Pep talk needed

[plasticpigeon]

I think bursts of activity are a good idea, and as Mims said, one nice room to relax in is important. Trying to do everything at once can be very stressful, but it works for some people. Another thing I have witnessed and may well be the case for me too, is that people often get 80% of the way there, enjoy their home in an almost finished state and then finish it off when moving is on the cards. Don't know why, must be some nearly universal human characteristic.

 

[Feltwell]

Another thing I have witnessed and may well be the case for me too, is that people often get 80% of the way there, enjoy their home in an almost finished state and then finish it off when moving is on the cards. Don't know why, must be some nearly universal human characteristic.

Yep, been there, done that. My last house, the artex ceilings got skimmed over and the rooms re-decorated *after* we'd moved out into a rental (200 miles away!). At the same time my middle child was born - we moved when he was 5 days old. Nothing like doing it the easy way eh? :lol:

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yep, been there, done that. My last house, the artex ceilings got skimmed over and the rooms re-decorated *after* we'd moved out into a rental (200 miles away!). At the same time my middle child was born - we moved when he was 5 days old. Nothing like doing it the easy way eh? :lol:

I'm certain that brick and plaster dust are the most potent fertility drugs know to humankind.

 

[Lacan07]

I can relate to much of whats been said here, and I'm doing my renovation on my own which I knew was going to be extra tricky when I purchased the house.

Last Friday the sewer drain got blocked somewhere over the road and it backed up, its a combined sewer taking rain from my back roof and it rained all day. Last January I installed a new soil pipe at the back of the house so I'd had the man hole off, a very hefty chunk of York stone, which probably meant there was no 'seal' of dirt built up over time so the sewer material spewed out the new gaps and into the gully I'd dug against the house to take the pressure of the flint damp course. It then went through my brand new air bricks and under the house.

I must admit that broke me a little bit.

 

[DaisyDaisy]

Oh Lacan, that must have felt just too much. I’m sorry. On a technical front I’ve no idea what to say, but just as a person and fellow renovator I’m sending you all the strength you need to cope.

Daisy

 

[Lacan07]

Oh Lacan, that must have felt just too much. I’m sorry. On a technical front I’ve no idea what to say, but just as a person and fellow renovator I’m sending you all the strength you need to cope.

Daisy

Thanks Daisy, it helps to share with people who know what its like to renovate an old house. None of my friends or family could really understand the disappointment.

 

[88v8]

Never did finish our first house, although it taught me plumbing electrics central heating design, and how to apply wallpaper so the pattern was upside down... looked OK to me.... that was only five years.

After thirty years in our last house, and perhaps 30,000 hours of work, the final room got finished... after we'd bought our next house

I'm finding here in our cottage that I look at some things that could do with doing and I think 'meh'. It'll see me out.

Daisy seems to have had a pretty major job. Our dentist had builders in for a year, he went the static caravan route. That might still be worth considering, depending what's to be done. Somewhere away from the muck and mess.

I used to run a master Jobs list. I don't any more, just a daily list. But when I did, if I did something that wasn't on the list I used to add it just so I could cross it off. And I kept some of the lists, to remind me just how much work had gone into the finished job.

When the major structural work is done, I'd work on one room and get it finished. Then you have somewhere that will give you a taste of the future.

Mims ... nice to see you again... makes a very good point about the garden... too often an afterthought. An oasis around the caravan...

Ivor

 

[Gothichome]

Locan7, gezzzz, that’s a bit of let down considering all the work that was put onto getting the water away from the home. The fact that it got messed up on the road side you can be assured that if your home were new it would still have backed up.
Not much solace with your wet foundation issue I know.
Every one seems to like lists, the problem with lists as I see it is, it turned every thing into a job with a deadline. I have one of those already, I don’t need another in the restoration of Gothichome.

 

[CliffordPope]

It seems to me there are two kinds of people here:

1) those who see the project as a "job", with a finite time scale, after which they will stop doing the job and move into the enjoyment phase

2) those who don't care how long it takes, and are probably constantly redefinng what "it" is as they go along. For them, the everlasting project is what they enjoy.

I'm wholeheartedly in the second category. I'm never going to finish, because "finishing" has no meaning for me - it's a living creative process, and it it were ever finished I'd be lost - the whole thing would become pointless.
I've lived here for 36 years, and I still keep having new ideas. The day the ideas dry up I might as well die too.

 

[DaisyDaisy]

I like a list - particularly in retrospect, all those things crossed off! The trick for me is not to have one stretching too far ahead. A planning list/master list is there but a bit too scary to have to hand all the time…. I like job lists broken down in to little steps…… lots to cross off. We keep an A4 page a day diary as a mix of a planning aid and record of works done, as things progress we’ve added in more thoughts and perspectives too.

Prompted by replies on here we’ve sat down and looked back through this record, matched it up with photos on the iPad. Absolutely amazed at what we’ve actually done- what a boost. The garden is taking shape too - good advice there, we’d pretty much done that by default almost not ‘counting’ that as work, but we’ve planted trees and taken up areas of playground (it’s an old school). All adds to a feeling of progress, loving the validation from PP people. Thank you.

