It seems like I have sinkin’ loose ends in every room in my house.
The rest of the family is at some inlaws for the 3 day weekend…I hung around to do some work here in relative peace (but not quiet–have a blues, rock, jazz mix blaring–that part I enjoy).
Each thing I try to do requires that I do something else first. This happens on my jobs too, but not nearly as much. Lotsa of PITA starting and stopping. It is hard to be as clearheaded about attacking the work at home (complicated by having beer in the fridge, a comfortable couch, etc.)
Bachin’ it and trying to boogie on some projects…well enough of this whining…lunch break is over.
I’ll report back later…back to the trenches,
Bass
Replies
Join the club!!!! I hate working on my place. Seems so much harder than working on someone else's. The tools seem so much harder to pull out of the truck, theyre sooooo much heavier, blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine.
Guess have to look at it as just one big punchlist.
Haveing breaktime readily accessible doesnt help either. I was supposed to go for supplies 2 hours ago, or was it 3? Maybe it was yesterday.
I feel like my punchlist just punched me out! ;o)
Why dont you and Basswood do each others houses.
Whom would their wives pay?
I think the better Q is how would their wives pay?
I totally agree. Its murder working on your own place and I dont know why. I think nothing of loading up the truck and taking whatever I need anywhere. Not so much at home though. I've been in the new house since November and there is still just little things that I cant bring myself to do.
Bass,
I hear ya.
Here are a couple of things I wrote along those lines, a long time ago in a land far far away:
http://www.oldhousechronicle.org/archives/vol02/issue07/living/burnout.html
http://www.oldhousechronicle.net/archives/vol01/issue02/humor/cobbler.html
Steve
Great stories Steve, how's it coming? 8 years later, is it done?
Guess maybe cutting the stone is next, sacrete later if I get that done.
Coronas won't rot in the fridge, and it looks like there's a possibility of rain.
Joe H
>>how's it coming? 8 years later, is it done?<<This was supposed to be two years and out...I'm about half done. But the parts that are done are nice. I's the old money/time dilemma. If I've got the money to do something, it's because I'm working, and don't have the time. If I've got the time, it's because I'm not working so don't have the money...At least it's all paid for. Steve
Steve,That was some good writing...I'm afraid I following in your footsteps.Renovating an old home, while your live there, is as much fun as moving...only you don't get to go anywhere (just shuffle stuff from room to room).I did get jamb extensions and cabinet head trim on the entry door and transom this afternoon. Now I'm eating a Dominoes pizza and then maybe I'll trim a couple more doors this evening...whoo hooo!Brian
Good luck with it Brian. Are you married? My wife has been a saint about the whole thing. But she has as much as said never again. My place is 3400 sf/two stories. The forst floor is about 90 percent done. Haven't touced the second floor yet. It's totally gutted up there.My projects for this summer include trying to finally getting a roof on the place, and re-erecting a 19th-century barn that I dismantled last summer to bring home and turn into my garage. Today I was digging footers for a stoop into my shop.Steve
My wife's been pretty good. She and my daughter talked me into starting in the first place. So every time they complain, I say "I told you so"! Haven't done much with the interior--that's next winter. Going to take out a bearing wall between the kitchen and the dining room, new cabinet doors, flooring, and tops in the kitchen. That's when things will get hairy. I'll try to blitzkreig the framing in one weekend, hopefully when the womenfolk are out of town, and hire a taper to come in during the week while we're at work to tape it out.
Face the fact that all of it is not going to get done. With that weight off your shoulders, tackle the most difficult project and get it done. You'll feel good about it, I promise.
--------------------------------------------------------
Cheap Tools at MyToolbox.net
See some of my work at AWorkOfWood.com
I tackled some stuff that will make a big visual impact today (entry trim). Tomorrow I might increase the level of difficulty and do a couple of tapered columns.
This sucks. I'm out of sacrete with 2 steps left, rock is cut for one.
I could cut the rest of the rock, I could go to HD for more crete & finish 1 more step today.
I could kinda watch the Indy and BT.
I could just sit on the porch and watch the clouds go by and have a Corona. Got a good book going, maybe book & Corona?
Decisions, decisions................
Joe H
Joe,I can spot you a couple bags of sacrete...I really don't want to use them anyway.With such difficult choices to make...how could you possibly choose?Cheers,Brian
B, I'm gonna pass on that stack, I'm 10 bags from done (with this part).
Got squat done this aft.
Thought I was ready for the next step, went to town & got bags-o-fun and home.
Put the stone on to make sure everything was kopasetic and found I was too high. Need to take my base down about a half. That shot the rest of the aft.
