Dining Room Renovation – ORC Week 2

Week one can be summed up in two words: cleaning closets.

Let me explain because as you will notice, there are no closets in our dining room.

The scenario goes something like this:

We have just completed the demo on a room. (In this case, the dining room.) I am feeling great about the project ahead. I carefully drape everything that needs to be protected in a layer of plastic and secure it at the edges. I am smiling.

I visit Lowe’s and daydream a little. The whole world is awesome. I pick up paint and supplies. I think to myself, This room is going to be so good. It might even be the best one we have done so far.

When I return home, I drop my supplies on the floor. I look around and think, Wow! There is a lot to paint in here. My stomach flip-flops uneasily. I look at all of that ornate woodwork on the windows, and the walls, and the doorways. It is so beautiful yet so time-consuming to paint. My smile fades.

I think about all of the painting we have done thus far, mentally counting the gallons of paint we have used. (around 50 counting the exterior) Motivation wanes. Then, I remember the deadline. gulp. It is looming. I give myself a pep talk. I rally. We can do this. I plan out the entire task, day-by-day, to meet the deadline. Then, I ignore my plan for three days as the work starts piling up.

Finally, when I realize that I have to start TODAY or I might not meet the deadline, my brain sends me a very clear message:

Have you looked at the hall closet lately? Disaster! It must be addressed immediately. In fact, that closet is now your highest priority task. Drop everything. Everything!

And I do. I spend precious hours emptying, sorting, cleaning and placing it all back inside where no one but my family will ever see it.

That is my method. The house might fall down around me, but you can bet that the closets are clean.

And here’s the kicker. I meet my deadline anyway, and I feel confident that I will meet this one too.

According to Parkinson’s law, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” But, I know that it also shrinks.

Why all the worry and hand-wringing in the first place? After all, the ORC is six weeks long. Well, for us, it is a little shorter. At the end of August, we invited everyone on our street to come to a party at our house. The date? October 22. That means that despite the fact that we have had since the end of August to get the dining room together, we are now down to ten days to complete the bulk of this project, and finish the front door, and clean the entire house from top to bottom, and, and, and… You get it. It is time to clean a closet. 

I am kidding. It is time to get off this computer and pick up a paint brush.

Please tell me I am not alone here. Does anyone else procrastinate in a similar way?

Next week, there will be some real dining room progress to show, and I will share some of my early favorite projects from the One Room Challenge™.  Please be sure to visit all of the other ORC linking participants and the Twenty designer projects at Calling it Home.

This post it also shared at Thoughts of Home on Thursday.