Renovating stress

Tempo982

To anyone out there who is in the middle of majorly renovating their house...do you ever just look at all the stuff that's not done and get super stressed??  I keep trying to focus on the positive(since we bought the house almost a year ago, we've done a LOT of work) but sometimes I give myself an anxiety attack just thinking of all the unfinished work. I love that we are making the house our own, exactly the way we want it, but at the same time I just wish it was done already.

I guess I just want to know that I'm not the only crazy person who drives themself nuts and stresses over things like this...

kipnus

I think you just need to keep in mind that there isn't a deadline--you don't have to have your house perfect within a year (or two, or five...) of purchase.

another KT

It's a marathon, not a sprint.  Especially for us, my husband herinated a disc in his neck moving in so besides replacing the heating system most everything got put on hold for a year. I've had to readjust my expectations.   Progress since then has been slow but I focus on what has been accomplished and not try and get down on ourselves.

gymbugmj2k

My husband and I have this conversation at least once a week!!!

 

We bought our home in late July and our immediate plans were:

-gut/renovate the kitchen to include removing a wall, remove wallpaper from bedroom, paint ENTIRE 1500sqft house, re-carpet entire house, replace light fixtures in 4 spots.

 Oh right...and we got married mid-august. At that point, the kitchen was gutted and the floor just went in, we had new carpet upstairs (not downstairs yet), paint in 3/4 of the house was done and hubby was moving his stuff in and living in the bedroom and loft space so that he had somewhere to get ready for the wedding. our mattress was delivered 3 days before then. i moved in (with just a suitcase) the day after the wedding.

 long story short -- within 6 months of owning the house and getting married, we completed all of the above tasks (ok thats a lie, we still have a few lights to change), bought furniture, and have just started to accessorize rooms.

we still have to finish our office/loft, bathrooms, guest room, basement and garage......and then tackle the outside gardens and such.

 

 

....i'm a "its on my list i have to get it done" kind of person, and hubby has to constantly remind me of all the shenanigans we went through already and how much we've accomplished in such a short time!  Other people take YEARS to do what we've done.  

 

you're not a crazy person -- you're just motivated like me!

Make a long list of everything that you need to do. EVERYTHING thats in your head.  Talk it over with hubby about "short term and long term" items.  pick 2-3 short term items each month to work on.  take photos of the progress. enjoy seeing the transformation and try to remember as much as possible how far you've come!

Tempo982

Thanks everyone for being so encouraging!

shellmh

2 1/2 years ago DH and I bought a 250 year old house that we are completely renovating/gutting. It is the most frustrating thing in the world. But also the most rewarding thing in the world. On a weekly basis, at least one of us has a breakdown about the unfinished projects, or the rooms/areas we haven't even touched yet.

I've found that one of the best things to calm or reassure us is to look back on pictures of the house when we viewed it with our real estate agent and also pictures from early on in the renovations. Since you live in the middle of a project, it is sometimes hard to remember where you started. Any time we look back on what our (for example) kitchen used to look like, it makes us appreciate how far we've come, even though the fact that the crown molding hasn't been put up yet has been bugging me for a week. That kind of thing.