One thing we’re learning, and frankly should have learned by now after our hardwork-a-thon last summer at the cabin is that everything takes longer than you think, or than it should.

And that frustrates me. I am always over ambitious with the weekend project planning. I don’t mean to be. But when you sit in an office all day long dreaming of tearing into a big ole project at your house on Saturday, you severely underestimate how long everything takes. And to build in time for breaks and resting!

For instance, the weekend I planned to paint the ceilings at our house. No big deal, only 3 rooms and a hall. And I didn’t even really need to be careful, because we’ll be painting the walls in the coming months. I’m thinking 2-3 hours, tops. It took ALL FREAKING DAY. With two trips to Home Depot and one to Ace Hardware. Ok, four – I needed a trip to Kwik Trip for coffee – we had gotten up at 5:30am. WTF, its just painting!

First, we had to buy paint. The freebie paint we had gotten from my mom’s neighbor no longer had the consistency or chemical properties of paint. It was gross. Then I got to work, beasting through the trim in the living room. The transition to rolling the paint on the main part of the ceiling spurred the Ace Hardware trip – the roller we had borrowed also from my mom barely worked, and didn’t fit the long roller handle i had (aka broom handle). So a quick run to Ace for a new roller and extension handle. No big deal, finished the living room and went into the bedroom. By now I had the husband helping – he tackled the trimming while I did the main ceiling. But then the sun went behind clouds for the rest of the afternoon, and seeing where we had already painted was virtually impossible. Suddenly regretting not buying the paint that went on pink and dried white (now I get that!). And then halfway through the master bedroom (room #2 of 3.5), we ran out of paint. So another trip to Home Depot, then a dinner break at home, to finally go back to the house and finish by flashlight light. Probably 3 times longer than I guessed it would take. Frustrating! It looks great, and I”m glad we did it. But wow that shouldn’t have taken so long!!

We also picked up a mower and ladder from the cabin, along with some other sundries, and the old refrigerator from my mom’s garage (and some other sundries, like hoses and chairs).

More on the adventures of mowers and fridges. Because neither of those went easy either! Our life is like one big Fixer Upper episode right now. Except we’re not in Texas. F Texas.

Moral of the story: Plan your project, estimate the amount of time needed, and then triple it. Second moral: not all freebies work out, but I still think they’re worth trying.

OH and third moral of the story: Paint splatters LIKE CRAZY when you paint ceilings. I was basically splatter painted when I was done, from my hair to my shoes. Like one big ole Jackson Pollack person. 🙂