That......THAT is all that went wrong with yours??????? Oiy. Consider yourself very lucky. My typing fingers have gotten sore in other threads detailing my problems so I won't do it again today.

I have that type of switch in a couple of places in our whole house reno. I now remember which is which, but I did have to make the electrician change the wiring in one because it didn't make sense in my head, and I was forever pushing both switches to get the one I wanted.

Your title reminds me of what my cousin always tells the OCD Perfectionist Royale me: perfect is the enemy of the good. Sometimes I want to smack her when she says that! ;)

If that were the only thing that had gone wrong, I'd be really happy. And in reality, I am really happy. But there have been lots of bumps along the way, and we're not quite done yet. Our floors ended up not quite level despite all the work on it. I've already scratched that floor too. I couldn't get the windows I envisioned and still maintain some symmetry on it. We had to go with a narrow 36" space between our island seating and a wall. And so on and on. The light switch is just the latest one, and when I was dwelling on it instead of sleeping last night, I realized I need to let some of these things go.

I see. The late night dwelling is what kills me, too! On the bright side, sounds like your finish line is in sight, no?

I obsessed over our kitchen remodel, too. The crappy electrician put in a new light switch on the same wall as an old one. The old one is a good 4 inches lower than the new one, and he didn't leave any slack to move the new one down. Why didn't he install it evenly with the old one??? Had to let that one go and now I rarely think about it. The grout color is not what we wanted, it came out lighter than the sample. Drove me nuts for a while, but i let it go. I don't care anymore. There are other things like these but the point is, let it go girl!

Bless you Windy. I make myself CRAZY with trying to do it perfectly. I have such a hard time believing that it can be good enough! I'm only replacing a stove and microwave - which is creating some other remodeling, like moving a microwave into an existing island and putting a real hood over a new range and I am driving myself nuts. Thanks for posting this!

Ha ha ha (chuckles the real OCD Queen of the Details)!

Seriously, I feel your pain for it has been mine....

I am so anal that I don't let anyone do anything without me here. The very first outlet my electrician put in (after agreeing with me about even, level, plumb, etc.) was 1/2" lower than the one 6' away. Yes. 6'. I could see it. He changed it and got the picture. Bless him, he asks me about every single crazy detail and I appreciate it.

I wrote recently that I had to remember that the reason everyone else's stuff looks so perfectly beautiful, or the way I want mine to be, is because I'm appreciating it. Mine? I'm nit picking apart.

What does bother me are things I cannot fix for a few $100s, that my STBX, GC husband screwed me with. The things that cost me $1000s.
The plumbing.
The bad roof. (1/3rd left to finish)
Windows I HATE, but am glad to finally have in. (I'll replace them someday.)
The electricity I'm slowly re-rewiring.
The gorgeous hardwood floor badly installed, warping and cupping. (I will tear it out someday.)
The horrible grout lines in the MBR (unfinished) shower I see with every shower. (I'll SERIOUSLY tear this out MYSELF)
No gutters (another story of being screwed).
A cesspool where front gardens were. (A patio & porch are in my dreams.)
No driveway. (Again, in my dreams.)
No siding (just 1/2 the back left to do after 7 years).

I'm sorry. Not only do I digress, I'm really ranting.
The thing is, I see these big items even more than the small, because they are SO big. But slowly I'm making the big and small perfect. I'm working to pay for it, so they're all gonna be the way IIIIIIIII want them to be.

Perfect is obtainable if one is willing to do it slowly, wait for it and of course, pay for it. That outlet thing? It would bug me to no end unless it's level, even, plumb and logical! I might have to tear your kitchen out.

Since you mentioned light switches, I will just tell a little story that highlights my obsessiveness, and in the grand scheme of things, I'm usually fairly easy. My dear father volunteered to help me work on my kitchen. He likes to do framing and hang sheetrock, and doesn't like nit-picky finish work, so he was happy to open up a wall between kitchen and DR, frame new header, move some outlets and switches, and hang sheetrock. (With my help.)

