We waited 2 years to start another project. I loved the peaceful downtime. Don't relish the upheaval that remodeling creates. I'm dreading the next room on the list later this summer. Some people love this stuff; others dread it with a passion.

sayde - Come on over to my house! Due to an unexpected loooong delay in my kitchen cabinet install (long story about a not-so-nice cabinet dealer), I got ansy and started so many other things. I could really use a hand =)

I'm still in the mind set of wishing I could feel a little down b/c the kitchen reno is complete.� DH keeps saying that we're getting there, but some days I wonder.� Anyway, congrats again on your remodel Sayde - you've done an outstanding job. It's not easy updating a kitchen while keeping the historic characteter of the home, but you pulled it off in style. Hope mine turns out half as well. If I can ever figure out how to post pics, I'll take some when we're finished, but being techno-challenged, I don't know if that will ever happen.

Sure you're sentimental and eager? Do you do landscaping? That's our current adventure. Have been busting up clay hunks and planting. Today was our day to shovel woodchips into a trailer at the county compost site. We would have enjoyed some company as we covered the garden's exposed ground.

Why do you think I'm still here 8 months after our whole-house reno has been finished. I have no "new" projects to do because they've all been done. I'm living vicariously through all you people.
I still get excited when someone new shows up with floorplans, and when someone shows their choices and is looking for opinions, and then when a newly completed kitchen is posted I get to drool.
The great thing about this place is that no body kicks you off when you're finished.

what to do with this huge head of TKO steam?

You use it to plan the much needed vacation to take away all the stress of a kitchen remodel.

I had it a little, but it was more questioning the choices I made regarding the new kitchen. The design, layout, colors, etc. I got over it. I'm ready to start planning out basement, and front of the house/driveway renos!

Oh, I'm definitely post-partum, or would be, if it weren't for the fact that I'm still in protracted labor. It's the worst of all worlds...all the exciting (and unexciting) planning and decisions and shopping are done, but because of my GC problems, it's not yet finished enough to show off and enjoy. So, I'm still in labor.

But at the same time, I'm sad that the fun part is done and eager to start again on a new project. It's made worse by checking in on this site, frankly. I keep seeing wonderful new paint colors, tiles, etc. and thinking...ooohh, wouldn't that be great for the new guest bathroom! Unfortunately, that next baby is several years away from birth!

Like blfenton, I'm still here too! When ours was done, I did a lot of second guessing. There are so many beautiful choices and directions that pop up here on GW. We did go on and recently finish off the basement area that was created under our addition. And that was fun because I got to experiment with stained concrete!

Currently, like florantha, we are working out in the yard too. The thing with gardening, is there is always more to do. I'm excited now anxiously awaiting 2 Japanese Maple cultivars from Mendocino Maples!

O.T.
Doonie, more more more about the stained concrete please? [Can you hear the soundtrack in background "tell us more, tell us more, tell us more" with teenybopper harmonies?]

We won't get around to finishing new basement area for a long time, but this exciting floor option gives me some hope that momentum can keep going. (DH has just made a plan to volunteer for USFish & Wildlife in Arctic again this summer, so momentum is flagging bigtime.) The garden part is the only part that I can provide any real labor and working vision on; everything else that needs to be done is something for which he is the workman. But, I am the dreamer, the idea generator, the gopher, the one who thinks about the walkpaths and the ergonomics and the ambiance within a floorplan so I suppose he'll need me, once he gets back to work. Gotta keep looking at the GW online images as a part of my role. Within 3 months I need to know how I want to modify the back wall of our "guest bedroom" (hi, MelissaStar!) so it has a proper view of the lake in our back yard. Meanwhile, the kitchen project is sufficiently finished that it will be on HOLD for a summer. But...once the grass grows back and we plant a red maple, the front yard will be super. The dog and I will enjoy it in July and August!

Well odd as it may seem I'm still reading my books in the living room instead of our newly renovated bedroom. I really don't know why. Its very nice there but I seem to be a creature of habit. Half of last year I couldn't wait to be there and now I seem to visit it more than live in it.

I think the progression should be:

- Obsess over the kitchen. Frequent the Kitchen Forum.

- Cook mightily in the new kitchen. Frequent the Cooking Forum.

