Self Reproach

Has it really been five whole months? Working on my house scrapbook this weekend, I realized we've got very little accomplished.

Here's what we've done:

Move and unpack.

Pull up hideous green rug in master bedroom and wax part of the floor.

Demolish ugly '70s built-in desk in kitchen.

Remove old stove vent and install microwave.

Install dishwasher.

Remove old sink and faucet and install new.

Prime and paint most of the cabinets.

Add trim to a few cabinets and paint more trim.

In five months, an entire house could be built.

Then again, an entire crew works to build a house. It's just me and Darwin - with some minor help thrown in from our parents here and there - and just our weekends.

And Christmas interrupted.

And ... and ... I'm sure I can come up with some more excuses if I try.

I read about a million other house blogs (check out Houseblogs.net if you haven't yet), and it seems everybody is making more progress than us. Are we just lazy bums? Are we too busy with other things? Are we making things difficult for ourselves in some way? Or is it because we picked a massive project for our first one?

This weekend we spent half of Saturday working on the kitchen. I primed and painted trim, while Darwin worked on the hinges for the lower half of the kitchen.

Then we went to Darwin's brothers house, where he worked on his truck with his brother, and I hung out with my sister-in-law, niece and nephew.

On Sunday we slept incredibly late (for us) and laid around the house ALL DAY watching poltergeist movies and Office Space. Then I worked on my scrapbook some more.

I am torn. Half of me feels guilty for taking a break, but the other half of me says, "It's OK to take it at your own pace. You'll burn out if you spend every spare moment working on the house." I do not want to burn out because there is a LOT of work left to do.

Maybe I'm just getting impatient. I want my neat, pretty, finished kitchen. And I'm eager to move on to something else - painting the hallway maybe, or the guest bathroom, or the living room or the dining room. There are so many pretty colors waiting to be chosen.