Last week we launched “Finish What You Started” Mondays: Group therapy in which we project procrastinators inspire each other to get those gosh-darned projects that we began — then abandoned — complete. Note: While I originally thought we would do this on Monday, I actually think Sunday is better — more time for most folks (probably) to upload photos and, well, dash to complete something if they haven’t already. Me first: For Week #1, I organized all of my vintage magazines, which I use as resources for information about midcentury home building and decorating trends. Now if you ask me a question about trends in, say, 1953, I can put my hands on the info that much faster. So procrastinators-with-renewed-enthusiasm: What project(s) did finish this Week #1. I’ve added the Photo Uploader — you can show us, too. I will award Gold Stars –>
More of my confessional: I first organized everything in boxes, by year, about three years ago. But since then, I did not put things back where they belonged as I used them. I don’t have a “before” photo. It was embarrassing. It looked pretty similar to my office (which I also have been working on.) What I learned last week: Put Things Away As I Go Along. I am a pile-creator by LAZY habit – yes, I am judging! Last week, really concentrating on putting everything in its place after I use it was actually kind of … calming. DH noticed, too, and was real nice to me about it. 
What project(s) did you complete in Week #1?
Comment and/or share a photo with the uploader, below
Tips:
- (1) Please be courteous and set your camera to no bigger than “medium” images, so files aren’t too large — large files really slow down the slide show and over time increase my costs to run this website.
- (2) Uploader DOES work but message you get on screen *may be* funky and confusing. Upload ONCE and trust the image it there — I just need to “set new photos free” from my control panel and will be checking hourly to do so.
- (3) Terms of Use apply.
.
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
“Finish What You Started”: Week #2 weigh-in 
“Finish What You Started” Week #4 weigh in 
“Finish What You Started” Week #3 weigh in 
Become a fan
Well, I don’t have a photo to share, but I boxed up some glassware and miscellaneous to go on a rummage sale next spring. Everything is clean, priced, and wrapped up, ready to go and out of my way! Still have a little more stuff to move before I can get to finishing the window project from last fall.
I too need to better organize my old magazine collection. I went to a garage sale last week and I got 100+ more to add to my already disorganized stash for a mere $5.00.
Pam, have you found anything that accommodates the over sized mags like the Better Homes and Gardens and American Home?
Lynne, I got some archival magazine files the right size for the old BHG etc magazines. I’m pretty sure they came from a company called Bags Unlimited.
My collection got started with $5- for 70+ WWII era BHGs at an estate sale.
I didn’t get anything done this weekend, I worked. Today is the real start of my ‘weekend’ and all I did was spend money at the car repair shop.
Nothing. I finished nothing.
I started laundry — haven’t finished that either.
Started cleaning the kitchen — not finished.
I’m starting to see a trend here.
I finished painting an old dresser to use as storage in my laundry room. We moved into our first house about 6 months ago and it has been project after project.
http://digadig-home.blogspot.com/2011/10/amazing.html
My harvest gold corner wall of my otherwise lime-green dining room is still harvest gold. But, it’s October in Wisconsin and the temps for the last week have been in the upper 70′s. This beautiful weather will not last so I can’t waste time in the house. On the bright side though, I managed to plant 32 tulip and daffodil bulbs, so, come spring, my yard is going to look gaw-jus!
I shredded very old income tax files and tax booklets from back to 1982. Kept only the IRS (and tax preparers) recommended years and I now have about 12″ of extra file drawer space. Next project is shredding old bank statements, checks and pay stubs from the 70′s. Having to deal with all of this when we cleaned out my mother’s house last year has given me the incentive to do it now and not leave it for my son to do later – much later, I hope.
See if in your area they do “Community Shred Days” where you can take your items to a shredding truck where they are shredded right in front of you. Police are on-site, too. Here they are sponsored by the BBB or other organizations. I put all the stuff in a banker’s box and save it up. That way it saves time from using our shredder.
BTW, got some good cleaning done this week. That’s about it. Next weekend I am on fall break from school, so there’s much more than can be done.
I acquired 20 new (to me) more copies of American Home, my favorite vintage magazine. Actually, 21 if you include the American Home Patterns edition “1064 designs–over 109 never before published in book form”. I haven’t found a date of publication yet, but I think 1955 or earlier.
By the end of the day, I will have all my magazines in their holders on the top shelf of the closet of my sewing room.
I’m wondering if anyone has a way to get mildewy smell out of old magazines.
Put them in a plastic bag with charcoal briquettes!
Do small groups at a time.
Sometimes if I pick up a book that has been in a wet basement too long…I blast it for a few seconds in the microwave…turning sections of pages each time.
Call me Bill Nye……
If the editor of American Home Magazine (a dead-ringer for Larry Mondello’s mother) came back from the dead…she would say that we are a nation of slackers.
It was a very busy, busy magazine.
I read an article once…: “YOU Can Make Awnings From Old Venetian Blinds!”
Yup.
Thanks so much, Gavin! My go-to, always-works smell removal system is to stuff paper in or around the stinky thing. I’ve never had to get the stench OUT of paper. I’ll give the charcoal a try, probably by dumping a bag into a bin, laying some paper towels over, then adding a few magazines. Fortunately, only a few are bad.
