Saturday, April 28, 2012

The To-Do List is Making My Head Spin


This blog post is representing evidence of two things, both of which you'll have to forgive, or at least avert your eyes if the spectacle gets too strong to behold. 

First, above you see my first attempt at.....of course I have to do this, wait for it.....monkeying... with PicMonkey, a new free photo-editing site. For those of you not in the know, PicMonkey is created by the same folks who created PicNik, another very beloved photo editing site. Google just very recently eliminated from its list of applications, which caused great hue and cry on the interwebs. PicMonkey looks like a very fun and encouraging replacement for all of the bereft PicNik fans.

Second? My house is beginning to derange me. 

One ominous sign is that I made a collage of ugly stuff. I mean really? This is a blog with mostly lady-reader types. So OF COURSE a photo-collage should be chock full of fuzzy puppies, whimsical crafts, hip vintage goods, and interior design eye candy. But I've featured a rotten floor, bare studs, and piles of busted up sod. My head is clearly not in the right place. 

I bought a house that needs a lot of attention. I've been able to do a lot in the almost year that we've been here. But I'm at a point where I feel as though I'm only making tiny little inches toward any kind of goal, and in the meantime, my family is living at ground zero of the entire mess. 

Up above in the collage we have 
1. My bedroom with the mystifying black goo. We now have clean subfloor, and we also have drywall. But we do not have plastering and sanding done in major parts of the room. 

2. This is the one wall of my room that still looks exactly as we had to leave it when my sister and I ran out of time during our commando construction marathon last summer. Now, my bedroom is still a work in progress, and I usually only step into it past midnight every night, throw my clothes on the pile, and fall into bed exhausted. Hardly the lady refuge of which I dream. 

3. My bathroom floor is still a mish-mash, at one end plywood subfloor, the rest this brittle and cracking sheet linoleum. I think this flooring is beyond cool but also beyond salvage, with nail holes, rust stains, and cracks all over it. I need to get something far more functional and cleaner in here. 

4. The garden project that began with such promise has been stymied by too many working weekends and too many rainy ones to count. I feel like I'm making progress at the approximate rate of one thistle per week. Considering that I also planned to scrape and paint the house this summer as well, if this weather continues perhaps I should just begin a moss farm on the siding and be done with it.

I also have a kitchen that needs fresh paint and trim work, a garage with a broken entry door, and a bunch of home dec sewing projects that I could be working on. Add into that cooking, cleaning, and laundry for four boys, a full time job, and it's no wonder I often come home, survey the pile, and sink into the sofa after dinner with a glass of wine and a heavy sigh. 

I am overwhelmed. 

I am temporarily down about it, but not out. I'll keep trying, but if my readers and friends have any tips or ideas about helping prioritize all this stuff, it will help until I get my suspenders snapped back up into position, and I find my backbone again.

I promise the next collage will be brilliant, and so will my mood.


3 comments:

  1. Awwwww, don't feel down about your progress hon. If anyone can understand how you feel I certainly can. Sometimes I felt like my Mom's place would literally NEVER get done. It took about 6 months of hard work on the place and that meant going over there every single weekend and every night and day that we could. We pretty much didn't do anything else but renovations during that entire time. No fun stuff at all. ughhh.

    You will be ok. Just take it one little step at a time. You don't have to really rush since you are already living in the house, we were just speeding it up because we wanted everything done before Mom moved in. Don't try to think about ALL of the different projects that need to get done either, I thought about all of the stuff I had to do at the beginning of our reno and my mind was about to explode! Maybe just pick one project and concentrate on that, like next weekend maybe you could clean a bit of the black goo off of the floor and do a bit of drywalling??? You don't even have to do it all, just try a little bit and see how it goes. You may even want to consider hiring in someone to do the drywall finishing - if that is in your budget.

    Just don't stress out. It will all get done in due time, I promise!

    ps- I think I have probably mostly eliminated all of my "lady" readers with posting about water valves and heat pumps and electrical panels! hee!!! :)

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    Replies
    1. Oh, thank you Sara! It's nice to get a cheer squad when you can't be your own. :)

      I know what you mean about plumbing parts and stuff like that. I always want people to KNOW what it takes. Like your shower stem valves and my plumbing leaks all over the place. Sometimes home renovations aren't about toss pillows, ha-ha!

      I did get out and get a few move feet of garden finished yesterday, and that helped me feel a little better. I think you're right about concentrating on one thing at a time. I know I need to break it down into chunks of doable goals every weekend. I've been afraid to make a list (because who wants a list 800 miles long?) but maybe I should because then I can categorize and break it down better.

      Thanks so much for the pat on the back! :)

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  2. It's easy to get overwhelmed with house/yard projects like that. Good luck with them all!

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