Back on track in the studio

Back on track in the studio

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Okay, guys. I’m back to work in the studio. I’ll be honest. I have a hard time focusing on finishing that room. It’s just how my brain works. When I get to the point where a room is 90% done and I can completely visualize what the finished room will look like in my mind because there are no other decisions to make or other variables involved, I’m ready to move on to something else. It happens. Every timealmost without exception. It’s that mysterious 90% completion mark. I get to that mark, feel satisfied that my vision is going to be realized, lose interest in finishing it and find other things that capture my interest.

And right now, with people working on my house and knocking down walls, removing flooring and subflooring, etc., it’s a huge temptation for me to want to be where the action is. Even if I’m not doing the work myself, I love watching the construction (or demolition, in this case) take place. Even right now, as I sit at my desk in the study writing this article, I can hear the sound of a saw at the other end of the house, and all I want to do is get in and see what’s being done. When it comes to the sound of tools being used in my house, I’m like a moth to a flame.

I want to focus on things like obsessing over my soon-to-be-built workshop, or watching people work on our future bedroom, and planning and designing our bedroom, or obsessing over my future closet, or gathering inspiration for our new kitchen, or deciding what I want our future dining room to look like. And then yesterday, someone left a comment on an earlier post urging me to find another place for our workout area other than my big future closet. So that sent me off on another (very welcome) tangent as I tried to figure out how to make that work. (I didn’t, but I’m open to suggestions.) But what I’m having a hard time doing is getting excited about that last 10% in my studio.

Yesterday I forced myself to put everything else aside and try to focus on studying. I have very few things left on my list and I could finish them very quickly if I had a little self-discipline and focused on finishing them. So I was determined to move forward. Any progress?I decided to focus on trimming.

For months, the side door to the den was blocked off. I had one of the rolling shelves there, and behind it was the second door I had bought for our bathroom when we were going to add a bedroom. I have no idea what I’m going to do with that door now. But with that stuff in front of the door for so long, I almost forgot there was a door there!

Even after the storage cabinet was finished, these things remained in front of the door for a while longer.

Finally, I put all that stuff away and finished installing the trim. The side of the cabinet didn’t have trim until now because the baseboard against the wall had to be installed before the cabinet trim could be put on. So now all that is installed. It still needs to be filled, sanded, caulked, and painted.

This piece had to be cut to fit around the cabinet. This was easy to do with a jig saw.

And this is what the whole area looks like now that it’s trimmed. Finally, after seven years of this room being “in progress,” the side door finally has trim.

I didn’t take step-by-step photos of how I trimmed my windows and doors because I already wrote a pretty detailed post about it. This trim is super easy to do (no miter cuts!) and really enhances the look of the doors and windows. Here’s how I trimmed every window, door, and frame opening in our house.

I’m going to do my best to stay focused this weekend so I can finish this area (including painting the door), finish the trim on the opposite wall, and hopefully even finish all the wiring (I still have six outlets that need to be installed).

If I can stay focused and finish those things, I’ll have to reupholster the desk chair, finish organizing the cabinets and drawers, and then clean up and finish the little things like installing the light switch plates. Ugh! The last 10% is the worst!

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