"You've got to know when to hold'em, Know when to fold'em, Know when to walk away…"

(Imagine Kenny Rogers singing the title to you for an instant mood lifter.)

For me, some DIY home projects are more emotionally grueling than physically taxing. I like projects that push me physically. I always feel a great sense of accomplishment from pushing myself to complete something that was not easy and enjoy the muscle fatigue that comes afterwards. These provide their own high. Today though, I am not working on such a project. There is no muscle fatigue, or sense of 'WOW! Look what I did'. Today, there is just monotony and dust and minuscule progress. Today, I am working on paint prep and after an hour, I was ready to boo-boo.

As I have already shared with y'all, I have been working on removing the wallpaper. Removing wallpaper was not bad. I could immediately see my progress as I went around the room and when I was done, the room looked dramatically different. Task Complete. The walls were paper free! Many 'Excellent job. Well done, Emily.' were handed out from me to myself. BUT… then came the next step. The sheet rock was pretty banged up. This originally did not bother me because I was on wallpaper-removal, and I was not concerned about all the gauges and glue residue that were left behind. Now I am crying (usage is more literal than figurative) a different tune. The picture below shows some of the sorry shape of the sheet rock.

Every gauge has to be smoothed out and all the glue residue, which is the darker yellow lines, has to be sanded so that it texturally does not stand out. This is all in preparation for the painting that will come next. I do not have all of the pictures to show you the vast quantity of sanding that needs to be done. I was to over whelmed to take pictures. Below is the tool I was using to sand. I spent an hour sanding this morning and am not even half way through with the dinning room. 

After the hour mark, I had to sit down to regroup. Regrouping did not go so well, and I ended up leaving. These tedious and seemingly never ending projects are the ones I struggle with the most. In my head I know that I just have to stick with it, and my hard work will pay off. I will finish and when we paint, I will be glad that I put in the time to do a good job. I know all of this. But today… I just can't believe those things. 

Sometimes, the best way to handle a project is to walk away. So for today, I am not worried about all of the sanding. It will be there tomorrow, and I will tackle it then, more motivated to do the job needed. And until then… I will do other things.

 I hope everyone has a great Thursday.