Monday, June 18, 2007

How to be faithful to your current projects.

In relationships, I'm the hardcore monogamous type (a couple of my exes didn't share my viewpoint, but that's why they're exes! But I digress...). But when it comes to house projects, I'm definitely somewhere between polyamourous, serial monogamist, and raging philanderer. I'll be hugely into something, but then suddenly, after far too little time, it just feels like too much work, or it just gets tedious and boring, or the sex tapers off to... oh, no, wait, never mind.

I just lose interest in finishing what I started and I don't know how to keep myself motivated for the projects that are a lot of hard work for very little in the way of short-term gratification. "Oh, look at what I got done today, honey: another 4x5 ft section of the dining room floor has at least 50% of the linoleum adhesive scraped up and the residual glue mopped up -- whooohoooooooo!!!"

Needless to say, I have to admit that I've got my eye on a pretty thing that has me all distracted and discombobulated and antsy to move on... remember that dresser I talked about in my last post? I'm starting to daydream about it when I should be being true to my scrapers and mop bucket. I'm starting to make plans for how to refinish it, how to reshape the drawers to accommodate the pipes, what I should put on top for the sink, when I should be on my hands and knees devotedly serving my Heart Pine Master, and being grateful for It's existence in my life when I thought I had nothing but plywood ("Oh, thank you for the splinters and numb hands and aching back and skanky sweat; Please, Sir, may I have another hour of this torture and tedium?").

Gah!

2 comments:

LoveleeLara said...

I can start any project with gusto, it is the completion (or photo taking) that escapes me. I tire of it or I don't quite like the way it is going so I move on (subconsciously of course) without investigating and rectifying exactly what I don't like about the paint color or the new light fixture, or the faucet. We should have a "are you going to finish that" contest.
Cheers

Unknown said...

I have about five projects waiting to be finished. Literally finished--sanded and stained or painted. I hate that. The sanding and staining is when I lose interest and find something else to build.