- Get plump. Frequent the Diet Forum.

I found it more helpful to start on the Cooking forum many moons ago. You need the basics to know what works for you. This forum could be overwhelming without that.

Here's a photo of that latest project with stained concrete (called Georgia Clay stain):

am still in labor, will have to report back once baby is delivered. 1 month in, 2 months to go. demo, rough electric and plumbing, drywall done, hardwood floors go in next week. then there is a week or two delay before cabs can go in. it has been manageable but pretty disruptive, will be glad when the debris and dust is gone but look forward to my new kitchen. was thinking this morning the bathroom is next but need to wait a year or two for funds and my sanity to replenish. this is my first remodel, i had no idea what to expect. have earned my stripes now!

This will be the first summer in 5 years that my house hasn't been ripped apart. I can hardly wait.

I was sad to see our whole house reno finished late last year. Researching, making decisions, dealing with inevitable challenges, and implementing ideas was a whole bunch of fun. I found the GW kitchens forum when we were into the process of kitchen design and we gained many good ideas from here. I keep coming back because this community has a neat, helpful, and respectful vibe and of course, being TKO, it's exciting to see the finished kitchens being posted. (That said, I still have to post ours...)

Like others above, we have moved on to another project. We have a 1/3 acre urban lot and are in the process of completely re-landscaping. We have accumulated a stack of landscape magazines over the winter, a dozen mature trees have been removed, the deck is off, thousands of paving bricks have been taken up, and an excavator is being floated in tomorrow to grub everything left standing and pull stumps. Can someone be TKO and TLO at the same time? Let the fun begin..!

great topic... interesting/funny responses! :)

i'm on the downhill slope of the kitchen reno and feeling very blue.

i wondered if i should have bought a new car instead of getting a kitchen.

i wondered if we have to move so i can do another kitchen. (shhh... don't tell dh i said that!)

johnliu... "plump", hehe. :)

I also have neen finished for two years but enjoy seeig the progress of others and maybe helping a little along the way. I came late to GW and was up to my backsplash when I saught help.
As others have stated, there are many projects to do in a house. It really never ends. But if you need your "kitchen fix" GW is only a click away.

Right now, I feel like I am on bedrest-a lot of waiting, and starting to panic that I have forgotten something huge!

That being said, I was a little blue when we finished the cabinet meetings, because now such a huge chunk of decision making is done. I can imagine how you feel!

So when is one actually "pregnant"? I would say not until something physical happens on the property, and if that is the case, I'm not there yet, but since last year, wanted this "baby" by June :(. We're doing a small addition too, and the plans are stuck at town hall at the moment; no permit yet, hopefully very soon. We'll see, but I don't think I'll have any "post partum." I'll be thrilled when it's done and plan on living with this "baby" if/until we can't do stairs/maintain a house. I don't want to obsess over it any more, I just want it to be done.

Like others, I'm moving on to landscaping. In addition to the kitchen last year, we built a garage. The backyard is still a construction wasteland. I've been poring over the latest (last?) iteration of the yard plan all weekend. Instead of checking in here to see who's agonizing over ORB vs. PN hardware for their cabinets, I ought to be agonizing myself, over the choice of a crabapple or a magnolia by the front walk, and hundreds of other particulars.

Of course, the kitchen isn't quite finished. I need to make, or have made, some shades before the blazing summer sun through the west windows drives me out of the new kitchen. I made the mistake of looking at, and falling for, William Morris fabrics last week--so lovely, and *so* not in the budget.

Maybe when the last few details are finished I'll feel differently, but right now I'd say that the pleasure of being able to cook for real again far outweighs any regrets that the creative kitchen process has come to an end.

Yep, you'll definitely go thru a "post partum" phase. We did the entire house, it took a year to complete, and we planned it for almost 2 years previously. So you can imagine how it felt when it was suddenly done. I was even accused by my other half of being addicted to the THS forums, LOL.

It will pass...I lurked in here regularly afterwards. Now I just come in once in a while. I have to say the folks in the forums here are incredibly helpful and supportive...what a great community. We would not have been nearly as successful and happy with the house renovation had I not discovered THS and gotten excellent advice whenever I had a question.