As we approach our moving-in date, it has become clear that Virginia and I are officially overwhelmed. The list of tasks to take care of in the next few weeks is paralyzing and I'm not quite sure how we're going to manage. It's funny, at the beginning of the house project the decisions were "big" in the sense that the actual structure of the house was involved. Now, the decisions have become "small" and it seems like they shouldn't matter too much. But it turns out that they do matter because these are the things that everyone will see. Plus, there are a lot of them and they're coming a mile a minute.
I think the thing that is causing us the most angst right now is simply that we have run out of steam. This has been a tremendously exciting project, but it has also been quite draining. Adrenaline has taken us a long ways but at some point your body becomes immune to it and you just feel like collapsing. But we still have decisions to make and it's hard not to just say - I don't care anymore! For those of you about to embark on a home-building project, please be aware that we found it to be all consuming. Perhaps it doesn't have to be, but we've really put so much of ourselves into this project that it's hard not to get sucked into caring about every little detail.
Anyway, I guess I just needed to vent a little and get things off my chest. I feel a little better already. Now if you'll excuse me, I think there's still some staining to do.
About Us
- David and Virginia Jackson
- David and Virginia live in Carlisle, PA with their two children, Adam (9) and Kyra (7). David teaches physics at Dickinson College and Virginia is working on her secondary teaching certification in math. We planned this energy efficient house for about two years and finally moved in on Aug. 14, 2010.
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4 comments:
We went through all of this during our move (though I imagine it wasn't quite as complex as this). We found it helpful to just create a giant spreadsheet of all the things to do and decisions to make. Seeing it all (even though it was a hundred items long) made it very manageable and we could tear through a few a day and mark them as done.
Just leaving them as items that would hit us from time to time made it seem much more overwhelming.
May not help you, but for what it's worth...
Kevin - good suggestion. I have noticed that every time we make a list, things seem much more manageable. I'm not sure why we never thought to write EVERYTHING down, except that it seemed too difficult a task. But now that we're down to the very end, it's probably doable.
Being a list-maker from "way" back I can vouch for the benifits of making a list. Seeing what needs to be done can be overwhelming but doing & marking it off 1 project at a time really helps. You can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Try it you will like it. Love Mom
One of the "stupid" things we did in one of our moves was forget to check the garbage and the movers moved garbage from one place to another. After that experience we always had on the list "check Garbage".
Love Dad
Wow- so much planning and so much detail. I think you are going to love it once you are there knowing that it is your creation. Wendy
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