I’ve realized that a good way to approach working on the house is by breaking every big job up into minuscule tasks, each of which can be done in one evening. So now “painting a room” becomes clearing out the room, dusting the walls, taping everything off, spackling, sanding, priming, painting, priming the trim, and painting the trim. True, it spreads it out into a week-long process, but at least each bite is a bit easier to chew. It’s a lot less overwhelming, and it makes you slow down and do each step properly. When the task is “paint the room”, I tend to get impatient and cut too many corners because I’m only focusing on the “painting” part. When the task for the evening is “caulk”, that gives me a whole two hours or so to make sure I do the job right, and I don’t have to think too much about it.
Somehow we never painted the trim in the dining room, and it’s bugging the crap out of me. So the other day we cleared out the room, last night I taped everything off, tonight I have some sanding to do, tomorrow I’ll prime, and Thursday and Friday I’ll paint. I’ll be done by the weekend, and it’s not this huge thing that’s stressing me out.
Of course, when I think about everything ELSE that needs to be done…THAT stresses me out…
