Living in a whole house restoration and renovation project has taught me a lot about letting go and living with things as-is. We move through our days dodging work zones and turning a blind eye to the unfinished projects. Lately, though, I have noticed that we are reaching a stage of this restoration and renovation where the unfinished projects are adding up in larger numbers. It feels like the tipping point. An incomplete job here and there is not a problem. We are an easy-going family who does not expect magazine perfection. However, if we keep leaving the last 10% of every project under construction, we will soon have so many of those little jobs left that it will be difficult to dive into larger plans with any peace of mind.
For the rest of this year, I plan to tuck the following little projects into our life wherever and whenever they fit best. The goal by the end of this year is to have a clean slate for the ideas that we have for BHH in 2018.
The List
1. Library Windows – I need to strip and paint the lower sashes of the windows in the library. Finishing the windows is a high-priority job because we need to put the window a/c in the library to keep our computers cool this summer.
Little known fact: For the One Room Challengeâ„¢ reveal, I duct-taped the lower sashes to the frames so I could photograph them without them tumbling to the floor.
2. Polyurethane the Library Table – Before the big reveal, I also ran out of time to protect the new library table with a layer or two of poly. Right now, it is too hot and humid to do it. I will probably wait until fall when the air is still warm, but the humidity drops.
3. Caulk the windows and doorframes in the kitchen as well as the apron under the window by the sink – This is a straightforward, easy job that I never did. Caulk adds a professional touch to painted woodwork.
4. Cabinet Doors in the Butler’s Pantry – I intended to get back to these doors right away, but…life. I need to figure out what to do with the hinges and just do it. Right now, they simply rest in the frame.
5. Paint the doorframe in the Kitchen Pantry – The kitchen pantry was our first One Room Challengeâ„¢ project. I primed the doorframe and never went back to paint it.
6. Paint the toe kick in the kitchen pantry – We refinished the pantry floor when we gutted the kitchen last summer. Now, I just need to go back and paint the toe kick. (The photo below was taken when the old vinyl floor was still there.)
7. Guest Room Art & Window Shades – This room is almost done. I just need to add some art, a mirror, and put some black-out shades on the windows to keep the room cooler in the summer. The morning sun gets that room cooking by midday. (Look at this before photo! The walls are still blue, and there is snow outside. Brrrr.)
8. Living Room Bookshelves – Ugh! I keep looking at these, and I have not been motivated to finish them. I hope that this list will light a fire under me to just move forward and finish the shelves already. We need to repair the plaster and paint them. It would also be nice to have some books on them too.
9. Cushion for the dance bench in the living room – Ever since we finished the first pass in the living room in 2015, I intended to make the bench (pictured above) comfortable by adding a thick cushion and some throw pillows. I have brought endless fabric samples home, and I even drew the design plan in my notebook. I just haven’t pulled the trigger.
Few things on this list are expensive, but they require time and commitment. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a step in the right direction.
How do you tackle unfinished projects at your house?
21 Comments
Chad
If you’re anything like my family, you’ll leave the unfinished bits for 20 years and get them when you need to freshen up the rooms a second time!
My parents have a window seat that’s awkwardly deep and I wish they had gotten a thick cushion made for back support at a comfortable depth. Ditto for the day bed in their guest room. That may not be the same for your bench but you might want something more substantial than throw pillows.
Stacy
Yes, I do plan on adding a full seat cushion as well as throw pillows.
Cathy
OMGoodness the unfinished projects in this house! Kinda describes the whole house. Mostly I wait till we’re putting a house on the market to sell before those half baked projects get finished – and then wonder how come we’ve been living in a semi ugly mess for all those years when a simple list and time frame, like yours, would have given us a much improved quality of life.
It’s a radical idea, finishing projects. Not sure I’m really ready for it… I much prefer taking on new BIG projects. Might need to forget this….. lol.
Stacy
That was our last house! We spent seven years remodeling. We finished up everything to put it on the market. Never again! 🙂
Ame Jo Hughes
I don’t have a ton of unfinished projects, because I tend to obsessively work on one thing until it’s done (and only on that one thing, at the expense of everything else that needs to happen in our lives – when this happens, Phil graciously takes over and only asks once or twice when I expect to be finished).
That said, my powder room still only has beadboard up on one of the walls. I need to do the rest of the walls, and cut and install new baseboard trim, change out the register & outlet covers for brass varieties, and do something about the door. The only other in-progress-for-months project I have is the front door trim. I need to rebuild the pilasters and replace one piece of dentil trim, and paint the whole thing. I have to visit the lumberyard and do some special orders to make it happen, and it’s just not feasible financially. Eventually, it’ll happen.
I’d like to say it’s like water off a duck’s back, but unfinished projects make me crazy. It’s why, when I was sewing clothes on a daily basis, I rarely had any UFOs. I can’t stop thinking about the stuff that needs to be finished, and it takes up space in my brain. Since we moved here, though, it takes up LESS space. ?
