Replies

1. 
   RW | Nov 26, 2002 05:24am | #1

   Sometimes boring projects just get the shelf like they deserve. Go do something else entertaining for awhile. Fishing, hunting, whatever turns your crank. The kitchen will still be there when you get the juice again. When I get burned physically, I read. When the heads too full for my own good, I go start working on things again. Or if your tag is any indicator, play us a tune!

2. 
   92588 | Nov 26, 2002 05:39am | #2

   theres so much else to do... why fuss with the white wet cold stuff

3. 
   bake | Nov 26, 2002 06:23am | #3

   I am in the same situation as you only I am single (much smaller cheering section)

   My son and I ski all winter so precious little gets done and we ride dirtbikes and camp all summer. I have found the rainey season in early spring and late fall provides all the motovation I need.  Ocasionally guilt will get me going.

   But really when I am sick and tired of it all I just ignore it all knowing it will eventually get done.... otherwise it's just a chore. 

4. 
   CAGIV | Nov 26, 2002 07:59am | #4

   Shelf it for a while, can you live in for a little bit as it is?  Take a weekend vacation with the guys, go fishing hunting, what ever you like, come back with a new perspective and hopefully more motivation.  If that doesnt work well, good luck

5. 
   rez | Nov 26, 2002 08:15am | #5

   G- put the preamp on 10, the pickup volume to max, and the master volume to the most you can get away with and then let'er go and get your ya ya's out.

    Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.

    We're going on.

6. 
   goldhiller | Nov 26, 2002 08:36am | #6

   Crank up some Stevie Ray Vaughn.

   Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
7. 
   Mooney | Nov 26, 2002 09:04am | #7

   Its hard to work on a house that you live in and no one says thank you for the mess thats for sure. You gear up and gear down only to do it all over again in another room. You cant make waves for the little jobs that haunt your soul. You spend as much or more time setting up a little job as doing it and the next room offers more of the same problems. You get to thinking that wouldnt it have been nice if I could have ran all this trim at once instead of setting the trim saw up fourteen times to get it done. Get it out -put it up . Its enough to drive a man insane ! Now you are definately in the hardest room and you are sick of it. You have the least job you enjoy ahead of you it sounds , and thats resembles a losing ticket at the races.

   Read what the" wacko has been up to lately. " Frenchy and his wife living in the elements of a blizzard comming with no protection from the elements . This should inspire you and your wife. See that she reads it . Take a few days with her and talk it over . Most women come to their husbands aide for they are the glue in the family.

   Tim Mooney

1. 
   Handydan | Nov 26, 2002 11:41am | #8

   On a slightly different angle, spend a few hours next weekend looking at adds in the paper for another fixer.  Nothing speeds up this project more than looking forward to the next bigger/better one.  I should probably quit spending time here, and start doing more work instead of typing about it, but this is much easier and less stresful. Quieter too, at this time of night.  If it makes you feel better, my house is torn up for nearly three years now, and the end is a long way off yet, but I think that Frenchy has all of us covered, check him out.

   Dan

8. 
   Dant45 | Nov 26, 2002 02:39pm | #9

   Brad,

   Never rehabbed a house yet that I didn't hit the "wall" of sorts.  I agree with the idea of hiring it done but for a different reason.  I have hired out a small job and found that seeing something done was a shot in the arm for me to get going again.  A couple of years ago I was doing a major rehab and slowed down, I hired a friend of mine to lay the tile.  Once he got started I went over and finish 3 or 4 small jobs while talking with him.  By the time he was done I was back in gear and motivated again.  Worth the few bucks to get it going.  DanT

9. 
   CMAbbott | Nov 26, 2002 02:50pm | #10

   1. Take photographs before you start work - when you look back at those you realize what a difference you made.
   2. Get the family off the hig-speed connection & make them do the best jobs (like sanding & painting baseboards.)  They'll be really excited when you have finished.
   3. Design things the way YOU want them, and not fickle future buyers, or the unappreciative family (OK, maybe its a girl-thing, but choosing my own colors and materials makes it more fun for me!)

