Make It Happen Monday…on Tuesday
Have you ever wanted desperately to have a room in your home finished, but the small details — the finishing touches — just seem like mountains to you? In reality, they’re not a big deal, but they’ve gone unfinished for so long, in your mind you’ve made them into a huge obstacle.
And every day, you look at that unfinished thing, you try to convince yourself that it’s really not that big of a deal. You bargain with yourself and try to give yourself an ultimatum to finish. You think to yourself ‘If I could just just this.one.thing done, it’ll be smooth sailing to the finish line.’
But you look at it, you dread it, you put it off…
Until one day, you just decide that enough is enough. You get out your [insert name of required tool here] and you just go for it.
And after it takes you all of 45 minutes, you wonder why the heck you made such a big deal of it in your mind. Why did you put it off for so long? Why did you think that such a simple task was such a big deal?
Yeah. I’ve been there. 🙂
My quarter round trim is finally installed…after two years. Still needs to be painted, but that’s the easy (and fun) part!
Smooth sailing from here on out? That still remains to be seen.
So how are you coming on your projects? What small projects have you turned into mountains in your mind? Are you making progress on them? Let me know how it’s going!
(Shameless plug: I had intended to get lots more done on my kitchen and breakfast room this past weekend, but I spent my three-day weekend moving fellow bloggers from Blogger to WordPress. If you blog on Blogger, but would like to move to WordPress, I’d love to help you out! I promise, it’s relatively painless, and fairly inexpensive. 🙂 Just send me an e-mail at addicted2decorating[at]live[dot]com!)
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
OMG. I think we all do that. Then wonder why we waited so long? We have been on a roll knocking things off the to-do list. We finished the fireplace mantle and hearth makeover, put new counter tops on the sun room bar and I cleaned up a room that was trying to eat me! Next up is to do repairs on an antique, farm style cabinet.
Looking good Kristi 🙂 It feels nice to mark stuff DONE huh?
Wow! You really got stuff done, Shannon!! And have you blogged about your fireplace mantle and hearth makeover yet? I’ll have to pop over and see if you’ve done that yet. Can’t wait to see it!
I’m with you on this, Kristi! My dining room seems to be looming over my shoulder all the time! I also need to install the quarter round in my living room. The living room has been “done” for over a year, minus the quarter round. I just picked it up yesterday, but I did get it painted, just not installed yet. Miter cuts scare me. :/ I did get the tape up in the dining room, too, and finished painting the trim around the windows. I guess it isn’t so bad, maybe I am making progress…btw, I love how referenced “the finishing touches” in your post. Made me smile. 🙂
Well it does sound like you’re making progress, Laurie! Any progress is good, in my opinion. 🙂
It’s interesting that you paint your quarter round before installing it. That would never dawn on me! Does that make it easier? And what about caulking? I always attach it, caulk it, and then prime and paint it. Perhaps I need to rethink my process if your way is easier!
Well, I don’t know that it’s easier, it just seemed like what I should do. I have never actually installed quarter round before. I am putting mine at the floor to cover the small gap after installing the new flooring. I figured it would be easier to do “touch-up” painting over the nail holes than taping taping off the floor and painting it all while sitting on the floor. Same holds true for the caulking. I won’t caulk along the floor, just where it meets the base board, if I feel I need it. This small gap can probably be filled with paint. I don’t know, maybe I’m just lazy! Ha!
But if I ever finish everything I’ll have to sell the house or start over again…
Ha! That’s very true, Judy! I think to myself quite often, “I wish I could just get this place DONE!” But what then? What would I do if my home was actually DONE? I have a feeling I’d get quite bored! I’d create projects where none exist…or start over, like you said. 😀
Kristie,
Love reading your blog. I have a question regarding blogging and your comment at the end of your post. I’m deciding on how to go about starting my own blog and you have mentioned you are helping others transfer to WordPress. Another blogger (Michaiel at Inspired by….) also mentioned he is switching to WordPress soon. Can you give me some info on why the switch for so many. Is it easier, more user friendly, can do more, whatever. I would prefer to start out in one and not have to move later.
Also, you’ve lost so much weight lately (remember, I’m right there with you). You should post a new profile pic. The one you have is lovely, but not your skinny new self. Show it off girl.
Hey Erin~
Well, there’s really no comparison between Blogger and WordPress, in my opinion. I would recommend Blogger for people who just want a hobby blog, perhaps to share a project here and there, and keep up with family, etc. But if you really want to take a stab at creating a blog that will generate with a part-time or full-time income, then WordPress is by far the best option. It’s more of a professional blogging platform, the search engine optimization is much better, you have more control over your blog, and there are over 21,000 plugins available that can make a WordPress blog do just about anything you could ever dream up.
Probably the absolute biggest difference is that with Blogger, you don’t actually own your blog. It belongs to Google. If you’ve been blogging for four years, have thousands of posts, and tens of thousands of comments, and they decide that they want to remove your blog, you have no control over it. It sounds crazy, but it has happened to many bloggers. Just one day *poof* their blog is completely gone.
With a self-hosted WordPress blog, you have completely ownership of your blog, your content, and complete control over it. Hope that helps!
Oh, and taking a new profile picture is on my very long “to do” list. Perhaps it needs to be moved up towards the top of the list. 🙂
Kristi,
Thanks so much for the information. Looks like WordPress is the best bet! I found a how to on how to set up a blog and they had also suggested WordPress but also were plugging a certain hosting organizaiton so I wasn’t sure if it was for that reason only. Great to get the opinion of a blogger I admire. Thanks again.
