The Land of Unfinished Projects

We had a great weekend! The weather has been absolutely beautiful and we managed to spend most of our time outside. Lots of tasks completed and many more begun. I often joke (sort of) with Steve that we live in the land of unfinished projects. It seems for every project completed, 5 more appear. Steve and I also have different definitions of "what needs improvement". As you can imagine, it makes for some "lively" discussions 'round the old dinner table. I'm not sure if it's is (we are by no means perfect in any form of the word) or just basic differences (read: brainwaves) between men and women. For example, in my mind (which is, of course, perfectly rational and organized, HA!) we REALLY need to replace all of the vanity tops and fixtures in our bathrooms. Our house was built in '85, the middle of the '80's brassapolooza extravaganza. If I never see another brass fixture, it will be too soon... Not to mention that in our master bath, the fixtures are so worn out, I'm waiting for them to just fall off (that would make for an interesting morning). Yes, we knew this stuff would need to be replaced when we bought the house 5 years ago, but then, so did the roof, and both HVAC systems, I could go on for hours. The truth is, we've done a ton of work to this house (and we're certainly happy with what we've done) but I swear, it's a constant battle.

Anyway, back to the bathrooms. For every project that I have, Steve does too. In his mind, (the male, I need a new power tool to complete this project, let's make another trip to Home Depot mind) while the bathrooms are important, re-weather stripping the windows or installing shelves in the garage is possibly more important. I completely understand what he means, but REALLY? Our bathroom is borderline "caution tape" material. Is our bathroom functional? Well, yes, but come on ladies, you know what I'm getting at here. It's UGLY and OLD! I crave NEW and BRIGHT! This is where looking at Pottery Barn's catalog gets me in trouble. I want their bathroom(s), right down to the linens, which is why I think Steve has started hiding the catalog... Obviously we're not on a Pottery Barn kind of budget right now, but a girl can dream, right? I went outside to shake the money tree but the damn thing just laughed at me!

I should also mention that my wonderful husband is the original DIY, weekend warrior when it comes to home improvement. I sometimes (often) give him a hard time about "living in the land of unfinished projects" but the truth is, he loves it! While shopping and reading are fun and relaxing for me, Steve loves starting a project and making his weekly trip to the Depot. While there are times that after tripping over buckets of lord knows what and slipping in drywall dust I want to strangle him with a power cord, I have to admit that Steve is quite good at the projects he takes on. He really seems to enjoy researching (which makes my eyes water just thinking about it) and working out the problems that inevidently come up on a project. I would rather stab a pencil through my own eye than do that. Maybe that's why we work so well together. I'm the planner, he's the follow-thru, get it done type. I know it certainly makes for some interesting days and evenings since our projects are rarely finished before 11pm on Sunday in this house. And really HGTV, you need to stop making home improvement projects seem like they should only take 30 minutes...