   My husband and I both do the remodel jobs - he does dry wall, plumbing, and anything I'm not strong enough to handle, I do tile & painting.  He does more than me, so I make sure he gets the appreciation he deserves.  After looking at your message, I guess he's not doing so bad!

1. 
   roucru | Nov 26, 2002 04:34pm | #11

   Lars bought our house just a month before we married. It is an 80+ farm house in Western NC. I thought the porch was great and figured we would have it done in a year or so. Four years later we still have a 1/4 of the back end of the house gutted out. I have a kitchen in a bedroom. My bathroom is a temporary bathroom. I have two little ones sharing my bedroom although my bedroom is HUGE thankgoodness. We have drawn up plans and revamped many times. What I have learned is our needs have changed from the original drawings and I am glad it is taking so long. We are now bumping out our living room. Adding a stair case in our living room to have access to our attic. Our backend of the house has our washer and dryer and has become a huge storage area. Everything from books to kitchen counter tops that a client decided she didn't like. We are going to move all that up in the attic, so we can work on that end of the house. It is suppose to have masterbath/laundry room/dining area/kitchen. I can hardly wait. There are days I tell Lars lets just burn down the house and put up a doublewide. Oh man you should see his face.

   Get away from it all. Take a few weeks off and don't touch it. When the mood hits you start back up. It will be there. Life is too short. If you aren't enjoying it right now then stop. You will get in the mood again and then start backup.

   Good luckTamara

1. 
   AndyEngel | Nov 26, 2002 07:23pm | #12

   What's always kicked my butt into finishing the house I happened to be living in was to decide to sell it. Amazing how much motivation can flow from that little decision.

   Happy Thanksgiving, all.Andy Engel, The Former Accidental Moderator

1. 
   LisaWL | Nov 26, 2002 07:52pm | #13

   That's been my experience too - hence my tagline!

   But if you don't want to sell, the next best thing is to invite a bunch of people over for a big party.  Somehow having a deadline always gets me moving.  Maybe a New Year's Eve bash at Guitarman's house this year?"A completed home is a listed home."

1. 
   Mooney | Nov 26, 2002 08:19pm | #15

   "But if you don't want to sell, the next best thing is to invite a bunch of people over for a big party.  Somehow having a deadline always gets me moving.  Maybe a New Year's Eve bash at Guitarman's house this year?"

   Are you sure you are not a twin sister of a woman I know so well?

   Decided to sell . Still not fast enough! I think there are four parties booked here in the month of December , and Im working full time on it , turning down work . Yall are boogers !

   Tim Mooney

2. 
   Frankie | Nov 26, 2002 08:48pm | #16

   1. The usual - turn on the tunes/ talk radio - whatever.

   2. You do the compound, the kids do the sanding - WITH MASKS. The kids clean up.

   3. You paint, the kids clean up.

   4. Finish the damn kitchen and THEN take a break. A long break.

   5. As an incentive for the kids to clean up well, take them out to their favorite pizza/ burger place.

   6. I know that motivating yourself at this point is next to impossible. I find that working in small doses helps. Sometimes so much that I work longer (huh?). Do one light coat of compound at a time. Then walk away. Don't blow a Saturday. Only half the morning. Then go play golf.

   7. Comments like "It's like it was always here." are intended to mean "It fits so well, as though this is what was meant to be." We all like to be complimented. Listen for the compliment. If necessary ask for it. Sometimes I says to my main squeeze "Wow! that came out so nice Frankie" while motioning her to repeat after me. A couple of comments and she figured out how important it is to me to hear it from her.

3. 
   SonnyLykos | Aug 29, 2003 01:04am | #17

   I just noticed this thread and while reading the posts got a smile on my face.

   My wife says she can tell when I'm burned out while working on our own house when she hears me say - or rather, whine: "That looks good enough."

4. 
   andybuildz | Aug 29, 2003 07:25pm | #18

   Hey sonny.....see what happens when you come home here?

   I never even saw this thread.....

   For me I know when I'm burnt out when I go to a lawyer to divorce my wife (spec house gig I lived in a corner of the basement in alone)

   Well, all rejuvinated....I'm ready to go again, cept this time I was sure not to buy something that I couldnt live in comfortably. Thats the key!