After our discussion about where to put an outlet, light switch, and phone jack, on the kitchen side of the wall, he decided to do a 4-gang switch on the DR side, eliminating the single switch in the kitchen, and so that I can turn on several lights from a central location. All well and good, because the two switch boxes would have been back-to-back anyway. But he forgot about my outlet in the kitchen, which I planned for the perfect spot for a message center/charging station. He also forgot my phone jack. He had the sheetrock up before I noticed--I even put in the last few screws because it was in a tight corner, and he's a lefty, so he needed me to finish the sheet. Then I noticed there was no outlet. Of any kind. Oh my, the look on his face when I asked where he was going to put my remote-phone outlet and jack. Head-thumping disappointment. This is the 'I'm fairly easy' part: I said no big deal, this will be the snack cabinet--the message center will be on the other side of the fridge, smack in the middle of the kitchen (where the old outlet and phone jack were/are located.) Oh, well.

This is the 'I'm obsessive' part: When he put in the 4-gang switch he just pulled down the wires and hooked them up with no thought to which light each one controlled. I couldn't stand it! It made more sense to me that one would start with the light in the room in which the switch was located as #l, the next room (kitchen) as #2, the mudroom #3, and the outside light #4, in the order that the rooms are lined up. Right? I asked if it would be too much trouble to change them around, which he did, shaking his head the whole time. He loves my kitchen, but I'll betcha when he looks at that wall, he always remembers re-doing the switch box!

He's never used a computer, but if he ever sees this--thanks, Dad, I love ya!

WindyCityLindy, hang in there! Someday soon there will be another newbie to this site, who will post a similar thread, and you'll have stories to tell. :)

I need to let go of perfect and what if in my new build. I spent hours planning but it was such a learning process I made a lot of little mistakes. My cabinets are a little on the too creamy side, the sink I chose the apron doesn't mount flush with the cabinets, should have thought about the trim in the house and the white I chose, should have chose my pendants light first before the electrician wire them and I could go on. Do I love my kitchen yes but there are things I would change. I just have to accept that my vision in my head doesn't exactly match the reality. The more I read on the this forum I learn I am not the only one which helps me realize that things not being perfect is completely normal.

I get this way with SO many things in life. I have gone YEARS with nothing on my walls because I wanted and waited for *THE* perfect things, and I had no idea what they were. So instead of *wrong... I did nothing (which in reality was worse)

Everything in my place is a work in progress. Things rarely get finished, because something is always sub-par...not ideal...not PERFECT. I paralyze myself with indecision. I focus on my regrets and can't see the good.

I am ***REALLY*** working at not doing this. It's SOOOO hard!! So hard. We are doing a small budget update in our place. I have to constantly remind myself that things will not be perfect. (My mind's idea of my perfect space anyway) I have to remember I AM not trying to build my dream kitchen, I am trying to improve the one I have, on a BUDGET. I have to consider the choices I make, try to make intelligent ones that keep my overall budget in mind, and then once I make a decision to *ACCEPT* it.

I have to constantly remind myself that:

This is NOT (hopefully) our forever home. (Maybe another 5 yrs or so....)
It is NOT my dream remodel. Think lipstick on a pig here....
Everything I put in does not HAVE to be the best there is to offer.

Example of how easily this can get away from me....We need a new dishwasher in the update, and decided the cost difference between a good dishwasher and a great one was worth it the extra money. When I get to the appliance showroom, I like the fancy schmancy one much better. The salesman had to draw me back into reality. I don't need the bells and whistles it had, I really didn't. He did the same thing when looking at ovens. I wanted the Wolf... he said, unless your home is of a value that a buyer would expect a Wolf oven..it certainly is NOT... OR unless it was our forever home, he would advise against spending that kind of money. Again, in my situation He is 100% right. My perfect kitchen would have a Wolf, but my budget update will not. nor will it have a $2500. dishwasher. Luckily, he wasn't the type of salesperson that takes advantage. In fact, he steered me to a pair of display wall ovens that have never been hooked up for a great discount. They happened to be the very ovens I wanted in my previous remodel that never happened. (Before I learned about Wolf Ovens and had myself convinced I had to have them)

My current obsession is over the microwave placement. (My own post to follow) I have to determine this so I can decide if I can get those display ovens. So everyone march on over to my new Microwave post and weigh in! ;)

I obsess over everything. Our work has not even begun and I can't sleep over things. I know it will be awful but it's so hard to please me. I expect perfection for everything. Why shouldn't it be if people use their brain and do things correctly??? I'm sure my GC will be glad to get rid of me in the end. lol

My voice teacher used to tell me something that I'll never forget.
"Perfection is a passive form of self hate".

