who has since been put to sleep). The kids rarely went down there since it wasn't comfortable for them, so this is forcing me to get it redone and I'm actually looking forward to a nice, new bright space.

My big problem is indecisiveness. I will spend a long time looking for something, and then even once I pretty much know what I want, I still delay making the decision. Right now, I picked out new bedding for dd's room which we promised to redo for her birthday (last week) but even though I've looked at it several times, I just haven't gotten my credit card out and made the sale online. And I can't paint the room until I have the bedding. Same thing for a rug for my front door (another casualty to my ailing dog). I've got one or two that I like, both would be fine, but can't force myself to make a decision and delay, delay, delay! UGH!

With that said, I should really just get my credit card NOW, order the rug for my front door and the bedding for dd's room, but instead, I'm sitting here typing this and now I need to get dinner started. Perhaps after that is done, I will be motivated to get those two orders in.

So yep, non-finisher here too. My house is always a work in progress - I feel terrible when I go to someone's house and see how "finished" it looks to me, even though I feel like I never have one room that is totally done.

Is this when I mention I have a banker's box filled with "missed" Christmas decor sitting in the dining room? A couple small wreaths, a stuffed reindeer and a Christmas gnome. I have had 7 weeks to carry these out to the barn. I haven't done it. I have no excuse None.

busybee - It ALWAYS seems to be the wrong weather for painting. When it's nice outside, I don't want to be inside painting. So I think, "That's a winter project." Winter gets here and it gets dark too early to paint after work and who wants to spend all weekend painting!

fourkids4us - I'm not as indecisive, maybe, but I get a concept in mind and don't want to deviate even though I can't find just-the-right elements. Or a website or store is sold out of one element, so everything has to change. One step forward, 6 steps back! I've gotten used to entertaining while projects are in progress. As long as everything is clean, I'm OK. Plus, it's always interesting to hear people comment (unasked) on how I should do such-and-such.

jakabedy, I had a Christmas cookie jar sitting on my dining room table until last week when I moved it to the kitchen table so that it would remind me to put it away (have to go by the kitchen table to get upstairs where it goes). In the last week, it has moved back and forth b/w the kitchen table and counter instead of going upstairs. It will probably end up back on the dining room table soon! In my defense, back when I was putting my decorations away, I couldn't find the box it belongs it. To put it back in the closet w/o a box will require some rearranging which is part of the reason it hasn't gone upstairs yet!

java, my kitchen has been on the TO DO list for seven years. It's not too bad, but has several things horribly out of date. I keep telling myself that if we take the doors off the pantry and tear into the pantry wall, which we need to do to see what is behind some of the space, then it will force us to at least start moving toward renovating. And then I can act like we are in the midst of a reno and not feel as "embarrassed" at the dated state of my kitchen LOL. Of course, it might stay that way for another seven years!

I guess I should also add that I'm not really indecisive (well, certain things I suppose), but rather a procrastinator. I mean I KNOW that I am buying the bedding, but for some reason just haven't ordered it. And now that my dinner is in the oven, I'm HERE again instead of placing that order! :)

I ripped out the carpet in the bonus/room/den over our garage )slanted walls) last JUNE while DH was out of town. Want to turn that room into a guest bedroom. Carpet was old, stained, matted mauve. Nothing I did or paid someone to do would make it look any better. Add to that one of the dogs having an accident, and out came the box cutter. Ripped that stuff right out.
So NOW, almost 10 months later, that rooms still sits with the underlayment showing. I have been very indecisive about paint color for the walls, and still need to pick out the new laminate flooring (no more carpet)... so I have procrastinated something awful. DH doesn't do the redecorating around here and seldom sees the need to do anything.... so it all waits on me.
I am about ready to invite some out of town relatives jut to get myself a deadline. See, when I should be up there prepping the walls, here i sit...................... grrrr...

Well now, I'll just pull up a chair and join my people. Naturally, my willingness to drop everything and join in is part of the reason I take so long to finish a project. I'll always pick going to lunch or meeting for coffee or even picking up the dry cleaning over the job at hand.

My husband was out of town for a few days so I impulsively decided it was a good time to paint the powder room. I foolishly thought I could do the whole thing in 3 and 1/2 days. No plan. The paint not even picked out.