I’ve been perusing the American Home pattern book with jaw locked permanently open. You’re right as to the energizer bunny aspect. There’s this laundry room, with built in organizers to include hinged tole-painted covers for the double set sink. The front of the sinks are painted to match. There’s a hand-painted mural. And the mommy and daughter are wearing matching laundry-day pinafores. I only wish I could get my hands on some of the patterns.
haven’t “finished” it yet, but we made some progress on picking a paint color for the house. Went to home depot this morning and got more samples. (I’ve lost count of how many of those samples we have in the garage now!). Hoping to get it done next spring!
So I amazed even myself by what I got done this week.I finished the wallpaper in the victorian house and then made an exciting discovery in the 1951 ranch.I’d been thinking I would have to redo the entire kitchen floor because it had at least 2 layers of old vinyl tile on it.I was so overjoyed to find perfect original linoleum under the stick on tiles.It is varigated black and red checked and the whole kitchen looks so glamorous and beautiful.I still don’t know how to take pictures or send them so maybe one of these days I’ll slow down enough to learn that. So sorry I can’t “show” what happened. Heh maybe I should put that on the list of things I need to do.
I cleaned out (well actually re-arranged) the furniture in the showroom warehouse I call a basement….
Here’s a nifty idea:
I have been saving all those Folgers Coffee cans and put each leg of every piece of furniture in a plastic can. 4 legs on a chair? 4 cans….
I am now ready for the eventual sudden demise of the water heater or spring thaw!
I had to read this three times to visualize what you were talking about, but I finally got it. Excellent use for old coffee cans, even if the entire topic is ridiculous to the absurd.
Gavin, what a great idea.
As I was reading I thought it would work really well for moving furniture in a carpeted room, too, instead of buying sliders. Put felt on the bottom and they can be used in a non-carpeted room.
Having finished stripping wallpaper, painting, re-wallpapering, stripping and repainting the window in the bathroom over the past month – the one thing left to do was clean the grout and give the tile and floor a good wash. I did that today!
I also hung the 2″ blind I bought when I ordered the other two for the bedroom I repainted back in May/June. I discovered that Blinds Chalet made the bathroom blind the same length as the bedroom blinds, even though I had a shorter length ordered. Oh well.
Left to do: is repaint the vanity and the door of the clothes shute (it has rust on it). But I think I’ll leave that for spring.
I decided on and bought the ceiling fan for my new (in progress) screen porch.
Also picked up the flooring for the bonus room (which was stripped of carpet, padding, tack strip, and staples by yours truly. Hope to find someone to lay the planks for me soon. Don’t ask me to do it myself!
No photo either, but I finished (my part of) the kitchen install
New shelf paper, weeded out unused glassware and china, and got everything ready for the mosaic tile install which I will procrastinate about calling Lowes to do next week! 
I think I achieved a new level of mundane. My accomplishment was transferring about 15 kitchen-garbage-sized buckets of dirt from the garden bed alongside my house to the woods behind my house. The dirt was piled too high against the side of the house, and we think that was part of the reason we had so many ants this past summer. Plus it just looked odd.
One small step toward relandscaping the garden beds running along our house–check!
Oh, and I called a contractor about putting up the backyard shed we’re in dire need of. We’re thinking the MD100 do-it-yourself plans (only we wouldn’t be doing it ourselves) because those beautiful Eichler backyard sheds are so darn pricey. Does anyone know of any other midcentury modern alternatives?
Well, I certainly worked on my kitchen project this weekend, but I sure didn’t finish it. How can I be so good at estimating projects in my work life but lousy at it in my home life? It took all Saturday to tile the backsplash; I thought it would take just a couple of hours. And, I haven’t grouted or sealed it yet. That means I haven’t finished painting the kitchen either. Ah well, I’m shooting for next Sunday then to complete my kitchen. In the mean time, I’m soaking in the glory of actually getting THOSE TILES UP!!!
As my husband and I were buying the tile, he said “OK, so we’ll get this up in the next couple of weeks.” No, no, no… I have an accountability check on this blog. Pam, I think you are right – Sundays are much better than Mondays for loading photos. Thanks for this idea…
no photos to share. I did make a clean up calendar for my house however, so that it always looks somewhat fresh & spiffy. (of course you clean up after yourself every day)
Sunday – clean the kitchen & bath & the small front garden
Monday- clean master bedroom & large front garden
Tuesday – day off
Wednesday – clean the spare bedroom & the pine gardens
Thursday -clean the back side garden
Friday -clean the office
Saturday – clean the living room & go around the foundation of the house
Last weekend of the month – clean rec – room
I read a book (side tracked home executives) many years ago about doing just a little bit each day – then you’re always somewhat ready and it doesn’t overwhelm you. I’ve used the format for several years – just revised it this weekend.
I have Monday off – so you know what I’ll be doing!
Got part of it done….does that count?