I am let down by most things. Even when I planned our wedding (actually did that twice). After the fact when I watch the video I find things I want to change or am annoyed that my gown wasn't tucked under just so.

As I'm getting older, I think I'm much better than I was but I know this reno will be so challenging because I will stare at every millimeter and be sick to my stomach over anything that isn't the way I wanted it.

That being said, as time passes I am usually okay with all of these things, but now going in I need to remind myself that in time I'll love even the "mistakes".... I HOPE! : )

I can totally identify with everything everyone's saying! I've been called a perfectionist and OCD more times than I care to admit ;) My hubby and I are just beginning the home building process (had our closing Friday - yippee!!). For the past 6 months, I've been reading and re-reading threads on gardenweb about "Small things that get forgotten", "Things I wish I had done differently"....and the list goes on and on. Now that we are finally getting started, I can just feel my mind going into complete overdrive! Looking forward to becoming a more active participant in the Gardenweb fun!

To keep myself from obsessing all night, I have to take two AdvilPM every night! I'm hoping that once we're settled in the new house I'll be able to fall asleep and stay asleep without a sleep aid!!

The thing I obsessed the most about was lighting and paint color. So far, I'm happy with the lights and the trim color, but I'm still so nervous about the wall colors. I told the guy at Sherwin Williams to lock the door if he sees me coming :-) I just keep telling myself that I can change it later if I hate it. Even though I know it would be quite awhile before I actually changed it, it does calm me down to say it!

I've been to five funerals in the past four months. It helps me put things into perspective. Stuff that got my knickers in a twist turned out to be things I not only can live with, but don't even notice anymore.

Oh WindyCityLindy everything will be okay. After reading all the posts, I vividly recalled our kitchen reno 10 years ago and all its problems. We are in the midst of a new build and so far everything that was not perfect when it was done no longer bothers me. And, I am a perfectionist/detail-oriented person. The flooring is going in today. The color is much lighter than I remembered, the edges have a little bit of a lip and I thought it would be laid with a vertical look, but the installer said horizontal would be better. As I walked away from the house, the internal message was "wait until the furniture is in" because I will really like the light-filled room." Hang in there; we have all been through this in some form or another.

MAMA GOOSE!
I have two switches I have to have my fellow swap sides on.
2 years after 1 was put in, I'm still flipping the wrong switch. I get YOU!

Janjan212? Is it worse? I've gone with nothing, too. Not even paint.

Mine is my forever home. I will never afford my solar panels again. I will never qualify for a loan again. I will never find or afford what I've got again. I lay in bed in the mornings thinking about how to make things happen. How to organize, how to build, how to use what I have. How get make "perfect" for me.

Ok, there can be a lot of self-hate there, (slap your teacher, 2LittleFishies) but let's just throw that on the pile I already shovel out from under, OK?
I'm working on all of it.

Work in progress. Baby steps. Someday. But perfect to me! :)

You all sound exactly like me. I think we should all get together and review our medication list. ;) Ah, medication..... another thing I obsess about.

Ahhh... welcome to my world- I obesses over everything! Every detail of every situation. It is endless. A kitchen reno really fed into my disorder:) Backsplash decision kept me awake literally for 3 weeks and then another week once I put it in!
Hang in there- once its all in and you actually USE it rather than pore over every detail of it, it gets better!

Oh my gosh! I am SOOO OCD! And then, I read this post about LIGHT SWITCHES and immediately run into the kitchen to see what I am missing!! I never even thought of the dang switches! You people are adding to my troubles! STOP it already!!! LOL

On another note, is OCD inherited? My 6yr old granddaughter lives with me, we had dinner at one of my daughter's house the other night. She lives 20 minutes away. On the way home, I noticed the little chatterbox was awfully quiet. I tried talking to her, but she just seemed in her own little world. We turn the corner to our house, and she pipes up and says "NANA, guess what!?!? We passed 103 cars on the way home"!! OH MY GOSH Poor thing!!!

"Perfection is a passive form of self hate".

