Famous Last Words: "This Shouldn't Take Too Long"

Going down this journey of renovating my home on my own has been educating to say the least. I get an idea in my head and research how to do it - I watch some dude on YouTube do it - I think to myself "huh, I think I can do it too". I go out and buy my materials and... three days later I'm still knee deep in the project.

Does this sound familiar to you or am I out here on my own?

Last weekend I decided I wanted to paint all of my exterior window frames greenblack (its basically black). I watched an Australian man walk me through the process on YouTube and figured with the help of another person we could probably do all the windows on the front of my house in one weekend... please pause while I throw my head back and laugh at my naivety. I GOT ONE WINDOW DONE YALL! In two days, with two people working, I only finished ONE WINDOW! I spent all Saturday cleaning, sanding, filling, sanding some more, and caulking. By the time the window was fully prepped, the sun was setting and I had to call it a day. On Sunday I got back out there and painted the thing. One window. I have 14 more windows and 2 doors to go....

I don't even want to think about it. It's going to take me all winter. What have I done?

And don't even get me started on the stars. Oooooh the stars. What an idea I had. In all honesty, it's going to look dope as hell but, good Lord, it has taken me so much longer than I expected.

So here's the story, it's pretty simple: I got the idea in my head. I looked for wallpaper and found something similar to what I wanted. I ordered a sample. I hated it... So naturally, I decided to do it all myself.

I laid out a grid using chalk lines (like the ones roofers use). I cut out what felt like a bajillion stencils. And I got to work. I taped the stencils up on the ceiling. I started painting... and immediately realized what an in depth process this was going to be. Each star needs about four coats of paint to be truly opaque. And because I'm contorting my body to paint upside down on the ceiling my back kept giving out on me. And again because of the... less than ideal angel at which I was painting, I could not seem to keep my paint from bleeding underneath the stencils.

Between the painting, the icy/hot breaks, and the touching up that still has to be done on the stars that bled under their stencils, this project has taken me almost a month. (I also work during normal business hours which has slowed production waaaay down)

I thought it would take a few nights tops! Once again, please pause while I throw my head back and laugh.

I'm learning quickly that I don't need be setting expectations for how long a project is going to take until I've gotten my feet wet. I'm doing 100% of these projects for the first time in my life and I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. So it's silly of me to expect to be a pro and knock it out lickety-split. I'm learning to be gentle with myself here.

To sum it all up: Home Takes Time. And that's ok.