Many of the people here could finish the job and still have time for their normal life. But that's not me. The room isn't close to finished, I've been distracted by other things, and I'm already thinking 'what am I going to do in the laundry room?' instead of focusing on completing this one task.

I do have a vision now of how I want the powder room to look so I'm getting closer. I'm not having guests until the 29th so I have plenty of time.

Uh, hhireno.... today is the 23rd.... six days... just sayin'
:)

"so I have plenty of time" - hahahahahaha! Famous last words associated with this thread

I can't seem to stay focused on one project for very long. Don't know if it's ADD or old age!!

Every night when I'm on here I should be doing something else, but this is more fun and doesn't cause me stress.

I'm so bad I have a entire page on my iPhone notes app with lists by room in my house of projects that I've either started and what specifically needs completed or by room what is on my "to do" list for future projects.

I'm making shades for my FR and need to make three of them. I have one done, one cut out and pinned and I made myself cutout the third, but it's in a pile on the work table. I WILL GET THEM DONE THIS WEEK! I'm not allowing myself to do any other projects until those three blinds are done�.It's been 3 weeks already and not only have I not gotten my blinds done yet, but have stuck to my promise to not do anything else either. So I've gotten pretty good at planning and purchasing project pieces/parts. Just need to work on the execution part!

caroleoh - I enter my to do list in my phone calendar, breaking each item into a timeframe then checking my progress against it. Sometimes I actually "Beat the Clock". Otherwise, I just move the whole shebang to another day, week, or month.

It's rare for me to ever finish anything. I will get a project 98% done and then for some reason I just can not get that last little bit finished. I started stripping wallpaper in my DR last November and I still haven't finished painting. I have lots of company coming in a few months so I do have deadlines to meet. I could be cleaning out closets right now BUT of course I can't do that until I finish painting the DR and of course I can't paint because I am having my coffee and on the computer writing this. Maybe I can paint after I take the dog to the vet, go to the drug store and the post office, have lunch with DD, shop a bit ect., ect.... No, can't do it then I will have to fix dinner then, right??? There is just no end to it, literately.

Was hoping to recover kitchen chairs--found the fabric, but over MLK weekend I wound up painting the MBR closet so we could have an Elfa system installed from the Container Store. So, the chairs will have to wait for my Spring Break week in a few more weeks. Although, I have to travel mid-week, so that will take away some of my free time.

Trying to do anything other than basic cleaning while school is in session is next to impossible.

My holiday decorations still look nice...um, no not Valentine's or President's Day. Try XMAS! Yup. They're still up.

Just a few years ago they'd have come down right after New Year's and at this point I'd have some forsythia out and would be looking ahead to spring but now, approaching 50, I have become completely indifferent.

There are things that could be done to improve the decor but after 15 years of tweaking and fussing I'm more or less done and just can't summon up much interest anymore. And this is coming from someone who really really obsessed over aesthetics to the point of insomnia.

If you pretty much stop starting new projects none of this is a problem!:)

hahahahaha, jennava & javachick, see I knew I found my people.

Yeah, yeah, famous last words...and here I am doing THIS and nothing to further along that project. But my husband is back now and will be giving me the hairy eyeball about the disruption of the powder room being out of commission. The exercise climbing the stairs to the upstairs bathrooms is good for you.

tick, tick, tick, the day is wasting away...

(Sigh!) I'm right there with the rest of you! It's reassuring to know that I'm in good company, though (LOL)!
Lynn

jakabedy--you inspired me to carry down the last bin of christmas lights that had been sitting by our basement door for the past month+ ---little by little i had been carrying down decs and putting away-but not that last bin!?? thx!

After reading this thread and posting to it yesterday, I finally motivated myself to put the last two Christmas decorations away. I still haven't purchased the bedding for dd's bedroom though. I keep a TO DO list as well - it seems I only get around to checking off one thing each week. I promised dd to fix a necklace of hers back in September and that has carried over on my To Do list all these months. Ok, ok, I'm getting up now to get my wallet so that I can actually order that bedding, and maybe since I'll have my credit card out, I'll finally order the rug for the entryway. Of course, I'm really supposed to be working right now (make my own schedule), but figure I'll get to that this afternoon. :)

no progress here.... but I did play a few games of Words with Friends.... i can so easily find the time wasters.
Tomorrow. Scarlet, I am going to go buy the paint for that bedroom, AND.... look at the flooring.

