Project Paralysis and Careful Cropping

Before I tell you more about our plans for the back yard, let's talk about our biggest and longest-running project to date: the kitchen.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

That's because I spent an hour yesterday wiping down cabinet doors, sanding and oiling counters, and polishing appliances...in ONE CORNER of the kitchen.

This is what the rest of it looks like:

So many things that need new homes.

Hard water residue and fingerprints on everything.

I'm not even going to show you the floor. Yikes.

And that's just mess. From living. Today I'm tackling the fridge--inside and out--and tomorrow I'll take care of whatever is left. But when will we finish the actual remodel? The sanding and painting and installing the final pieces?

That I don't know.

But I've been thinking about a couple things.

1) We so often reach a point in projects where things are "good enough" and we stop. Our kitchen is fully functional. It meets our needs. With the exception of the range hood, we really don't have to finish anything. And because of that, there's not much motivation to make time for it right now. When it looked like this?

We wanted to bust our buns to get it done. Now? Eh. We've come a long way. It'll do.

How do you push yourself to complete things? I am legitimately looking for answers here, as I've been stuck in kitchen limbo for nearly six months now. Where is the drive to just get it done already?

2) It's easy to look at carefully cropped and staged images of homes (or people, or anything really) and think, gosh that's gorgeous. And it is! But you have to remember that you aren't seeing the whole picture...which might be equally gorgeous but might instead look like my cluttered counter and smudgy fridge.

Sometimes it's good to see the whole picture because it reminds you that life isn't staged. It's raw and real and sometimes messy, and that's okay.

On the other hand, sometimes it's good to focus on those cropped vignettes because those perfect little moments can be restful and inspiring. Seeing my little fruit bowl next to my clean stove and beautiful backsplash makes me really proud of what we've accomplished thus far. It also makes me want to get the rest of the kitchen to that point: shiny and happy and done.

I don't have any profound conclusions here. I do think, however, that I need to schedule a kitchen warming party and a photo shoot. Maybe I just need a deadline and some people to show off to. Because I am lazy and vain. And because once it fiiiiiinnnaaaalllllyyyy gets done, it really will be amazing.