Once a year around this time, I’m going to repeat the question: What is your longest-running, unfinished house project? I asked the question last May… and now 14 months later, I’m super happy to announce: Yankee Doodle! My 8-year project to get my interior window sashes is Done! (Minor pandemonium in progress, pictured above.) .
Ummm, I need to ‘fess up that my DIY-skills on this particular project entailed: Writing a check to nice painter Jim. Painting is something I can and often do myself, and I actually enjoy it. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever hired anyone to do any interior painting in the house — I’ve painted every other room.
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The paint was peeling on the exterior gables — and exterior painting on tall ladders is something I don’t do. So at the same time we called Jim in to do the outside, I had him knock off a few small jobs on the inside as well. Jobs that had been a noose around my neck for years. And woah, outsourcing was worth it. My house has breathed a big sigh of relief. Readers: It is really really good feng shui to finish tasks once started. Bad feng shui to leave tasks undone. I have been bad. I will reform. I will I will.
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Now: moving up on the list to take pole position as my longest-running, unfinished house project is: Hem the pinch-pleat curtains that hang on the now-painted windows in the living room. I cobbled my pinch pleats from an estate sale find. For 7.5 years, the hems have been held together by straight pins. This project, I *will* do myself.
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What about you? Commiseration, please: What is your longest-running, unfinished house project — and why? (And oh yeah, did you finish the project you listed last year, yet?)