   Most all work will be additions and when theyre finished we can live in there and redo the old part.

   Man it helps if ya have tons of money....one day......and it ain't about having money..its about being able to afford some comfort while you do extensive work on yer home..specially after 50.

   Be old (the house..lol....ok me 2)

             andy 

    

   Its very hard to grow, because it's difficult to let go of the models of ourselves in which we invested in so heavily

   http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM

5. 
   ravenwind | Dec 27, 2003 07:28am | #19

   I work with a friend and we do nice work together but i get burned out being arround the same people all the time always have, thats why i need to go do small jobs by myself every so often.or ill take time off durring slow time and work at home and let him have any little jobs to do that come along , I like working with him , its not him its me.  I worked alone for years and I think I,  am why. I do like working with me still at least that hasn't become a problem  yet.           Dogboy

   Edited 12/26/2003 11:30:51 PM ET by dogboy

6. 
   Shep | Dec 27, 2003 07:05pm | #20

          I work with this one  friend on a semi-regular basis, and our jobs are varied and interesting, but I can only work with him for a few days at a time. He will tell me as we arrive at a job that he was up in the middle of the night worrying about how we were going to get something done ( we each have about 30 years experience !) or will "help" me on some little task until I ask him to do something else. Some days work out better than others, but he's a bit of a worryer. I'm more like, with our combined experience, if we can't figure out how to do something, we shouldn't be doing it.  This isn't quite the same as yours, and I admit I have my own neurosis, but I thought you'd like another view.

7. 
   Jencar | Dec 27, 2003 10:29pm | #21

   Where did ya find this thread? I started it as "Guitarman" over a year ago...

   Since then I've learned 3 surefire ways to get motivated...

   1) Hire someone to help that works faster and better than you.

   2) Have a large enough chunk of time on your hands that you'd feel extremely guilty if you didn't get anything done.

   (Now that I'm working full time again, I'm thinking of all the things I shoulda/coulda done)

   3)Tranquilizers...

   Jennifer

8. 
   xMikeSmith | Dec 28, 2003 12:51am | #22

   good news on the "back to full time" bit..

    i remember how much i used to hate december.. most years it was "Merry Christmas.. go sign up"Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

9. 
   skids | Dec 31, 2003 12:32am | #23

   lenny bruce, the famous comedian of the fifties, actually talked a doctor into writing him a prescription for intraveinous injections of methamphetamine to combat lethargy. i would imagine that the same regimen might also work wonders for burn out as well. the downside is, it seems to me, that after experiencing the rush of intraveinous injections of methamphetamine everything else would seem lethargic by comparison. the cure is worse than the disease!

10. 
    BossHog | Nov 26, 2002 07:52pm | #14

    I go through the same thing once in a while. It's a lot easier to start a remodelling project than to finish one.

    I have one thought, which no one has thrown out yet. When you have time, but don't feel like working on it - Get the tools out anyway. Sometimes once you get them out, and kinda get into it a bit, you feel more like doing the work.

    Another thought would be to set reasonable goals. My Wife drags home 50# of books and work to do at home every night, and obsesses about not getting every single thing done every time. I've suggested she set a goal, just bring a couple of things home, and get those done. But she won't do it. It's nice to think of knocking a ton of work out in one shot, but it generally isn't realistic. Break the work up inot smaller sections rather than looking at the whole thing.

    To echo several ideas which others have thrown out:

    Get the family involved. For starters, they're living in the house too, and it won't hurt them to work on it a bit. And they'll gain valuable experience, which will benifit them later on in their lives. I don't ask my kids to help, I MAKE them.

    Cranking up some music might help - Depends on your personality and whom is helping you.

    Taking the before and after pictures, as well as some "in progress" pictures helps. We made a video of our house when we moved into it. It's neat to look back and remember all the things we've done over the years.

    Taking a vacation may or may not help, again depending on your personality. I don't personally take them much.

    Hang around here, and post often. Lotsa moral support to be shared.

    Here's a tag line, specially picked out and dedicated to all those tired DIY remodellers out there:

    Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.