I finally finished regrouting my green bathroom vanity top. It started as the old ” Hmmm. . .this bullnose is loose, let me reattach it” and ended up in me having to remove every tile from the sink top and backsplash and resetting it in mastic that actually adheres the tiles! At least I got to replace a few cracked tiles that were bothering me from the stash that the old owners had in the basement. I finished grouting and sealing the backsplash and sink, and put new hardware on the base cabinet.
It looks a million times better, but I still had guests asking me why I bothered at all and didn’t just buy a new vanity. My answer. . .because any bathroom that’s lasted 55 years and looks this good deserves to stay for another 55!
Now, I’ll have to continue around the room and do the rest of the walls and the shower. That’s a huge job that will need to wait until my back doesn’t hurt anymore from this project! I also found some fabric to make a valance for the giant window in there too. Maybe another monday.
I’m uploading a pic for you! I hope I do it right!
Finished painting the foundation of the house – ugh.
Well, I finished mowing the yard, and sorted through two boxes of stuff, and that’s about it!
I did get started on finishing something! I finally, after months of thinking about it after getting home without it, I brought home one of two living room chairs my mom kept telling me were mine. I put the one that’s been out on the porch in the back of my car and took it home! The other one is up three flights of stairs behind my dad’s bed and is bigger, so it may not just slide into my car like the smaller one did. Both of these chairs were around when I was a kid. My mom wasn’t sure when they bought them, but they were both already “in the family” when we moved from a house in Indiana to a house in Maryland in early 1965. I love these chairs, but the one I brought home is going to be a little work bringing it back – the wood and cane portions need major cleaning and a little moisture, and the cushions need re-upholstered. The shame is that the matching fabric on the back part of the chair is in great shape! Well, better get working to finish this one! I’ll put up a picture when I finish.
Kathy C: wow, that is a GORGEOUS bathroom!! Same basic layout as ours, but with all the awesome still intact. Color me green with envy.
I uploaded a pic — we’re making great progress on the bathroom! My wife and I hung a little cameo-type stripe of vintage wallpaper on the wall above the sink, which we’re going to decoupage over to protect it from moisture. It looks *so cool*.
We also in the last two weeks finished tiling and grouting the floors, installing a pink toilet (and replacing its entire innards!) and pink ceramic toilet paper holder, and painting the rest of the room pink. It’s looking highly retro!
I should add: pic of vintage wall paper above!
I had to replace the innards of the green toilet in my bath and that was just about the worst job ever! I had to use a dremel to cut off the rusted flange on the bottom of the bowl. I was so happy when finished I told my husband afterward that I was going to name our next child “Dremel Multi Max” in honor of the tool. I finally got it right and now we have a dual flush efficient toilet from 1958! It was worth it though, because the bath wouldn’t be the same without it.
I figured this was the last weekend of good weather I could expect here in the Northeast, so I scrapped my inside plans in favor of repainting my front door. It was white and blended in with the siding for a very monochromatic look that I didn’t care for. I picked my paint blindly, but when the hardware came off I discovered that the original door color was a lighter shade of a similar green. Unfortunately I went overboard polishing the knocker and latch handle- now they’re too shiny and new looking. Hopefully they will tarnish back up in a year or two.
we bought a $10 record player cabinet at the habitat for humanity store a few months ago. it was a tiger maple veneer and in really bad shape. we painted it bittersweet chocolate by benjamin moore to match the beams in the house and turned it into an entertainment center in our family room. we are unsure about the copper knobs. what do you think? the process will be in a future post of mine, but i couldn’t resist putting it here too!
Uh, Pam, does acquiring something you’ve wanted for a long time count as a “finished project”???
Ok, probably not, but my success in doing so was to buy a very very good condition green enamel and nearly perfect chrome Oster Milkshake machine! Now I just have to find the tin for it. Oh, and start the kitchen remodel for it to go in. Minor detail.
My goal was to get 2 sewing machines cleaned and out of the house, I was successful with one, (the yellow Brother pictured) the other is midway done. Um, I was given 3 more on Saturday and picked one up on the side of the road the same day. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work, is it? BUT, I did give one away because it was just crazy to have acquired 4 in one day.
I also started the artwork on the living room wall, cleaned the upholstery on my sofa and the Man chair, gave 3 dogs baths — you think it’s not a ‘house’ chore but really, it saves a lot of the house from extra cleaning.
Like you, Pam, I am a lazy pile maker but I’ve also been more conscious of putting things away right away, even if it’s begrudgingly, but it does help a lot.
Our plan was to get demo done in our half-bath, but instead we discovered a major plumbing problem with our main bathroom! So, we got the major plumbing issue fixed, did as much clean-up as possible (thankfully our neighbor is a master electrician and has training as a plumber, and was able to help us do the work ourselves instead of paying sky-high rates for a plumber on the Sunday of a holiday weekend), and we managed to at least get the vanity out of our half-bath. We’re giving the crappy 80s construction with a cheapo 2002 renovation a nice pre-war flair with white hex tile, beadboard, and a vanity that has a more “furniture” feel. And eventually the hole in my kitchen ceiling (where they had to go in to get access to the plumbing for the bathroom upstairs) will get fixed, too.
Oh, and I finally finished stitching my bargello pillow project! Now I just have to find backing fabric that coordinates and stitch it together.