GPS – Paint and Decorate our Bedroom

by | Sep 13, 2010 | Thoughts, Uncategorized | 0 comments

 

Image Goes HereGOAL: PAINT AND DECORATE OUR BEDROOM

GOAL SUMMARY: We’ve lived in our home for about 9 years now. While it’s definately our “home,” there are still quite a few things that remain unfinished, including such things as actually throwing an alternative color coat of paint and some wall decorations in our bedroom. I have often been frustrated by how hard it seems to keep the place clean and “home-sweet-home-ish,” and have even wondered if I’ll ever get the motivation to paint it because of all my clothes and other things that wind up tossed around various parts of the room.

But now I’m wondering if perhaps one reason it’s not as clean and enjoyable as I’d like is because we haven’t started on some basics. So here we go, a GPS about painting a room. This one is being done by both me AND my wife, so we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully “picking a color” does not become an obstacle because I know the solution… “let Erin choose.”

GOAL:

Paint and Decorate our Bedroom

TARGET DATE:

October 31, 2010

TODAY’S DATE:

September 13, 2010

REWARDS FOR ACHIEVEMENT:

  • CHET: Our bedroom will feel like more than just a place to lie in bed. It will be a bit of a “sanctuary” for rest and relaxation.
  • ERIN: Our bedroom will be a place to unwind.
  • CHET: We can finally hang stuff on the walls, including nice curtains that match something.
  • ERIN: Our bedroom will be pretty.
  • CHET: NEXT STEP: New flooring!!!

CONSEQUENSES OF NON-ACHIEVEMENT:

  • ERIN (with about a 10 millisecond delay): We’ll still have ugly white walls.
  • CHET: The bedroom will continue to be a clutter collector because we haven’t done anything to make it “ours,” even though we’ve lived here 9 years.
  • ERIN: We won’t have a comfy place to unwind.
  • CHET: I won’t have reason to fix the sticking door or install new flooring.

AFFIRMATIONS:

  • ERIN: We have a nice bedroom. (such a forward thinker she is!)
  • CHET: I make quick work of projects once I get started on them.
  • ERIN: We care about the comfort of our home.
  • CHET: I love my wife enough to give in on the little things in order to accomplish bigger things.

 

POSSIBLE OBSTACLE

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ACTION STEPS

MUST-DO DATE
DELEGATED TO

SOLUTION

Time to paint, taking into account our already crazy lives.
  1. Send Colton off to a babysitter all day on a Saturday.
  2. Let Colton help (uhhhh… Erin?) and do it while MaKenna naps.
  3. Spread the work out over several evenings.
  1. Pick a date.
  2. Find a baysitter.
  3. Get everything we’ll need before that date.
  1. 9/13/2010 (DONE)
  2. 9/25/2010
  3. 10/2/2010
  1. October 9
  2.  

 

xxx

POSSIBLE OBSTACLE

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ACTION STEPS

MUST-DO DATE
DELEGATED TO

SOLUTION

Don’t have the money to complete the job right.
  1. Divide the task into steps (paint, get curtains, get pictures, etc.)
  2. Get the money from savings
  3. Work it into the October budget
  1. Budget and set aside Septmeber money for paint.
  2. Budget and set aside October money for wall decorations.
  3. What we can’t afford, budget and set aside in pieces in the following months.
  1. 9/18/2010
  2. 10/2/2010 or 10/16/2010
  3. 10/31/2010
  1.  
  2.  

 

POSSIBLE OBSTACLE

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ACTION STEPS

MUST-DO DATE
DELEGATED TO

SOLUTION

Can’t agree or decide on paint colors
  1. Let Erin decide on her own.
  2. Erin provides several specific examples and then we choose together.
  1. Erin gets paint samples.
  2. Chet and Erin decide
  1. 9/21/2010
  2. 9/25/2010
  1.  

 

POSSIBLE OBSTACLE

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ACTION STEPS

MUST-DO DATE
DELEGATED TO

SOLUTION

The room is too cluttered to paint on paint day.
  1. Thoroughly clean room weekend prior to painting, and then touch up the day before.
  2. Lock the door until it’s time to paint.
  3. Hire a maid service.
  1. Get boxes out of room.
  2. Put all clothes and clutter away.
  3. Dust and vaccum furniture, walls, and windows.
  4. Keep room mostly clean until paint weekend.
  5. Touch up cleaning night before painting.
  1. 9/25/2010
  2. 10/2/2010
  3. 10/2/2010
  4. 10/3 – 10/8/2010
  5. 10/8/2010
  1.  
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  

How is it that things this “simple” take so long to do? Perhaps it’s because it’s not really that simple. Looking at all these steps that are going to be required reminds me that while this may just require a few hours actual painting labor, the work leading up to it could be quite involved. Lots of little things to get in the way, discourage us, or distract us. Now what do we do, transfer all these must-do dates to our family calendar? Suddenly the family calendar is dominated by dates related to painting. But I guess that’s ok, because if it’s important enough to do, it’s important enough to plan.

So there we go… Joint GPS #1 is in the books. And no fights, yelling, or even arguing ensued. Yay us!

Submit a Comment