The ADD method of home improvement | ADHD Information

i love DIY docorating is my best

on the spur of momment i think ill re decorate this room dash out buy paper and thats as far as it gets, months later i remember and get round to stripping the old paper of the walls

once i start striping i cant stop. the kids run riot and dont get fed all day  i just cant stop myself.

then the room stays like that a few more months untill i get round to hanging new paper

i wouldnt consider getting anyone to do it for me, as why pay someone to do something i can do myself.

i have consider getting a cleaner in the past untill my mum found out she went mad

My DH has put the brakes on any project of mine for the forseeable future.  I had this great idea to revamp my husband's dresser- he'd had it since childhood, and while it's a solid, good quality piece, he was just tired of looking at it and was talking about buying a new one.

So I detached the shelves from the top, drug it to the garage and sanded it down, while, just like mumoftwo, my kids ran wild and didn't eat.  I got it mostly painted and then desided that it was going to add designs with a wood burning pen (it actually came out really cool).  However, that's when my neighbor came over to ask me a question, and 3 months later my DH was still storing his clothes in rubbermaid tubs.   He eventually finished the painting part himself, but no more impulsive projects for me.

I've also been instructed that we are hiring someone to paint our kitchen in this house, as I decided I was going to paint the old one plaid.  It was hysterical in retrospect, and I've always kinda wondered what the prospective buyers thought when they saw it.  Envision bright yellow with about a dozen blue diagonal stripes, and a ton of seemingly randomly placed peices of masking tape.  I honestly had a plan- I just forgot what it was after the first day.

I get gung ho for a project and then don't finish. I tend to make the projects pretty ambitious (and difficult). I can't just paint; I have to get the walls ready for paint, change the trim, add stencilled embellishment, change the light switches and plug recepticles, change the light fixtures.

The master bath has been 1/2 done for 7 or 8 years (paint on 2 walls, one light fixture removed, no moldings). I keep finding more interesting projects to do.

My older daughter's room is now painted with purple and blue walls with bright green accent; but I have not attached the last 2 cubbies to the wall, finished the shelf for over the closet, attached the mirrors to the closet or cleaned all my sewing junk out of the closet.

I always thought it was just me...

I've been doing some painting and planning to fix up my kitchen.  But knowing how I lose interest in projects and don't finish them, I'm reluctant to tackle the painting of the kitchen cabinets.  I'm considering doing it in sections.  Maybe sand, prime and paint one wall of cabinets and then move on to another.

I also need to paint some paneling and trim in one room which requires quite a committment to the project.  I need to save some money so I can get a new kitchen floor so I can't really hire it out.  But who ever paints one wall of a room per weekend?

Anybody do home improvement in such chunks?   Do you really finish the job or do you end up hiring someone to finish (or fix) what you started?

I would have to get all the cupboards sanded first because if I did them in sections, I would have one section which looked good and maybe another with the doors off the cupboards and then it would stay like that forever.

If you can get them stripped or sanded down, thats the time consuming part. After that, primer and paint or stain makes them look good and goes fairly quickly. Thats why I get the grunt work done first. The rest improves the way it looks, which makes me feel good about it and more likely to finish.

Try to plan it so that you do the most boring part all at once while you have some enthusiam, and then its over. Hope that once you get started with the rest, the results you see will encourage you to keep going. Thats my trick.

A secret I learned from my husband for staining is that if you use a rag dipped in the stain (but not dripping), you rub it on and just add more to make it darker. You don't have to mess with removing the excess or worry about drips. Its a lot faster and not nearly as boring because it makes it look better immediately.

I have probs with follow-through.

Hire out as much as you can afford, especially those jobs you are really slow or bad at. Use the hired work as momentum or kick-start to get you moving on the things you are good at (repainted room will give you momentum to hang drapes that have been sitting there for months, etc.) Chunk the tasks; break down big projects into small tasks and do the small tasks individually as mini-projects; block the big project out of your mind completely. Set forced due dates, like junk pickup on day X forces you to organize garbage before the junk man comes, even if it's last minute. Realize & accept that you work in spurts of action, then inaction. Ride the wave; trust that you will have a hyperfocus day again soon...it will come, always does...enjoy the down time now. Try to stop being a perfectionist. For 80% of what needs to be done, get it done the fastest way possible, using as many shortcuts as you can. The goal is not to be perfect, but to be done. Just do it. I love how I can stress for hours about something that takes 15 mins. to do.

Great advice, Artemis!  I'm waiting for that wave to hit while looking at paint colors.

Any advice for making decisions?  I see so many colors that I like and change my mind so much that I get paralyzed to the point of inaction. 

Decorating my house is a huge challenge for me as I can't seem to stick to a style but rather, I like a little bit of every style.  Guess that's eclectic...

WE TALK ABOUT PROJECTS WE WANT DONE.

THEN WHEN I AM HYPER FOCUSED GET FRANTIC AND JUST DO THE LOT.

GOTTA MAINTAIN THE HYPERFOCUS THOUGH.

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Any advice for making decisions?  I see so many colors that I like and change my mind so much that I get paralyzed to the point of inaction. 

[/QUOTE]

Oh, gosh, me, too! I get so lost in the choices. Hours later...

I pawn it off on a 3rd party who actually enjoys it. My handyman's sister is an amateur interior designer. She works real cheap by the hour, like . So I asked her to help me come up with a color scheme for the kitchen (floor tile, wall tile, backsplash, countertop, fixtures, etc.). So she did all the running around and presented me with 3 sets of materials & then I picked 1. Getting the big scheme going is hard for me, but when she provided the basic pallette, I was able to make minor tweaks as necessary.

I know most people can't afford a designer, amateur or not. In that case, find a relative or friend who is good at this to do this. Or pick a page in the IKEA or magazine catalog & just COPY pretty much exactly. No one will know. Or, I pick one household item I like, and them design the whole room around it. Like--I like a pewter light fixture in my dining room, so I decided to go with pewter accents sprinkled around. Also, someone said, "those fake green plants look good against the blue walls," so I decided to use green as the accent color. And it worked great.

My kids as they get older, are very helpful with the suggestions...especially the girls with my wardrobe. Sometimes I take my youngest to NY&Co and say "just put together an entire outfit" and I go with it. It's amazing how nice the ensembles she chooses are.

Hope that helps.

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