One day left, of freedom. Job starts Monday. It’s been a good month. Relaxing when it needed to be, full of productivity when it should have been. I could have done more. Probably could also have done less, and been happy, as well.
The thing the month has taught me are twofold:
The first is pretty simple. I’m good at filling up time. I have a lot of hobbies, and basically never enough time to pursue them all. Without a job, I *still* didn’t get a chance to paint this month, nor did I play much music. I did play the sax a bit during the weekdays, and I played some on the keyboard. Now that we’ve got the piano, I’m actually excited to re-learn how to play that, as well. I sketched up a painting of a flower, from a photo I’d taken in London, but haven’t yet applied paint to canvas. Cooked a lot, which was really fun, and did a bunch of random stuff around the house, which was remarkably satisfying. Lots to go, but baby steps count.
The second is a little weirder. It basically has to do with prioritization and allocation of time. I didn’t realize how much I prioritize, and think of everything in terms of opportunity cost. Should I watch a movie? That’s pretty much a whole evening after work. Meals are always a balance of prep and shopping time vs. money. Playing a game, surfing the internet sort of “kill” time while something else might come along. What I’ve done, in the past, was actually “kill” time instead of pursuing good opportunities, lest something *better* come along. When my time was “free,” I prioritized things differently. I’d go places and talk to people, friends, Ei-Nyung, whatever – hang out ’till late in the night. Take the dog to the beach almost any chance I got, because it was all “free.” But those experiences are *better* than the experiences I have when I’m doing the cost calculations, and hoping for something optimal.
So, by trying to optimize, using bad calculation of the odds, I’ve effectively been making very bad decisions. I like movies. I like hanging out. I don’t mind being tired, or losing some sleep, and instead of waiting to see if something better comes along, I should just *do* what comes up when it does, and figure out what the ramifications of that decision are as it happens, rather than waiting for some other circumstance that may or may not come. I enjoy doing things, and so the primary concern should be *doing* them.
And for the last question, I put this to a vote, of people who have been to our house. Prioritize the repair or remodel of the following:
* Proper repair of the roof is a given, and is not part of this list.
* Drywall in upstairs common areas and the stairs
* Complete strip & remodel of kitchen
* Complete strip & remodel of upstairs bathroom
* Resurface and paint front of house
* Finish detail work in downstairs (baseboard trim & window trim)
* Terrace walls & strip grass from backyard
* Front stairs & front yard retaining wall repair
* Repair walkway up side of house
Personally, after the roof repair, drywall, kitchen, and bathroom are the ones I’m thinking, in that order.
Just curious what others think.
I haven’t been to your house, but I’m going to tell you what I think anyway – work your way inside-out. Do the inside stuff, the stuff *you* will see more often, and work your way out. The visible changes will make you feel good and hopefully serve as motivation to continue working through the rest of it.
I liked your discussion about decision making and prioritization. Hopefully you’ll keep this feeling of only doing what you most want to do every day even while you are working.
My wish list for your house: (as always, I offer my services as free pseudo-skilled labor)
* Complete strip & remodel of upstairs bathroom
* Complete strip & remodel of kitchen
* Drywall in upstairs common areas and the stairs
* Terrace walls & strip grass from backyard
* Front stairs & front yard retaining wall repair
* Repair walkway up side of house
* Finish detail work in downstairs (baseboard trim & window trim)
* Resurface and paint front of house
My order of preference:
Sooner:
– Drywall upstairs
– Floors in living areas + touchup in messed up bedroom
– Various trim downstairs
Later:
– Kitchen
– Upstairs bathroom
– Backyard
Some decent span of time before we sell:
– front stairs
– walkway up the side of house
– repaint
The “sooner” list affects our daily quality of life AND is comparatively cheap AND makes a huge visual impact.
The “later” stuff is stuff we can definitely live with — the bathrooms are fine, the kitchen, while ugly and lacking in adequate storage space, is fine, and the backyard should only get money spent to fix it up when we also have money & time to maintain something of that scale.
The “before we sell” stuff are must-dos before we should ever consider selling because they can be barriers to people who want to purchase, but bring little or no positive daily impact on our mental living space. Also, because it’ll be costly, we don’t get as big of a bang for our buck.
I hate having to prioritize everything in life. It simply means that I’ll never get around to any of the things that I want to do for myself 🙁
But, there’s something that I’ve also been debating. Lately, on Saturdays, I’ve been getting up at around 11. Since I’ve been going to work earlier and earlier, this is the one day I get to sleep in late. But the thing is, when I get up early on Saturday, I get so much more *stuff* done. I can go to the park and relax with a book/crossword puzzle/whatever. Or I can watch that TV series DVD I hadn’t gotten around to, or play a game that isn’t immediately on my top priority list. I can make a nice breakfast, or hell, even go out to a nice cafe for breakfast.
But when my eyes open at 6 am or whatever on Saturday (body’s just used to waking up by then), I’m so *tired*, that at that moment, none of it seems worth more than the extra 5 hours of sleep.
We prioritize on two axes: cost and increase in quality of life.
Some things are both cheap and life-improving (ie patching up gaping holes in spaces you spend lots of time in); some are cheap and of minimal utility; lots of things are VERY EXPENSIVE and very useful (kitchen remodel).
It’s all about what you use or care about most. You use your kitchen a lot, but if your kitchen is up to a point where you’re willing to deal with it for a reasonable time period, move it farther down the list. Finish the smaller things that will make you more likely to do fun things. Maybe finishing the common areas will mean you throw more dinner/game parties; this would make it a higher priority. Also, I’m always surprised to discover that actually finishing a room or project increases my level of satisfaction; I’m very bad about reinstalling switchplates after painting.
Ei-Nyung’s list seems pretty much on target, though I might suggest doing a couple more temporary fixes for the major projects you’re putting off to improve your quality of life in the meantime.
Now back to prioritizing my own list of projects.