2LittleFishies...boy, did that resonate...I think we may have more in common than our love for yellow cabinets. ;)

To the OP...I totally commiserate. I actually keep telling myself I'll stop coming to this forum since my kitchen is finished and I keep thinking about the little mistakes or the compromises I had to make due to budget. Trying to let it all go and enjoy the (truly) wonderful-for-me new space.

When my light switches were installed a few of the double ones didn't make sense for me. I asked our GC to rewire 3 sets of them and he commented that then they would be wrong. I just told him "maybe wrong in your head but they'll be correct in my head" He rewired them for me.

When our kitchen (actually whole-house reno - talk about OCD obsessing overload) was finished I second guessed every single decision wrt form. Fortunately though, because of my obsessiveness with graph paper and drawing floor plans, the function of my kitchen is perfect.

What I came to realize was how fortunate I was to be able to do the renovations pretty much the way I wanted. Now if only my undercounter MW would die so that I could buy the MW drawer that I should have bought in the first place! Oh and while I'm at it I should probably try to wean myself away from this site. maybe next week

hmmm...how to channel this to my DW. Currently trying to get a double gang switch box, double gang outlet box and a single box for a telephone connection to all align perfectly in relation to the glass subways and white grout on our backsplash. Each of the cover plates is 1.5" from its neighbor. It's a configuration that makes even a 1/32" misalignment stand out like a sore thumb. (I'll never repeat this setup!). I'll be resetting the boxes from behind (had to cut a hole in the drywall) to get things "perfect"!

Don't tell anyone that the range is abt 1.5 inches off center with the niche and the hood and they probably won't notice...

and of all the wild-grain panels in our cabs, naturally the worst one was positioned right square in a plain panel where it insults me by looking me in the eye each time I hang up my towels ... and an armload of wild-grain oak floorboards that were supposed to be positioned under the peninsula so no one would see them, well, they're right in my line of sight as soon as I enter the work area...aargh!

Thank you for this post. . . the title sums it all up.

This is probably the main reason my remodel still isn't finished. I've sort of been trying to accept the non-perfect things before I can move on.

The latest (and granted, it's an old house and things 'happen' in old houses!) is the kitchen door that I now have to replace. Ever since I repainted it and put it's lovely new hardware on, it wouldn't close. I have no idea why- couldn't seem to figure it out. So, one day in a fit of 'getting the upper hand' of the door, I was finally able to close it. Only problem, I couldn't re open it! This is the door leading to the most used outside door of my home and leading to the basement, ie: all the tools, laundry, etc. I tried for a few days- took the hinges off, no luck. Removed all the hardware, still couldn't open the door. SO, I grabbed to crowbar and beat the hell out of the door. This is an original door to my 95 year old home. Sadly she now must be replaced. But, I did eventually get the door open. What was the problem? A screw. One lousy screw that was coming out of the old lockset hardware that had lodged itself into the door jamb. It fell onto the floor right at my feet, as if to mock me, once I finally got the door out.

So, while I should be finishing the kitchen, I am instead, making multiple trips to the rebuilding store to find the perfect replacement door. Of course, it too, won't be perfect.....

Hi,
I had to post on Friday night because my granite went in and there was ...GASP... vein I didn't remember. I had to post so others would could get me to stop obsessing.
Also, horror of horrors, I had to decide whether to center the faucet on the seam, the window center, or the sink divide (I have a 2/3 1/3) sink.

I forgot to mention my farm sink is 1/2" off to the right, too.
It drives me insane.

Why do any of us have any hair left?

New build...front door opens wrong way, partly because I didn't realize the electricians were pointing out that the light switches were going on the right side of the door. GC figured I wouldn't want the switches behind the door when it was open so he changed the door swing. Now, THAT is going to bug me forever!

I forgot to recess my fridge.

I have a 2 tone kitchen, and love it! BUT, i wish I would have done it all dark stain...I was worried a dark stain would make the space too dark, but now that I can see how much natural light is in there, I'm realizing all dark cabs would have looked great.

There's more...but I think i've blocked it all from my memory!! I guess the bottom line is that our new home will be 10 times what any of our past homes have been....we have worked HARD for it for years, worked hard deciding every little detail in the build, and we are going to enjoy it, right along with the imperfections!