Stacy
I rarely, if ever, have UFOs either. I can’t stand them. LOL, This remodeling business is another story altogether. I don’t want to talk about our front door. 🙂
Christine
My biggest unfinished project is painting ceilings and trim everywhere in the house. I have a run of lower cabinets in the kitchen to repaint and keep saying that once I finish that, I can just start on trim (using the same white throughout the whole house). Most of this is just taking the time to do it, which I should have done either late winter/early spring when there wasn’t so much work to do outside in the garden as well. Every time I get started thinking about doing things indoors in the summer, the list of all of the things to do outside seems more pressing.
Part of my problem is there really aren’t any deadlines. Our friends have already seen our house in all stages of disarray, so we aren’t really working to get things done. We have an electrician coming sometime soon to ground outlets and put in a ceiling light in our front room, which might be a good push to get the worst of the trim and ceiling stuff done once he’s finished.
Stacy
Ugh, ceilings and trim! I know why I put off this task. 🙂
Devyn
“Living in a whole house restoration and renovation project has taught me a lot about letting go and living with things as-is.”
I couldn’t have said it better than that. The biggest challenge with doing renovation in our one bedroom apartment is living in the chaos as it is being done as well as an unending sensation of living in our very own episode of “The Hoarders” Our kitchen may be 98% done, but now it is being used for storage while other projects are being worked on.
Also, there is a reason nobody has seen a recent picture of our box filled living room in which the fridge lived for more than a year until only a few months ago. Same for our entry gallery where we are still storing left over lumber and cement tiles.
Chad
This makes me so glad to have a basement… even though it’s a scary place to do laundry.
Stacy
Oh, the chaos! I know what you mean. When we were working on the library, we stored everything out in the hall. What a mess! I need to become a better vignette photographer. That’s where it’s at on Instagram. 😀
Andrea Matters
Oh, boy, I’m right there with you! To make it even worse, my Great Big List of Unfinished Bits disappeared during an episode of sudden computer death. But my list is so much like yours: paint the lift-out windows in the sleeping porch, get just a quart of paint to finish the one last corner of the playroom, install that new bathroom doorknob that we bought last year to replace the ugly 60’s one, repaint the edge of the screen door that we had to plane this spring, redo a few sash cords, etc. Maybe I will make it my goal to do just one item each week…in between painting the 50% of the exterior that we didn’t do last summer, and adding two planting beds in the front yard!
Stacy
Your list does sound very similar!
SH
I like this finishing-touches plan of attack; quick successes and the rooms are still functional. But with such short summers, the pull outside must make interior work so unappealing. My biggest hurdle getting started (and therefore finished) is gathering all the supplies. I might find I suddenly have time to quickly do something, then think, “now where did I put…” So I use plastic bins to collect what is needed for an upcoming project and keep that bin in the room or work area. (Talking about a few days/a week at most here.) In the library, if you finish the sashes so you can install the AC, wouldn’t that lower the heat/humidty enough to poly the table? Then that would be two items checked off. Woo-hoo!
Stacy
Your plastic bin tip is a good one! Andy and I ran circles looking for stuff until we finally organized the basement.
Marti
Love this list! Good luck knocking them out.
Stacy
Thanks, Marti!
Aileen
You have way more patience than I do to paint all that woodwork. I enjoy glazing windows, but I hate painting them.
We have one major project for this summer: to paint the tin roof and we’re hiring someone to do it. My husband did paint it himself years ago, but it’s a dangerous job. We’ve hired a contractor, but the city has been digging up our street to replace the city water lines, so we’ve asked that the painting not start until the street is paved, because there is so much dust in the air from the water line work.
Stacy
I do not love painting woodwork. It is a drag.
Painting a tin roof sounds like a job worth paying for. I find that I am less and less inclined to do work that involves the roof or being up high on a ladder. 🙂
mkcubed
I’m like Cathy who finishes projects in order to put the house on the market. We redid the bathroom in our previous house and only finished the last few items days before the real estate listing.
My other MO is to work on projects before company comes for extended stays, usually for the holidays. Instead of picking up and cleaning the house like I should be, I’m hanging pictures and caulking. This unfortunately, lends itself to “good enough” and adding to the list of unfinished projects.
I always have an on-going list in my head of things to do but somehow I never quite get to it. Like others, it is often dependent on the weather. Summer is for outside landscaping/gardening work. Winter is for regretting that I didn’t spray paint, seal, etc. all of my projects during the summer!
Stacy
You are singing my song! 😀 We only finished our CA house because we were putting it on the market. Also, I often scramble to finish some unnecessary project right before company comes for a visit. The dishes are dirty, and everything needs a thorough cleaning, but I must finish caulking behind a door in the basement or something silly like that. 😀
“Winter is for regret.” I think that is my motto too. LOL