Keeping motivated during a renovation while living in it.

Hello all,

New to the forum. About a year and a half ago me and my long term girlfriend bought an old rental property. The house is a 2 bedroom 1 bath bungalow with a basement. New roof windows, windows, furnace and a good foundation were the selling points (and getting it for about 60% of what houses in the area where selling for).
The previous tenants had decided to paint the whole house (all 800 sq ft) black and red. So we took possession and promptly started on the living room. We painted the black ceiling in the living room white, ripped up all the laminate tile that was glue to the hard wood (took approx 50 hours with a heat gun). We took down a rotting garage in the back yard and clean up the GIANT MESS I MADE. I then gutted the old basement and framed it out, installed sub floor and ran out of money.
So, I went back to work, set up my tv in the basement, set up my drums in my drum room. and we started living in the house...

I still need to
-Replace all the galvanized pipe
-spray foam, drywall and finish my basement.
-paint the two bedrooms on the main floor.
-Finish re-wiring the house and upgrade the service (I am an electrician...)
-plumb and finish the basement bathroom
-gut and redo the upstairs bathroom
-rip up the old pad, put in a new one and build a new garage.
-gut and redo my kitchen.
-new sidewalks
-Figure out how to get my back yard to grow grass (it was used as a drive way and the put down stone).
-Replace my failing hot water tank.
-put the blown in insulation into my attic (all 52 bags are currently sitting in my basement
-There is more, I just can't think of it.

I am feeling overwhelmed, unorganized and unmotivated.

Help!

NothernSparky

Break it down to all the little jobs that can be done in a weakend and then put them in order of what needs to be done first and so on and don't buy stuff ahead of time to much, that will overwelm you. You need room to work so get rid of the insulation first, but makesure you maintain good ventulation in the attic. Plumbing before wiring and you may want to look a sanitary plumbing too.

The girl friend keep buying stuff to add to the list. I have a room full of material just staring at me. LOL.

I only have 2 months left on my electrical permit, I was working 24 days on 4 days off all winter.

Neal is right. Prioritize your list into do-able pieces. Tell the GF to stop piling stuff into your space until you can finish some of the top priorities. Think sequentially and in increments. It will get done but psychologically, you need to check off the work elements you finish and keep score.

You need to control the GF first, then the list, then the mental overage. It will all work out in the end.

Sit down and do a budget for her to work from and go rent a storage unit and tell her the rent for that comes out of her budget. You have to get her to understand that a pile of stuff will defeat you and then nothing will get done. Get an extention on the permit.

I told her to stop buying stuff, left out the storage unit bit though... don't wanna poke the bear too hard with a stick (my couch isn't as comfortable as my bed). Yeah I gotta stop thinking about the whole of the job, stuff is so much slower without apprentices to clean and goofer.

I feel for you... my bathroom project took FOREVER, because it seemed like there was always something else to be done. Usually when I take on a project, I like to make a list of what NEEDS to be done and where, then prioritize it on a scale of 1-3. Chip away at one thing at a time, wiring first as your permit will expire soon. Then one room at a time I'd leave the bedrooms to last, unless you need to live in them.

Pretty sure the GF was buying stuff as an attempt to prod you along on getting going on doing stuff. That's the way them girls work. ha!
Anyway, you've already talked to her and asked her to quit buying stuff. That's good.
I always sit down and try to figure how long it's going to take me to do a project within reason and then.... I double the time. You are always going to run into more things that need to be done, things that go wrong, etc. etc.

I am going to go and sit by a lake for the next 3 weeks, write a list and prioritize (there will also be beer and fishing). Hopefully come back with a better perspective. Think I am just burnt out.

Here's an idea--bring a new GF back from the lake, and tell the old one (and her stuff) to take a hike. Just tell her the consensus on HouseRepairTalk was to replace her with a more workable model. Besides, she probably doesn't even cook.

Lol, she cooks and cleans on top of her full time job. She just got a little excited about the new house.
I am gonna wait on trading her in for a younger model (she is still in her 20's)

There is nothing better than a live in rebuild to find out how well two people live and work together. If everything works out, you will have bought a house and turned into a home together. Better to excited than not interested, get your understanding worked out, spend some time on time line of work and budget and get to work.

:agree:

nealtw said:

There is nothing better than a live in rebuild to find out how well two people live and work together. If everything works out, you will have bought a house and turned into a home together. Better to excited than not interested, get your understanding worked out, spend some time on time line of work and budget and get to work.

Click to expand...

My wife and I have begun a whole house renovation on a home we purchased in March. The house was almost 40 years old and had not been touched since it was built. We decided to completely remodel rather than build a new home. We sat together and planned the new floor plan and order of things that had to be done in order for us to live in the house during the remainder of the renovation. I have to admit that we did go over budget on a number of items but stuck to our original plan. My wife works out of the home so when she is at work, I try to get things accomplished that she can readily recognize as being complete and still get on with the plan. It makes her feel we are moving toward our goal. For example, if I have to do some rewireing, then I try to set a new toilet or tile a floor so she has a visual on the progress. She likes that and I don't have to toot my horn about it. It works for us, maybe it can work for you too.
Brian