WOHOOO! That is a job well done~!!
Don't be embarrassed.... we ALL have something like that in our house!! But it will feel SO GOOD when you are done!!
I call my DH the "classic 90%-er". He is pretty good at starting projects....and if I push he will get them at least to a "functional" stage... but almost NEVER, EVER completely finishes anything!! It makes me crazy!!
Our back deck is lovely.... he started it 10 years ago this past spring... and with some pushing from me (and help from his brother) he got it to the useable stage by the end of the summer that year... then the following spring I pushed him to finish the railings.... which he did.... all but ONE RAIL CAP.... which he FINALLY FINISHED last summer (9 years later) before my DD's graduation party... But of course we still have no hand railings on the stairs off the deck... even though one of the stairs has a top and bottom railing post!
I won't even go INTO the 18 year old shed that wasn't never completely finished.... or the coffee table he was making me about 8 years ago (lots of expensive beautiful lumber sitting in various stages of cutting/glueing in the basement, probably warping), or the oak dining room hutch that he got to the half-finished stage in about 1993 (NO LIE) and has been sitting in his brother's woodworking shop covered with a tarp ever since.
Love the man
... he has TONS of great qualities.... but finishing projects is NOT one of them!! But I guess if he was asked, he could list plenty of MY bad traits too!!
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Morning all! I decided to tackle a HUGE project yesterday and started cleaning out the SHED!! Yup.... that crazy 18 year old shed that was never really "finished". I will post some before and after pictures later for the full effect, but needless to say.... ICK!!! Because it was never fully finished and because we live in the woods, the neighborhood squirrels, chipmunks, and mice have decided that this makes a nice cozy home in the winter. The shelves and floor were covered in acorn shells, mouse nesting material, and other "smelly" bits that I won't even go into!
I started by pulling out every single item (except the chipper.... it is heavy so I just worked around it). I sorted as I pulled stuff out and filled our biggest wheelbarrow up three times over with stuff for the dump. Everything went STRAIGHT into my car for an immediate trip. Not gonna let this junk sit around any longer. It would be no lie or exaggeration to say that I probably threw away over 100 pounds of Scotts lawn fertilizer that sat so long it got rock solid.... and that dang stuff is expensive....
Plus I threw out tons of Miracle-Gro.... must have been on sale or clearance at one point because, no lie, there were at least 10-15 boxes of the stuff on the uppper shelves... but the boxes were chewed on and disintegrating and damp from ??? (I shutter to think) and EWWWWW! I did start counting the boxes as I put them into trash bags, but got disgusted and gave up.
Then I started throwing away the "collection" of plastic pots. We don't start our own seedlings very often and even if we did, we would never need this collection. I've been slowly throwing it away for a few years now (lots of them were stacked outside the shed and I got rid of them last year before DD's party). And next I threw away a few broken tools, some leaky hoses, an old bundle of electric wiring and tons of broken sprinkler heads and a few reels of string trimmer refill string.
Then came the sweeping..... it was endless. I stood on a deck chair to sweep the "stuff" from the top and middle shelves. I held my breath while doing it because I could tell from the smell I probably shouldn't be breathing the dust (combined fertilizer and poo). I swept it all down onto the floor and then swept that into a pile and scooped it up with a big shovel. I'll bet the trash bag weighed 4-6 pounds!
But then it was time to go to the dump. The only things I put back in the shed were the remaining fertilizer and grass seed that were still good. Rain was predicted for last night/today, so I didn't want to ruin it.
If the rain holds off today (or maybe even if it doesn't) I plan to hose out the inside of the shed totally and then let it dry for a few days before giving the inside a coat of stainblocker paint/primer.. just to brighten it up and help cover the smell!
And I am going to cut down some massive trees/weeds that have grown up around the shed, fix the siding where it is lifting/buckling, fix the doors that swelled and don't shut/open properly anymore, and then give the exterior two coats of paint (it is peeling badly). But we really need to finish the unfinished soffits to prevent the critters from getting BACK INSIDE! I just wanted to tack up some wire mesh.... fast and easy and fairly inexpensive (and I could do it myself).... but of course, even though he has had 18 years to finish this, DH decides he wants it finished "properly"!!
But he is currently in the middle of building a HUGE raised bed garden in the back yard.... so I'm not sure when he thinks he might have time for this???
Anyhow.... done ranting about this. But will say it was a REALLY GOOD feeling to drop a huge load at the transfer station and another load at the Goodwill yesterday. I will never miss the tablecloths and other junk that I donated. I was going to try and sell DS's outgrown pants, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle right now.
Off to talk to my WISH board friends and then go be productive.... the rain clouds are rolling in, as I sit here....P
), so that is good. And I did take about 15 minutes to declutter the stack of books and magazines that always seems to be growing next to my side of the bed. I moved 2 cooking magazines to the cookbook shelves in the kitchen, put aside a small stack of kids chapter books to send to my nephew in TX (they were from DS's room clean-out and I wanted to re-read them), and a handful of books and magazines went into the donation bucket in the mudroom. 