Coronas and the end of the Coke600. Screw it. Doesn't look much different from this yesterday.
View Image
Race over, day over, Coronas going too.
Joe H
So nice that somewhere out there....I'm not alone. Thanks guys...sigh
re: day shot
thot all the rock down there was red? What is this blue rock in the pix? <G>
All the scenery is red/orange. BLM has a free quarry south of me. It's by the rocket sled mesa.
$14 for a permit and all the fun you can haul.
View Image
This stuff is maybe volcanic ash? It's a thin layer, about 2", splits fairly easily. Nothing in it, no lumps bugs or fish, just gray. Filled the truck til it grunted, made about a dozen trips.
Joe H
>>$14 for a permit and all the fun you can haul<<Wow. What a great resource to have available to you.Steve
Nice porch and steps!I love that pinyon juniper country.
One expert suggests that people finish everything they've started before starting something else.
He claims we become more productive by doing things this way.
So for what it's worth, don't start anything new until you wrap up those loose ends
One expert suggests that people finish everything they've started before starting something else.
You know how you look into open garages you pass driving down the street, you look and there's nothing in them but a broom and a lawnmower?
Those people have everything done.
Whatever it was, they're done.
Don't think I'd like to join them.
Joe H
These people are sick:*clean garage with everything in it's place such as rake and shovel etc*car is spotless inside and out*desk is cleared with everything filed and neatly put away*home is clean at all timesThese people are not normal and should be moved to an island
That is my husband!
Went to visit my kids and my mom recently...While I was gone he raked my fairly-well organized desk off into the trash, including my address book that I had worked so hard on to put together!
Not sure if I will ever get it right, but I will continue to roll that marble around my pea-brain until I figure it out.
The man needs help
The main thing about unfinished projects is the wear and tear on you mind--thinking about them all the time. I have a router table someone bought for me--just got to finish the stand, which I screwed up on and have some major kinks to work out, so the whole thing sits in the corner. In meantime, main beam in basement needs work--am doing that tomorrow.
Need to paint part of addition and do something about paint peeling in bathroom--problem with me, and I guess the OP said the same thing, is one thing needs to be done before the other thingand so on. I tend to over correct too--so peeling paint in bath means I have to go into attic and insulate and there is no access to attic. Have to cut access, insulate, put in fan that moves more CFM, re-drywall, paint and I'm done. Simple. But as long as I'm at it, why not put up fiberglass panels so i don't have to paint, and why not put Styrofoam under them for better insulation, etc.
One day at a time--shore up basement--tomorrow.
Supposedly the expert was called to a company and was asked what they could do to increase productivityThese were executive desk jobsHe told them to change their work habits and finish up projects that were sitting there unfinished.Productivity increased and I think it makes sense.
Side note:
Our Minn. brothers are getting whacked with tornadoes as we speak, I suspect Bass is ducked and covered.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
Just got the call from the wife, who is living and working in MN while I live and work in NY (not a great arrangement) about the tornado warnings...looks like they are going north of the twin cities. I think Bass is south...Steve
View Image Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
Tornadoes to the North and Severe thunderstorms just south of here...better just stay put.All clear here--thanks for asking. It was raining so I drug the SCMS into the entry hall...made a few cuts and the smoke detector when off...loud sucker too...parked my saw so as to blow dust right into the alarm...I got all kinds-O-smartz. ;o)
LOL..Glad ya got thru unscathed. Just following the Phoenix landing Mars..cool man, they did it!Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
Bowz lives in Minnesota too, I think (or is it Wisconsin?)--hope he's okay.
your neck of the woods I think.
Pinpoint destruction.
Our Minn. brothers are getting whacked with tornadoes as we speak
I dont know about Minn but as I'm watching on the tube right now Parkersburg Ia(pop ~1000), a small town just about 1 hour south of Minn has been flattened.
I'm seeing pictures of it on TV, so far I'm not seeing much of anything left.
Doug
That is good advice.This was a complete gut and remodel...got the drywall up, finished and painted and kitchen and a bath in about 5 years ago...putting in hardwood floors, and trim, etc. a room at a time. Have the floors and trim done in about 2/3's of the place now...still have a second bath to finish...on and on.Making some headway,BC
You just addressed the one reason I haven't sold my place.
Gonna die here before I ever get motivated to finish anything it would take to make it ready to sell.
Mine is listed, realtor seems to think finishing some of this stuff would help.
Joe H
You just addressed the one reason I haven't sold my place. Gonna die here before I ever get motivated to finish anything it would take to make it ready to sell.