So glad to hear I am not alone!

Oh, every single room in my house has at least one, and more likely six, unfinished projects/tasks in it. My goal before Christmas was to have ONE room with nothing left undone, but . . . I failed.

In one of the bathrooms all I'd have to do to call it "done" is replace one weird lightbulb.

In my dining room, the paint job needs "a few" touchups, and I just had my son carry the paint cans into my bedroom to hide them b/c we have guests coming.This is the third time we've hidden the cans since I painted the room last fall, and I estimate that the actual amount of time it would take to do the touchups is around seven minutes, including cleanup.

Some projects are bigger--I want new shades for the living room. This involves measuring. So I will likely die with the old shades in place. And I am only 45.

Okay leafy, you really made me LOL.

My progress: I bought 2 mirrors & will return one after I see which one looks better. I put together the shelf. I put up a new curtain rod. I painted a foam board with a sample of the color (which was actually a waste of time because there's no way I'll be sampling multiple colors and going back & forth looking for the perfect one. I'm sure that's the color I'm going to use. Who am I kidding that I needed to see a sample first?). I picked out, but did not buy, the new glass globes I want for the light fixture.

Once I stop wasting, I mean spending quality time here with my friends, I'm going over to my sister's to pick up some supplies and then I'll have no excuse not to get started in there.

Although this words with friends thing sounds interesting, maybe I should look into that first.

hhireno... Words with Friends is on Facebook, it is like scrabble. Usually play two or three games at a time, with DH (who is sitting across the room with his laptop) and then some other friends. Love word games, for the mental stimulation.

And it aids in my procrastination efforts of course!

So today, instead of cleaning out the room I have to paint, I am watching taped Dr Oz shows, emailing, and checking with you guys on here. So much for my plans huh?

Have a wonderful Saturday all of you.....

I've made progress today. While my duvet cover, sheets and towels were being washed I removed the art over the bathtub and and the towel bar and patched the wall

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anticipating hanging my train towel rack over the tub.

Then I removed art over the twa-let and patched the wall

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to hang these shelves for 3-D art

Raised the towel ring

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Finished sanding around my ready-to-hang concealed medicine cabinet I made

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Then I assembled this hamper

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But I'd rather be doing what I was doing last weekend

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OK. Lunch is over. Back to work!

Java

Java, impressive! I want to see that piece of artwork that is in your bathroom. It looks very interesting! And what an adorable little girl. Love her huge brown eyes and long lashes! Her eyes are very similar to my oldest dd, who at nearly 13, occasionally puts on my mascara and makes me cringe! I told her that the one kind of make up she will never ever need is mascara but she's at that age of sometimes experimenting with makeup.

As for me, I'm happy to report that I finally ordered the bedding for my 7 y/o as well as the rug for my entry way. I also got my older dd to pick out new bedding for her room (girls are swapping rooms and one will be repainted - ugh, don't want to thing about THAT project). Of course, I haven't ordered that bedding yet, but it's on sale through Monday so I will definitely not procrastinate on that.

No projects for me today - three basketball games, lacrosse tryouts and a birthday party for me. Dh is out of town, so I've been running all over town by myself today! And tomorrow is like a carbon copy of today with activities. The upside to dh being gone is that I'm catching up on some shows in my Netflix cue that I know he wouldn't be interested in watching. And I can stay up very late (I'm a night owl) and not feel guilty about it. :)

Sometimes I think I read this forum instead of doing projects! I have something started in every room and my kitchen and family room has been semi gutted since thanksgiving 2010. Eeeeep!

Well I managed to clean out the room upstairs. It was empty back last summer, when I got rid of the humungous tv and sofa and ripped the carpet out. Amazing what migrated there over the months, odds and ends of stuff that need a real home, pictures, lamps, candles, blankets and pillows..............
Soooo.... I piled it all in the small back bedroom. for now. DH has promised to help me get the walls ready for paint and I hope to get started monday. Yay..... at least it is a start. Just took me 10 months!

Javachik--thanks for posting! This gave me a much needed kick in the pants. And your daughter is beautiful!

