If you do care about having a nice living space—and in fact you care so much about it that you want to not only maintain, but improve your living space—then having your shit together is the only way to fly. Any big, long-term project, of which home improvement is a positively ripe example, is just one giant goal broken up into a lot of smaller ones. Motivation and prioritizing are the first steps. Refinishing the dank, ugly basement has to become important enough to you that you finally give it a place of honor on your must-do list.
But must-do lists are typically all about today—or at least a shortish period of time, right? (That was a rhetorical question. I know they are; I invented them.)
And a project like this could take weeks, months, or even years, depending on how much time, energy, and/or money you have to devote to it. So it may be “must-do” in terms of your priorities (you want to send the kids to that basement and get them out of your hair several years before sending them off to college accomplishes the same goal), but it’s not going to happen all at once, in one day.
You know what can happen in one day?
A small, manageable chunk.
Zing!
Getting your shit together for the big stuff is just getting your shit together for a bunch of small stuff, over time. Of course a full renovation is daunting. Your basement is not going to magically transform itself all at once into a wall-to-wall-carpeted wonderland. There are, like, eight thousand things that have to get done to take a space from “unfinished concrete cell” to “tricked-out rec room.” But it’s just like we discussed here about getting a new job—all you need to do is strategize, focus, and commit. Keys, phone, wallet.
Yes, Alvin, it will require decisions and effort on your part, for a prolonged period of time. But crossing one thing at a time off the basement renovation must-do list is a relatively easy way to get there. Definitely easier than trying to do it all at once. Even those teams of contractors and designers on HGTV actually take weeks to renovate a house. That whole “WE HAVE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS TO FLIP THIS PUPPY” is just for TV. Sorry if I burst your bubble there, but the truth will set you free.
Your chunks could look like this. So small, so manageable:
Decide to renovate basement
Research contractors
Pick a contractor
Make an appointment with your contractor
Choose paint color
Choose light fixtures
Start thinking about light switch covers
Realize you don’t give a shit about light switch covers
Instruct your contractor to select light switch covers him/herself
Let the contractor do his/her thing for a couple of weeks
Meanwhile, research couches, coffee tables, and media cabinets
Send strongly worded email to contractor about his/her lack of progress
Buy a cute throw pillow
Throw it at your contractor
Etc.
If you need to save up for your renovation (and I’m guessing you do, because who has that kind of cash lying around?), you already know how to do that, too. You could even be doing it while you research contractors.
If you don’t intend to use a contractor—whether you’re on a budget, or you just enjoy doing this kind of thing yourself—the steps are largely the same. Cross off “research contractors,” “pick a contractor,” and “make an appointment with your contractor.” Replace those with “paint the basement” and “install wall sconces.”
And if you have neither the budget for a contractor nor the time/desire to do it all yourself, you may have to juggle that priority list some more and see what shakes out.
As to money and effort: Maybe instead of extra bells and whistles you compromise by painting the room yourself—but spring for a professional electrician (and wait to put the pool table in until after the kids leave home, so they can’t ruin it).
If it’s a time thing: Perhaps watching eight hours of football every weekend could be sacrificed to building the perfect man cave over a period of several months. That’s a lot of fourth downs you could be putting toward a higher-priority goal. Haha, football puns! I slay me.
And now, I return to motivation and priorities: Is this shit worth it to you or not?
If not, go ahead and cross “basement renovation” off your list entirely. Whatever, no skin off my teeth. I don’t even have a basement.