Ha ha - that's me to a "T"!!! Glad to know I'm not the only one.View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Me too...not that I want to sell my place, but it has a LONG ways to go before I would consider it ready to sell.
I've started telling the wife that "that is phase 19, and we're on phase 1c right now". :)
Jamie
I'm too tired most evenings to get much done...and I do like to have a life on weekends (canoeing, yardwork, keep up with the kids, etc.).I just had the MIL live here for a year (cancer recovery)...didn't really want to go down there this time, so I said I would stay and work on stuff here...truth is I'm not real jazzed about working all weekend on my house either.Sloggin' through some of it though...and it is good to be crossing a few things off the list.Cheers,BC
I hear ya!
Cleaning the garage this weekend.
DH and I are very firmly squared-off in the garage...picture the boxing announcer guy saying "In this corner, weighing in at 220lbs!... and in this corner, weighing in at 125lbs!"
When he cleans his side of the garage, he does so by throwing stuff on my side...then he tells me that MY side is a mess...well, go figure...lol.
Shhh!!!! Busy throwing it back while he is out back watering the garden!!
We must be vewy, vewy qwyet...
Not sure if I will ever get it right, but I will continue to roll that marble around my pea-brain until I figure it out.
Is his side 50% larger because of the extra mass he has?
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Nah...
Actually, I have more tools than he does...he's got more fishing gear though...fine with me as long as he continues to bait my hook for me...lol.
Not sure if I will ever get it right, but I will continue to roll that marble around my pea-brain until I figure it out.
DH and I are very firmly squared-off...
Reminds me of a story I heard about a couple arguing over who wore the pants in the family. Finally, the lady says to her husband - If you want to always be right, and always wear the pants, then here, put my pants on. He says "I can't get in your pants". She says "Exactly!"View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
Well, it's not quite like that, but that's a cute story. I can usually get "more done" letting him be right, if you know what I mean. That said, we actually never argue. He nags and I say yes dear...
Made me laugh just this last week when he had to ask to borrow my new framing gun, drill, and impact driver. Ex-GC...sold most of his tools because he's supposed to only be running a clipboard now...lol.
Not sure if I will ever get it right, but I will continue to roll that marble around my pea-brain until I figure it out.
When that happened to me all those many years ago, SWMBO's response was "That's right, and you ain't gonna get into them until you adjust your attitude!!"
Hey man, would I lie to you?? - lol
"...you ain't gonna get into them until you adjust your attitude!"
=)View Image “Good work costs much more than poor imitation or factory product” – Charles GreeneCaliforniaRemodelingContractor.com
I enjoyed your telling of the "Garage Wars" saga...funny stuff.Here's the entry door/transom I managed to trim out today (got some others stuff trimmed as well). Tomorrow I'll try to bang out a couple of tapered columns.Cheers,Bass
I am one who would love to be your apprentice for a month or a year...whatever...
To be honest, we both have our strengths and our weaknesses when it comes to cleaning and organizing the garage...it actually went fairly well...
Now he's gonna BBQ for us!
Not sure if I will ever get it right, but I will continue to roll that marble around my pea-brain until I figure it out.
I seldom have a problem working on my own house, but cleaning my office is a whole 'nuther thang!!
I spent all morning shoveling out the "stuff" (three trips to the recycle bin, two to the trash, the shredder is full, and I have a middling sized pile of e-waste to get rid of.)
One small pile of semi-important paperwork to put away, then it's BEER-30!!!
I dislike office work too...better do some of that tomorrow, now that you mention it.
1) The last 10% of a job takes 50% of the time.
2) Its your project. The advantage is you don't have to get it done to get paid. That is unless the wife is withholding payment.
3) If everything is finished and there is nothing left to do you know you just died. The thing about breathing is what have you done for me lately.
Be careful,
Ancient chinese proverb,
"Man finish house.... Man die."
I would not be too concerned, it has been a long road...and I have plenty left to do:
LOL,
abd you're living in it too, right?
yep...not sure that is livin' though. Not too bad now...keep making progess...slow but sure.
Brian,
Wow, looks pretty rough! How far into it was that? Is that pretty how it was when you got it? Where is it at now? Got some before and after pix?
Here are a few pictures of my place shortly after I moved in. This was the front:
View Image
This was the side and back:
View Image
This was the first floor after a lot of mucking out and many trips to the dump:
View Image
This was the upstairs. Still pretty much looks like this, except now it's full af 15 years of accumulated ####:
View Image
This was my bathroom for a couple of years. Don't forget, wife was living here too. Had to have some kind of amenities:
View Image
This was my living quarters. There was one room that had half-baked sheetrock in it from the previous owner's attempt at restoration. That room became our home for several years. I threw up theplywood kitchen in about two days.
