We’re serial project starters. The only problem is that we keep starting, but only more or less finishing projects. Quite often we end up taking pictures and calling projects complete although they sometimes need those final finishing touches. There are also a load of little jobs that pop up, that we can never seem to find the motivation to sort.
This weekend, wanting to give ourselves a big push to finally get a few things finished, we set ourselves the completely realistic totally mad aim of completing 10 projects in 10 hours.
10:00 – Project 1 – Fill cracks in hallway wall
After having the wall between the kitchen and dining room removed last summer, almost inevitably a few cracks in the surrounding walls, ceilings and walls of the above rooms appeared. It was to be expected and they all aren’t very big, but it still means that they need filling and painting over. We’ve waited until now, because it can take a while for everything to settle, but I think filling the obvious ones was well overdue.
9:54 – Project 2 – Fill cracks in living room ceiling
The crack in the living room ceiling is another one of the cracks that appeared as a result of removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Luckily filling the crack in the hallway wall and this one in the living room ceiling were quick and easy jobs.
I guess it really does show that you should finish all structural work before starting any decorating, but that would make life too easy now, wouldn’t it!
9:24 – Project 3 – Paint last remaining fence panel
We painted most of our garden fence last year, but because of the large shrub in front of one of the panels we had to wait until now to be able to paint the last one. Painting it took a lot longer than expected, as it took quite a bit of time to squeeze past the branches and – more or less successfully – dodge the rose thorns.
6:49 – Project 4 – Fill holes in kitchen floor
Having sanded the floor in our kitchen quite a few months ago, it’s probably about time that we completely finished of the project and filled the last remaining holes in the floorboards from where the old radiator pipes were.
This was one of the rare projects that turned out easier to do than we’d expected.
All we had to do, was cut off a few pieces off a broken wooden broom stick, glue them into the holes and give them a quick varnish.
6:14 – Project 5 – Insulate new pipes in cellar
As part of our plans for staying warm this winter, we insulated our floors and had some new radiators fitted. Whilst everything is working well in keeping us nice and toasty, one thing we hadn’t yet got round to is insulating our new pipes.
It’s such an easy and quick thing to do (we insulated all of the other pipes in our house last year) and will not only save money, but should make sure that the pipes don’t freeze and possibly burst when it gets very cold outside.
4:20 – Project 6 – Patch front door
Months and months ago, we put up our old armchair on Freecycle. As with all of our previous times using Freecycle everything went really well, but we did chip the door when helping the guys carrying the armchair outside.
A bit of filler and a quick paint, it’s all good again.
4:05 – Project 7 – Strip and prepare top of stairs for painting
Although we called our staircase renovation process complete over a year ago, we have a bit of a confession to make – we finished the actual staircase, but for some reason never quite got round to finishing off the edge around the staircase opening.
I know, we should have just finished it ages ago, but it’s just one of those projects that we never seemed to get round to. It’s still not quite finished, but at least all of the yucky paint has now been removed!
3:15 – Project 8 – Rehang hallway lamp
The lamp in our upstairs hallway has been up for a long while now, but it has always been hung just a bit too low.
As I’m really short, it hasn’t really bothered me, but whenever we have any friends visit that are taller they sometimes bump their heads. Now it hung at a more suitable level.
3:10 – Project 9 – Patch around fireplace in guest bedroom
When we installed the fireplace in our guest bedroom, we accidentally cracked the wall on the chimney breast. After a bit of patching and filling it’s now all repaired. Now all it needs is a coat of paint.
2:45 – Project 10 – Tidy Front Garden
After letting our front garden grow pretty much wild over the end of last year, it was probably high time that we sorted this mess.
After a lot of cutting back and and a bit of tidying, it’s all ready to grow back over summer.
Yep, the rest of the garden obviously still needs sorting, but there’s only so much we can do in one weekend.
-0:35
As you can see, we didn’t quite manage to finish all project in the 10 hours, but we sorting the garden took a bit longer than expected. We only overran by 35 minutes, so all in all are really chuffed and it’s a great feeling to have finally completed a load of those little jobs that we otherwise just didn’t seem to get round to.
So, that was our weekend, what did you get up to? Did you manage to finish any projects? Or did you do something that was slightly more fun than painting outside in the cold for 2½ hours? Do you find that you get more done by setting yourself a strict deadline?
Thank you so much for the broom handle & radiator pipe holes idea! Genius! I’ve just filled 4 pesky holes in my living room floor and varnished them in about half an hour flat. Didn’t need the top few inches of my broom handle anyway!
Love it!
Cx
Crazy efficient! I cannot believe it took less than one hour to strip that paint bit, so inconveniently located! Also, those extra 35 minutes in the garden, I am sure it doesnt count, gardening is just for fun! For bits of garden I havent gotten to, I practice the art of diversion. Get some good sized pots and verbenia, noone will notice the tarmac =)
I was surprised at how quickly we managed to strip the paint, too! I guess it’s down to the practice.
I tarmac path sooo much – I can’t wait for it to be renewed. It’s more or less dissolving anyway, so our house always ends up full of millions of little stones. We’d love to get some of the garden sorted this year and a new path is very high on the wishlist!
Cx
What a fabulous idea – I think I’ll adopt this challenge myself to get my a@se moving! Thanks for the idea, cheers
Haha, glad we’re not the only ones that need the occasional kick up the backside!
Cx
Wow! I’m impressed! Do I dare say that I did nothing for the cottage this weekend? In my defense, my next project is painting the dining-room, but everything is stopped as the brand new window revealed a leak during the winter storms… And I don’t want to paint as maybe it’ll need to be changed, which means new drywall around it!
A leak – oh no! That’s so annoying, but I know the feeling. There are always so many projects that need sorting before you can get round to the ones you really want to do.
Fingers crossed, that there’s nothing too wrong with your window!
cx