This thread totally captures my m.o. I considered starting a similar thread a couple weeks ago, but I got distracted.. ;-)

Lately, my MBR is the unending 'work in progress.' I spent several months shopping for a new duvet cover, then finally gave up (couldn't find the colors I wanted) and purchased a regular comforter. It took me two months to put the new comforter on the bed & store my old duvet covers. For about a year, I've intended to buy new chairs to replace the wicker chairs at the foot of the bed. I finally ordered some a couple weeks ago, and DH assembled them last weekend. Now I need to work on replacing art in that room. I framed & hung prints over the bed yesterday, but I still need something to put over DH's nightstand.

I promised myself that I wouldn't post to this thread until I'd made progress on at least one more task! So that motivated me to do a 'test run' of various framed prints that I have in other rooms to see if anything works in the MBR, and confirmed what I suspected (none of them quite suit the space over DH's nightstand). So I will probably order something tonight. This thread also motivated me to frame one of my uncle's drawings (I bought the frame in September(!) but just ordered a custom mat last weekend).

I ordered custom wood blinds for the MBR in November(!), and they're still in the boxes in the sunroom. My goal for today is to decide whether we can hang the blinds ourselves, or whether we will hire a handyman. I couldn't hang them when they first arrived because I had major neck pain in Nov-December, but that subsided in early January, so it's no longer an excuse.

Hope everyone is tired from all the projects they worked on this weekend! I had stuff to pick up at Lowes, BBB, WalMart and Harris Teeter (ymmmm - espresso beans) this morning. When I got home I finished up painting in my bath, installed a new kitchen curtain rod/hung the curtain. I need another panel for the other kitchen window; hope to pick that up tomorrow. Dinner time now. Have a good week!

Look at the eyelashes on that beautiful child.

Oh, my, the little girl is adorable. What I would give for those lashes!

The powder room is painted and my sister is coming over this week to fix all my little mistakes. I bought a new mirror, light fixture, shelf, and 2 things to hang on the wall. A friend is coming over to hang those because electricity scares me, the walls are plaster so it's harder than just banging in a little nail, and I can't hang things straight to save my life.

My husband agreed to getting an estimate for having the laundry room dry-walled. I'd be willing to paint dry-wall but I do not have the skills or patience to paint ugly paneling.

I will tackle his office but I think I've learned, the hard way, to have a plan in place and to do it in a more sensible way than the haphazard way I just did the powder room. I think painting larger walls will be easier than working in the small space of the powder room with the toilet and the sink in the way. More famous last words perhaps?

For some people it is more about the journey than the destination. I don't think that is a bad outlook on projects or on life. If the projects are getting in the way of living your life then finish them and move on. If the projects are part of a mix of living your life then live your life and enjoy and don't worry about being "done." Being "done" is not all that it's cracked up to be :-p.

I'm making progress on the MBR. I took down the old blinds & sheers, & DH and I hung two of the new blinds today. I marked the holes for the brackets on the other two, and DH said he'll hang those after work tomorrow. I'm still indecisive about the remaining art for the room. But I'm determined not to quit at the 90/95% point.

I also (finally!) experimented with gel staining one of the spare leaves for my DR table. We weren't sure whether we'd need to have it profesionally refinished, but the gel stain seems to be working. My mom is coming to visit this weekend (which is a big part of my motivation to get some things done), so I'll have to put the gel staining on hold for a couple weeks. But at least I know that the table is DIY-able.

My friend came over to hang the new light fixture. Easy-peasey. Except that we decided to move it up higher on the wall. That required cutting out part of the wall with a power saw. Oye, the noise, the dust, the smell! Now I need my sister to patch & repaint.

Bottom line is the room was not ready when I had guests here on Wednesday. Well, technically, they could use the room but in total darkness. I sent them to an upstairs bathroom. It worked out fine.

well...this thread helped give me the kick in the rump i needed to finish up the bathroom... finished painting(not too cold out so was able to open the window) and changed out the terrible hollywood type bulb light bar---by myself!! (not so hard---the hard part was finding the correct breaker for his bathroom--i had alot of them labeled already, but it still took about 8-9 tries before i found the right one...but that's 8-9 more labeled now!)
hung a new shower curtain that i've had for months and cleaned and put down new bath rugs... he gets home tonite for spring break!
now, on to my other guys' bathrooms...??? ok well... not today!

YAY for you busybee3!!!