View Image
The view out the front "windows" which were particleboard shutters I made to keep the critters and the mass murderers out at night. 33 holes in the house where windows used to be. Eventually discovered that a woman down the street had the sash in her barn. She graciously gave them to me.
View Image
This was opening up the west wall the kitchen is now where that hole is.
View Image
Steve
After seeing that bathroom you may well be my hero., My wife still thinks we need bathroom doors, I tell ya ya cant live wit em and ya cant live witoutem;]
I knew of a roofer who shingled the walls of the shower in his home...if it works on the roof?Doubles as a backscratcher--for those hard to reach places. ;o)Now you've caught me loafin'...back to work...later.
Edited 5/26/2008 1:40 pm ET by basswood
i shingled the kitchen walls but she never liked it
That bathroom was a little chilly in the winter. We tented it in plastic and ran a salamander while bathing.Steve
Steve,You have a great project there. I've seen how nicely you are doing things.There is a thread in the archives on my project, I'll pull that up sometime.Here is a pic from the winter of the place now:
Wow! What a transformation! Nice color scheme too. Is the inndeep picture of the same facade as the snow inn picture? You really re-worked the fenestration nicely.Steve
Different angle, but same side of the place. The place was so badly remuddled, that I thought nothing of changing things. I went with a window pattern that is typical for the period, but not the way this building was originally.Thanks,Brian
The only thing I changed on the facade of mine was the upstairs two center windows had been dropped down 1 course of siding for some reason, and the door had been italianated at some point. I moved the windows back up and stripped the round-top italianate moulding off of the front door, making it a simple rectangular 4-panel door again.Would like to re-do shutters and the bell tower someday, but very low priority.Steve
Steve, what was going on in that first pic?
Are you still married?
To the same woman?
If yes, congratulations.
Joe H
Joe,That 1864 picture was when my house was a private school called the Westford Literary Institute. It was from the era before public high schools. I actually have a copy of the student newspaper from it that mentions the "most excellent photographs taken by Mr. Manzer".Before it was a school it was a Methodist church, built circa 1823 I think. They moved it a couplehundred yards down the street in 1863, and turned into the Literary Institute, extensively remodeling it at that time.Still with the same woman, not actually married, but after 17 years, we might as well be. I refer to her as my wife for convenience sake.Steve
Steve,You have a wonderful place there with some fascinating history.My place is of similar vintage. I may live in the oldest hotel (inn) in MN (1850's vintage).All the best, as you finish the rest,Brian
You too, Brian. I envy you your shop. Great space. Steve
The shop and house are slowly evolving...they compete for my time.The shop is mostly just a gutted shell...like a barn with a woodstove. Someday it will be a nice shop...hope to chase the bats out this summer. Just built a couple more bat houses...tired of living in guanoland.
Awesome! I love it.
I'll assume the only female living with you in that house, in that condition, is possibly the black cat next to you in the last photo?
>>I'll assume the only female living with you in that house, in that condition, is possibly the black cat next to you in the last photo?<<Oh no, my "wife" (see previous post to Joe), has lived here for the whole ordeal. She's a saint, I tell ya!Steve
Oh no, my "wife" (see previous post to Joe), has lived here for the whole ordeal. She's a saint, I tell ya!
No, it's US that are telling you she is a Saint! Them type are few and far between. Do something special for her tonite.
wow!
good for you guys.
A joint adventure.
My wife has started the new strategy of 'helping' me with projects that she badly wants done. It's really sweet, and she's come to appreciate why it's so hard to summon the willpower to stop loafing and get to work.
I don't think a lot of women would have the patience to fetch stuff for a guy.
My wife does much of the painting and gardening...that helps.
I hear you. Last labor day, I decided to replace my windows. Then I figured might as well reside, but first I had to rebuild my front porch. Then, since I was residing, I figured I better put on the new back entry I was planning, including a new bathroom. Well, since I have to tie in the new bathroom, I better re run the drain for the kitchen sink this is an old effed up homeowner job. new addition will require new radiators in my 90 year old heat distribution pipes, so I better tear that all out and replumb them. Then the new window trim looks so much better than the old trim that it won't be that much more work to redo the whole house. This is a house that we bought 3 years ago thinking, "we can live in this for a while without doing anything".
Fortunately there was a hailstorm last summer so my insurance company bought me a new roof put on by a roofer.