The roof light went in at the weekend, bedroom space really taking shape (definitely top of list now). Having now seen the view from where we’ll be having a cup of tea in bed in the mornings …… great motivation. It’s just the beam cleaning, insulation and cladding to do, oh and a floor, then it’ll be a bedroom. It will be the first complete room.

As for the two types of people, ‘finishers’ and ‘rolling renovators’, well perhaps there’s a third category, I’d put myself in to the ‘finished enough’ category, that is to be finished enough to be able to have a few more choices about what to sort out next. At the moment our building is dictating, once that phase is over the pace can change and we can mix in more of life alongside the renovation. There will never be a big reveal as you see on television but there will be a series of finishes and reveals along the way. It’ll be a good day when we get our stuff out of storage……..

Daisy

 

[Old School]

Hi Daisy Daisy,

Nothing practical to add but I would be very interested to learn about the alu window system you are looking at particularly if you have mullion windows, from a fellow old school owner. Hoping your garden is easier to work in than ours, despite taking up tons of tarmac the 'soil' underneath is like breaking rocks every time I want to plant anything, I have to get my husband to dig the hole and then I have to sieve it all to get the stones out and then lug in tons of top soil! I should also say we are eight years into our renovation but that's probably not very helpful!

all the best
Claire

 

[MatthewC]

I like a list - particularly in retrospect, all those things crossed off! The trick for me is not to have one stretching too far ahead. A planning list/master list is there but a bit too scary to have to hand all the time…. I like job lists broken down in to little steps…… lots to cross off. We keep an A4 page a day diary as a mix of a planning aid and record of works done, as things progress we’ve added in more thoughts and perspectives too.

Yes, I agree. That's what I meant with my earlier post (below). If the list is too long it's depressing, but if it's for a day, or two days, or possibly the week, then you have a real chance of doing it all, which is so satisfying.

As regards doing things when you flag, I found that a decent list of the next few things to be done was helpful. It stops you allowing weeks to slide past when you manage just one thing but could have done three or four.

Keep going!
Matthew

 

[CliffordPope]

As for the two types of people, ‘finishers’ and ‘rolling renovators’, well perhaps there’s a third category, I’d put myself in to the ‘finished enough’ category, that is to be finished enough to be able to have a few more choices about what to sort out next. At the moment our building is dictating, once that phase is over the pace can change and we can mix in more of life alongside the renovation. There will never be a big reveal as you see on television but there will be a series of finishes and reveals along the way. It’ll be a good day when we get our stuff out of storage……..

Another point about being a rolling renovator is when to decide that something is "good enough". A complete bodge that lasts a year, or a perfectionist approach that never gets finished? I tend to be a pragmatist - if a job really is worth doing at all then it's worth even doing badly.
I once knew someone who spent 20 years building his dream bungalow. Then his wife got so tired of never having a home that she left him and the nearly-finished house was sold.

Our house was big enough to store stuff in rooms not due for attention for years: we just lived in the rest of the house. I kept all the 60 tea chests used in the move and stacked them on their sides in the barn, like a giant pigeon-hole system.

 

[CliffordPope]

As for the two types of people, ‘finishers’ and ‘rolling renovators’, well perhaps there’s a third category, I’d put myself in to the ‘finished enough’ category, that is to be finished enough to be able to have a few more choices about what to sort out next. At the moment our building is dictating, once that phase is over the pace can change and we can mix in more of life alongside the renovation. There will never be a big reveal as you see on television but there will be a series of finishes and reveals along the way. It’ll be a good day when we get our stuff out of storage……..

Another point about being a rolling renovator is when to decide that something is "good enough". A complete bodge that lasts a year, or a perfectionist approach that never gets finished? I tend to be a pragmatist - if a job really is worth doing at all then it's worth even doing badly.
I once knew someone who spent 20 years building his dream bungalow. Then his wife got so tired of living in a cramped caravan and never having a home that she left him and the nearly-finished house was sold.

Our house was big enough to store stuff in rooms not due for attention for years: we just lived in the rest of the house. I kept all the 60 tea chests used in the move and stacked them on their sides in the barn, like a giant pigeon-hole system.

 

[Gothichome]

rompted by replies on here we’ve sat down and looked back through this record, matched it up with photos on the iPad. Absolutely amazed at what we’ve actually done- what a boost. The garden is taking shape too - good advice there, we’d pretty much done that by default almost not ‘counting’ that as work, but we’ve planted trees and taken up areas of playground (it’s an old school). All adds to a feeling of progress, loving the validation from PP people. Thank you

Daisy, that’s #2 on my list, see it works.

 

[MatthewC]

I tend to be a pragmatist - if a job really is worth doing at all then it's worth even doing badly.

Sorry, I have to disagree with you Clifford. On an old building, there is little point in bodging a job if it needs doing. It depends on the building quality and age, but somewhere between perfection and a bodge, there is a standard called "acceptable for my lifetime and beyond" which is good enough for me. For my house that's (say) 30-50 years, but for the Grade 1 listed church I work on, it's more like 100-200 years (and in some cases possibly more).

If it doesn't meet that standard then it's only temporary!

Matthew