That will look finished when the painting is done. Step-by-step Kristi. My weekend included a family wedding, the birth of a new grandchild (Woo Hoo!) and a family reunion. Not much time to do anything else so my list for the rest of this week, after work, includes: washing three rooms of windows and window treatments and rehanging; taking down summer decorations and putting up autumn; picking the rest of the tomatoes and making sauce and salsa for the freezer and making and freezing a couple of meals for my son and daughter-in-law. I’d best sign off and get cracking, right?
Sue, congratulations on the new grandchild!! How exciting! And wow…sounds like you’re in the middle of a VERY busy week. That salsa from freshly picked tomatoes sounds amazing.
Well, it’s not really a project that was started and not finished, but we did get a wall painted this weekend. My son closed on a new house last week, and wanted one wall to be UT Longhorn Burnt Orange (sorry all you non-Longhorn fans!). He had mentioned the last time he was home that he wanted to find a Longhorn logo decal or something to put on the wall – a really big decal! Failing to find anything along the lines he wanted, I found an overhead projector on Craig’s List and a car magnet at Wal-Mart. Shoot the image on the wall, paint around the shadow, and we have a Longhorn on the wall! He’s working out of the country right now, so had no idea we were attempting anything different than just a painted wall. But, it looks awesome! (Even if I wouldn’t do that at my house!). I’m just happy that project is done.
Very cool! We never stop wanting to give them a happy surprise, no matter how grown up they get. Enjoy that moment when he sees it, you sound like great parents.
I’m sure your son will LOVE that! And how nice of you to do that for him!
Oh do I have those little projects staring at me, mocking me, daring me to finish them! The shame!
Kelly
From one Laurie to another, yes, I have many unfinished projects. I think the color of our kitchen cabinets is similar. I love the pulls on your cabinets. Congratulations on finishing your trim. laurie
Well, I failed miserably at getting my project done this week. I still don’t have a kitchen sink. It is sitting in the middle of my living room floor still, and the tile to do the countertop is still sitting in my truck. We did at least manage to get the plumbing ran into the right spot and the cabinets screwed to the wall, so I guess that is a start anyway.
It seems like you just want to turn your head, but it won’t take you long. For me I think it is knowing that the project will complete. And then what??? I guess on to the next or somehow I start working on more ways to update the project.
I have a bathroom light fixture that stares me down every time I pee. I haven’t changed it, yet, ‘cuz I can’t find anything I like…but that’s probably not the real reason. The real reason, is it needs to be moved a wee little bit to the left and that ain’t gonna happen without a serious time commitment. Maybe when all the book hoopla and shows are over for the season. Your Make It Happen Mondays haunt me all week, though. Soon…very soon I’ll get something done.
We finally started on our small half bathroom downstairs! Unfortunately, we ran into a couple hiccups along the way. =[ A leaking toilet and a leaking sink. UUGGHH. It just couldn’t be easy! You can read all about it on my blog =] just a few more things to do in there and it should be done! It’s looking really good so far!
Finally finished some glasses that needed to be completed. Oh i love moving on to the next one but to fast so Monday I completed all the straglers. I know a lot of crafters understand what Im talking about , this also pertains to home projects maybe next monday I will complete those LOL
Well unfortunately I have a big FAIL this week on getting my challenge completed – getting my doors painted! However, I did make good progress in another area – I’ve painted my final two dining room chairs, touched up the table, waxed them all and have started covering the seats with new fabric. So why the change in plan? My son and his girlfriend have both passed their degrees and got jobs, so I’ve invited the family round for a celebration dinner on the 12th Sept. Need a dining room….
How right you are – for weeks I had been looking at a few patches of undercoat paint I put on my wall (to try and hide the stains from wall plaster which just wanted to keep shading it) and my intention was to let it dry and paint the end colour to tie in with the rest of my bathroom wall. It took me 10 mins to do something I had been looking at for weeks. At least I could lie back in my bath without these blasted white blobs picking away at my brain. But as I lay back in my bubble bath – what did I see?? Yes one little white undercoat blob high up in a corner I missed. Blast!
It’s those pesky little touches that make all the difference.
So happy for you! Wow, that is the best feeling to finish a room! I am resolved to finish that bookshelf next week!
As one of the Bloggers you helped migrate from Blogger to WordPress this past weekend, I must take this opportunity to sing your praises! WordPress is already a thousand times better, and I am so glad to have made the move! And while the platform makes sense, I know the transfer would not have! So I am SO glad I didn’t have to do it myself!
Happy almost weekend, Kristi and THANK YOU again!
xoxo,
mk
We have a landing on our main floor along with 3 small steps that is still the plywood that was there before any flooring came on when our house was built. We were supposed to fix it after we moved in. It’s 2 years later. There is a mat on the floor and it’s still not done. Every time I walk to the basement I mumble this needs to get done. This happens like 20x a day.
Half-finished projects often end up being a huge waste of our time, money, and emotional happiness. It can be really hard to break the cycle. (But trust me – it’s so worth it when you do.)
That’s the thing, you find a problem and get kind of fixated with it, and the more you think about it and look at it the more annoyed you get. It’s funny how it works that way.
Kristi, I have definitely been there! I think one issue a lot of people have is dealing with multiple small projects. When you have lots of unfinished tasks, it can seem as though finishing everything is impossible. I’ve found it’s best to take it one project at a time. (One project per weekend, for example.) It’s hard to get started, but, you’re right, the sense of accomplishment is well worth the effort! (Also, I recently made the move from Blogger to WordPress – loving it!)