I have had a home repair project hanging over my head for the last three years.  Ignoring it not only doesn’t make it go away but is starting to make me embarrassed about the front of my house.  It started with the discovery of rot at the base of one of the columns. Since there was a couple of hundred pounds sitting on it, things were starting to lean.  So I geared up my bravery and google and learned how to jack up a column and replaced the base.  Then I found rot in less structural areas because the paint was coming off. So last summer I excavated all of that and stopped any further damage but not before the fall rains started leaving me to wait until this summer to finish it. Also leaving the porch with peeling paint, gouged out holes, and unfinished wood where I’d gotten in a few replaced pieces.  In short it looked like Mothra had visited and then left in disgust.  Ughh! The time it’s taken to deal with a relatively common issue is frustrating.  I’ve not been lazy about it, rather more intimidated.  I don’t love using power tools and I’ve been afraid of what I’d find next.  Which is pretty much the perfect recipe for not getting something done.

The one strategy that definitely doesn’t work is waiting until everything else gets done and there is no other choice.  I am tackling it this week and will finish it soon.  Here are the five things I’m doing to finally get this off my plate and my guilt list:

1. Break it down into small tasks and only tackle one per day.  So on Monday, I inspected everything to see what might need to be redone from last summer and what was still to be done. Tuesday I  cut and nailed in the replacement parts. Today, I’m scrubbing the old paint and going to the hardware store for exterior wood putty.
2. Radically decrease the importance of anything else – the bathroom isn’t getting scrubbed this week and I’ve not been quite as good about blogging as I normally am.
3. Go easy on yourself – a little sleeping in for one week isn’t going to do any damage, particularly if it lets me focus that much harder on the task at hand.
4. Go for ‘as good as you know how to do’ instead of perfect.  The real benefit to an older house that was build soundly but not perfectly is that repairing it doesn’t have to be perfect either.  Some of my corners match what was there and some don’t, because I’m replacing the wood the best way I know how. If I were going for the perfect restoration job, I’d have to stop, learn, and buy equipment to cut the angles that were originally used.  I’m not cutting corners (no pun intended) on the structural integrity but I’m allowing for adequate on the cosmetic side of things.
5. Rewards – incentives work!  All the fixings for making a caipirinha are in the kitchen and I can deal with anything if at the end of day I can sit on the shaded deck with an icy, lime drink in hand.

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