I don't mind taking my tools out and even working on the weekend. (I work 4 10's so every weekend is a 3 day weekend) Packing up and cleaning up on Sunday Afternoon, on the other hand, is murderous.
I love the telling of the thought process!! I do the same thing with every project, my ending is a bit different however. I get done thinking about it and decide aww heck it isn't that bad the way it is, a nap sounds easier.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Same here, I DID get 4 posts set for the verandah tho'.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
Getting my head(s) together...for the door to the basement, the French doors and three windows. After I tack those on, it's fabin' those columns.
Good start.
I hadda go get a new weedwacker, I blew up my old Cubcadet so I went whole hog and got a Stihl...now it's looking like a storm coming, brought all my projects I was workin on outside, inside..now I can't move..too much going on.
Rebuilding a Doric column, 12'' dia. at base, to 10" at top..over 9' tall..12 staves, fluted.
But now, a nap is looking good.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
The Doric column would be cool to work on.Here are the columns I made today (tore out a wall to open up the kitchen, but a pipe was in there, so...one column is hiding a pipe):
Good solution to a pipe for sure.
I found new columns on line for about 1743.00$. I have 3 hours in stripping, and will have 1 in reglueing, maybe 4 in remove and replace..I'll be just under a 1000.00$ saving the old (G).
Gonna drive around the town and leave a card in every split column..LOL There are MANY like these.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
New book alert; Eckhart Tolle "A new earth"
A must read.
Man, does it ever end?It is like pulling on a thread and unraveling the whole sweater. ;o)
God I envy you.
I love my family but the thought of having an empty house even for a day is beyond even wishing for.
I just spent a good part of the weekend putting (back) together one of those backyard atrocities.
Our old neighbors kids got too old so (lucky me) I get the wood fort. What a nightmare to out back together. It would have been easier to design one on the fly than try reassembling this one.
Its done but I think I aged about two years this weekend.
HA , i is not like youse bums, why my house has been finished for years, Every tool is in its place ready to go, trucks all washed and waxed, yard work and weeding all done,fishing reels all have new line on them, Babys got new shoes, yep kinda boring here, but thats just the way i roll in this fantasy of mine.
and you my friend have obviously been out in the cow pasture harveting shrooms again.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
that one is good for a world class ROAR!!!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
i make a mean brownie.
I've read the entire thread and all I can say is I'm glad I learned to say NO to MYSELF!
Somewhere along the line I stopped making my home projects harder. In my early days, I had big ambitions. A simple set of stairs would turn into a work of wonder. A little trim around a window would be come a work of art. I made everything hard....and had the normal punchlist that any carpenter would have.
I eventually sold (and finished) my house and bought an old remodeled one. Everything I looked at needed improvement..but I said "NO". When it was time to sell, I didn't have any loose ends to tie up.
I won't buy a fixer for myself now. I know I'm not interested in doing the work. I know I can do the work but I also know I don't want to. I'd rather go golfing. So, I buy something that is finished. That suits my wife and me too. It's not perfect and I can see 100 things that I could improve...but I say NO!
Learn to say no and life will be so much easier. Build your monuments to yourself on someone else's time and money.
Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Jim,I bought this place for the price of the lot (2 acres, 55K), with a 3000 s.f. house that has an attached 2000 s.f. big band era dance hall attached (my shop).I knew I got a lot of work for the money, ;o)
That looks like a great buy. Now, hire someone to fix it up and get on with enjoying your life. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
I have no sympathy for you wusses.
Is that a volcano getting ready to blow in the background?
Just the view from the kitchen winder....
Wow splintie!Is that the place you moved oh so many years ago? I remember being on these boards when you started that adventure. What a spectacular spot!Steve
That's the one. The house was set in ~2000...i forget exactly. Late mate Ian and i moved into it in 10/2003 with one electric outlet and no plumbing. A week later the temps went to zero and i blew out my knee sledging the old fireplace and required surgery...and we managed to stay together too, LOL!We were working along at a pretty good clip until he got sick in 2005. I'd done very little on the house since then until early this year when my old enthusiasms returned and the ideas started coming one on top of the other. It's a beautiful location, but a rather socially and physically isolated spot to be single. I've given some thought to moving back to Missoula or some other form of civilization, but i've grown used to having all this room around me, too. I'm not sure whether i'll stick or fly, but i've got at least two more years of work on it before i have to decide.Here's a bit of the progress:
In NJ, we like to put our house ON the foundation <G>
Im my neighborhood, if your house isn't on wheels, you're considered upper-class. <G>
Just because it is HAAAARD doesn't mean I'm not enjoying it too.