I finally feel like I can come up for air. Don’t get me wrong, my life is still a hot mess, but a little bit less so. First of all, we finally have running water in our kitchen. Finally! I can’t even remember when we took the sink out, but we definitely didn’t have a kitchen sink in June. Last June that is. So let’s just guess we went about 11 months without a sink. Dude it was rough. We even have a dishwasher again! That was one of the first things I took out, so we haven’t had one for well over a year. Crazy!
The other reason I actually have time to sit down and write (not to mention paint kitchen cabinets) is that my son, G, is back in school. It’s was nearly 3 months he was home with me. During that time, I always thought he’d be going back to school “soon” so we never did any real homeschooling. It was also a mess. We did pack our lunch everyday (that was warm enough) and went out and tried a bunch of new parks. I seriously don’t know how women homeschool and get anything else done. And my other two kids were in school everyday! I missed him now that he’s back in school, but I know he is so excited to hang out with his friends again.
I have big plans to blog more and update all you nice readers on my kitchen renovation now that I (theoretically) have more time on my hands. But I was talking to a friend the other day something became clear to me… I have two main types of DIY projects:
- Projects I have not finished
- Projects I’ve finished, but never finished writing about
No really, I’m pretty sure the only project that is completely finished and documented is the laundry room, but even that has gone through a few “updates” since it was officially finished. You can see the final reveal here.
The conversation began because my friend Julia asked if she could come over to see my staircase. She’s thinking about ripping the carpet off her stairs and remembered that I had torn the carpet off mine. But, gee, she couldn’t seem to find any pictures of the complete project on the blog. Yeah, because I never finished writing about it from 3 years ago. What is wrong with me!?
You can, however, catch a glimpse of the finished staircase makeover in the posts I wrote about the upstairs hallway, because it’s attached to the staircase. It took me forever to install the hardwood up there, but it is, in fact, finished.
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Oh and after you check out the board and batten posts from the downstairs hallway, just know that I already tore most of it off the walls because I didn’t like the MDF I used. I’m going to replace it (one of these days) with wood and make it a little higher on the wall, just like I did upstairs. But wait, I never wrote about the upstairs board and batten. Sigh!
Not only did I not like the height of the downstairs board and batten, or the MDF, I also decided to move one of the doors in the hallway over 6 inches. What a mess! It was the pocket door into the bathroom, which turned out great, except I never put a lock on the door. Nobody seems to mind, so it dropped way down on the priority list. Today I was looking at the door and thinking I should just put a hook and eye on the inside and not worry about installing a pocket door lock. I should probably also do something about the hole left from the old door knob. Sigh!
The bathroom will be my pride and joy when I finally finish it. It is so damn close! All that’s left is to finish grouting the shower walls, install a new exhaust fan, paint the ceiling, install the plumbing fixtures and shower door. It really isn’t that much. But work halted in December as I switched (back) to working on the kitchen. And we’ll just pretend that I didn’t completely gut my guest bathroom while undergoing a complete kitchen overhaul.
Speaking of showers, here’s another one from category 1 – things I never finished…
My outdoor shower stalled because I can’t decide if I should turn it into a stage for the kids to perform on, or go ahead with a shower. Unfortunately that’s not a joke, just how my brain works.
There’s also the swing set, which is pretty much finished, so maybe that’s more category 2. Dude, I think I actually completed everything on the list below! 
The best project I’ve finished and never written about is the surf shack bed. I alluded to it, in this popular post, but never showed you the actual project, when it fact it’s been finished for years.
Maybe the issue is that a lot of projects are kind of between 1 & 2, almost completely finished, but not, so I don’t feel I should write about them yet. My fireplace is a great example! It has gone from this…
To this… But I think it needs corbels, maybe. So I haven’t been able to call it finished. It also needs a cleaning!
There are tons of other posts about the family room, just no final reveal shots, because dude, it’s never going to be completely finished!!!
Oh that just reminded me of the office built-ins… totally finished, but I never showed the big reveal. Probably because that means I’d have to clean the office and style the bookshelves and ain’t nobody got time for that!
Ah, and then there’s the kitchen… I thought I learned my lesson about showing you the steps of a project and not showing you the final product. So I decided to wait until I was finished the kitchen (bahahaha) to write all the posts. Um, not sure that system works either. But never fear, I am going to start writing the kitchen posts now and I figure I will be caught up with the writing about the same time I’m finished with the work. Or something like that. Duh, of course I could have written the posts as I was actually completing the projects and just waited to hit publish, but we all know that just wasn’t going to happen!
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you may have caught a few sneak peeks of the kitchen, like this one. For now that’s all you’ll get. 😉
I can’t wait for the finished projects, that’s for sure..
Thanks! I’ve just started catching up on the kitchen posts. Hopefully they keep flowing.
I think unfinished projects are what I’m good at. For example I found your site when I started my stair case project last July. I am only half way done. Since then I have started about a dozen more. A bathroom that is 80 percent done, landscaping about 50 percent done. I finally got around to working on the barn, replacing siding and at least drawing up plans to replace and repair some post. Not easy for a 100 year old bank barn. I have only replace half of the 40 plus windows in the house. I need to paint steel roof and replace gutters. However my wife would be happy if I finished things like door trims, window trims, stair case, two bedrooms had tore out etc. But of course I just add new projects like the turkey coop I need to build to get them out of the basement.
Your projects finished or not have given me several ideas. But don’t feel alone because I start many just to stop and start another that maybe I will finish one day.
Thanks John for taking the time to leave a comment! It is so nice to hear that I am not the only one with DIY ADD. Hahaha
Everything seems like it’s starting to come together well! I can definitely tell you’ve made a lot of progress. Your laundry room looks awesome! Keep up the hard work, and the finished products will be amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Morgan!