Well, what I have found is that there were so many compromises, so many missteps by so many, so many rushed last minute make do decisions by contractors that at the end of the day I have a space that I don't even like. It makes me sick every day that I dislike our master bathroom remodel so much. I feel guilty that I don't like it and angry that I got pushed around by the company we dealt with. I am still dealing with it a year later and don't like it one bit better at all. I am working on painting it a third time to try to make it look better. I know, sucks to be me, but just saying that I understand how you feel!!!

I've never been a particularly OCD person, pretty easy going for the most part. However, since I've been on this sight for more than 2 years now, my vision for my kitchen has drastically changed--for the better, certainly, but now I obsess about so may things I wouldn't have even thought of before I discovered GW. Will my kitchen be my perfect "dream" kitchen--nope. Budget won't allow. But it will be a heck of a lot better than it is now and will be a ton better (better as in function, not necessarily more $$$ spent) than any of my neighbors' or friends' renos. Most importantly, it will be mine. Now, if only I could get myself to draw my kitchen and start figuring out my layout (I'm suffering from analysis paralysis).

I know "perfect" is why our reno is not done yet either. My DH can't seem to let any little thing go, and it's just dragging on and on. He's doing a really good job, but definitely obsesses about getting some little thing perfect that absolutely nobody is going to notice, and it really chews up his time. He just can't let it go. I guess I'm fortunate that I'll never have to worry about something patched together with duct tape or baling wire. His insistance on doing everything right is what makes him a good engineer (his profession), but occasionally I have to remind him that tight aerospace dimensions don't apply to the kitchen :) The end result is that he's been making progress very slowly. I know he's got project fatigue, we both do. Our 8 week or so facelift took very large detour and we're still not done after hitting the 1 year mark in March, but I'm at the point that I really just want it DONE.

Over the last year, we've put some things on hold and passed on some things we were going to do because we were tied up trying to get our kitchen done. We certainly haven't done a good job of keeping things in perspective on this project. I'm working real hard now on enjoying the parts of my kitchen that ARE finished.

I chuckled throughout this entire read....I AM NOT ALONE! I thought I was the only anal, obsessive loony toon on the planet! The problem is that my hubby sooo doesn't get it. He will just " pick something" to get it done, without thinking it through for 2 months like me. He prefers to not acknowledge a hastily-made screw-up and live with it rather than step back, take some time, and think things through. He drives me insane, and I know I make him crazy too. I often wonder what it would be like to have a spouse/partner that was just like me...would things go more smoothly because we understand each other's desire for perfection, or would we butt heads even more? Would we catch each others' mistakes, or argue because our perfect visions don't jive? Hahaha...such problems!!!

I empathize with all of you. The only thing I can offer is this, "Imperfection is perfection."

jscout, what the heck does that mean?

[eyes twirling around in head]

I will have to read the rest of the thread later, but I just thought I'd say now that my house wasn't perfect when the builder finished it, and it isn't perfect now, but it sure is a lot better. One of those little things I have that bugs me -- I will always wish my towel cubbie had been designed properly to hang two towels side by side rather than on top of the other, but at least I have a place to hang towels (2 by the clean up sink and one by the prep sink). I didn't have any before. Not even a good place for a towel ring or bar. The imperfection is still a vast improvement.

My best analogy for the experience of planning a kitchen remodel is that it's akin (for me) to being a teenaged girl STARING IN THE MIRROR at any real or perceived flaw or blemish like it was taking over my face. I look back at pics of myself then and think "boy, you were kinda cute and so thin!". Back then, all I could see was what I thought was wrong because I was obsessing on it all the time.

It feels like a perspective thing: when you're up to your nostrils in kitchen design and planning, it feels almost impossible to step back and get a big picture sometimes. Sometimes, I have to take a break or I get nuts.

Oh it did me good to know I am not the only person that is obsessing about things being "perfect".....even at the age of 70, you would think I could relax and let go of perfection~ As my late DH used to tell me, "We don't live in a perfect world, so don't expect everything to be that way."

I am now in the planning stages of doing a new build by myself...and I had someone tell me this morning that with my worrying about details and nit-picking, I would run off the good contractor I have found. I need to let go...things will not all work out as planned (or at least in my mind) or I'll never live long enough to even enjoy it when/if it gets done~~~

I am already losing sleep so this just has to stop~~~NOW!
So much easier to say than for me to do~~ wish me luck~~