Friday, April 6, 2007

I give up!!!

Okay not really, but sort of.

I'm sick of working on this stupid house. It always goes like this - I'm jazzed up and energetic and work my ass off for three-quarters of a project and then just before it's done I lose all interest and move at a snail's pace. I suppose it's impatience, or maybe just that my brain moves faster than my arms and in my mind this place is supposed to be FINISHED, ALREADY! Ugh.

So, after two straight weeks of doing nearly nothing, I am now entertaining bids on the more aggravating pieces of interior work that remain. Specifically, sheetrocking and tiling the bathroom, and skimcoating the study ceiling.

I feel a strange combination of conflicting emotions about it. On the one hand, I'm salty about paying someone for work I could easily do myself. On the other hand, it's elating to think that someone might actually complete these tasks inside of a week, rather than procrastinating them for a month as I surely would. (Er, as I HAVE, that is.)

So, okay. Whatever. Why should I care? Don't zillions of other people speak of "doing" projects, (e.g. "we remodeled our kitchen!" or "we put in a new deck!") when in fact they paid someone else to do it? Why is it that when *I* say these things, I have to mean that *I* actually did it with my own two hands? People rarely believe that anyway, most likely because I'm a chick.

Screw it.

I want a manicure.

6 comments:

Leslie said...

OMG I can totally relate. Especially with projects that aren't necessarily hard but are just tedious and time consuming and something I just really don't feel like doing!!! I love being a part of houseblogs.net and other communities, such as oldhouseweb.com, but sometimes it's easy to let myself feel guilty for not doing something like painting my porch when so many others are taking on such huge and challenging projects. I'm finally reaching that zen point where hey, I decide what we can do, what we can't, what we can live with, etc., and if others can do 1000 times more than I can, then that's great for them.

Anonymous said...

Don't feel badly about hiring someone! I did, and I don't regret it. I'm still contributing in a major way, but just not in the 'sawing and hammering' way.

Plus it's great to have another eye helping out. Go get that manicure, and review those bids! (You'll be happy you did once you're enjoying your 'finished' home!)

Ranty said...

Thank you both for your comments - they seriously made me feel better! :-)

Brandi said...

Hi Ranty,
I just wanted to say that I respect that you do as much as you do with your house. Our house needs so much remodeling (I think we'e are running out of containers to catch the rain in) and repairs are so costly but, right now it's just my mom at home and she's already overextended. So, the fact that you can work up the energy to do as much as you seem to be doing is great. I'm not sure what you do to pay the bills but whatever it is on top of this should be applauded!

Ranty said...

Thanks Brandi. This (rehabbing stuff) is actually all of what I do right now - that's why I get so mad at myself when I slack... it's costing me money to not make progress!

I'm sorry that we didn't get a MNSpeak gathing when you were here, but hopefully you'll be back in town after graduation and there will be another one!

And when we do, you can tell me more about what's happening at your mother's house. Perhaps I can offer some advice or help... (not that I'm a licensed professional, mind you - I've just developed a habit of learning how to do every single thing the hard way - and boy have I learned!)

Brandi said...

Well, it looks like my mom is refinancing so we'll be getting some major remodeling done. She called me listing all the crazy stuff that'd be getting done. I thought she was mainly talking about the roof but no, we'll have all hardwood floors, new bathroom stuff going on, and that was just the beginning of the list. I was half-asleep. I wonder what living at home is going to be like this summer...