Analysis Paralysis – Me? Overthink Much?
Analysis paralysis (or paralysis by analysis) is the state of over-analyzing (or overthinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. To know me is to now that I am an introvert who tends to overthink EVERYTHING.
Sometimes the outcome is amazing and totally worth the time and effort to achieve the goal. This was the case with the kitchen in our New York apartment. I spent a year designing and planning our dream kitchen, and then spent a year and a half executing my plan. The result was nothing short of amazing. It was a painfully drawn out process (just ask my husband), but in hindsight it was totally worth it.
On the flip side of my successes would be when my overthinking results in being frozen with “Deer in headlights syndrome”. This would be an apt description of where I’ve been recently. We have lived in our house for three months, and other than the Lipstick on a Pig kitchen facelift and a few small quality of life tasks, I have been completely frozen with overwhelm when it comes to getting serious about not only what to focus on, but how I am going to do it. That’s not to say I haven’t done anything, but not enough to document or write about. This explains why there has been crickets here for over a month.
I of course want to do all of the pretty things for the house first. Like paint rooms, refinish floors, and create gorgeous spaces. But before I can really start any of that, I need to focus on the much less glamorous and certainly less “photo-pretty for the blog” projects in preparation for making the real fabulousness possible. Which brings me to this post. I hope you will follow along as I work through some of the high priority items as well as prioritizing where to start.
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[Image: Neglect by past owners means that nobody ever bothered to replace the original doors and hardware throughout much of the house.]
On the plus side, out of sheer neglect, the house retains a majority of original 19th century details which would be hard to replicate. It was neglect that caused the original interior doors to remain throughout the house, most with original hardware (as shown in the image above). It was neglect that the original floors remain in most of the house. It was neglect that the staircase was not butchered (although it is embedded in many coats of paint), and neglect has left us with character that would have been lost forever otherwise. Neglect also kept the modern trend of “open concept” from being forced on a home which was very much designed to have separate rooms.
However… Neglect also meant that nothing was done beyond what was necessary to rent it out. Because of this, a lot of things which seem ordinary and standard in most homes were never added to ours. Neglect means that there was never a laundry sink installed in the basement, nor is there an exterior vent for the dryer. (It does have laundry hook-up otherwise). Neglect means that there has never been a water spigot for the back yard. Neglect means there is also no outdoor lighting anywhere (front or back), and certainly no electric outlets. (Side note: Even the public housing a few blocks away has outdoor outlets (front and rear) and central air.) These are things most folks would consider standard for a home, regardless of age, but neglect has left them out on ours.
Of course, our house is habitable, we do have heat, plumbing, modern electric, and lightning fast Internet. But it is definitely not at the level of comfort most people would consider acceptable for living. So before we can dive in and do the pretty things I so long for, even before we can get serious about renovations, we need to address a few quality of life things first to make living here more comfortable. What follows is an overview of our first five priorities to get accomplished in the short term.
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[Image: Not exactly the best way to vent your dryer.]
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[Image: The floor (under the vinyl floor) of our half bath is rotten limiting it for use only to those who can stand and pee.]
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[Image: The underside of the half bath floor from the basement. The only thing holding the toilet in place is the cast iron waste pipe. It’s even possible to see the underside of the toilet through the rotten floor.]
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[Image: I have a lot of space in the basement, but little in the way of organization and functional workspace. ]
![[Image: The shower leaks, so we're Keeping it Klassy with a plastic tarp.]](https://i0.wp.com/ourphillyrow.com///wp-content/uploads/2018/01/OPR-Minted-Philas05-768x1024.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)
[Image: The shower leaks, so we’re “Keepin’ it Klassy” with a plastic tarp.]
5 – Hire out the installation of new shower. We have only one full bath in the house and the shower leaks. I discovered this a few days after we took possession of the house when, after taking my first shower in the morning, I went downstairs to make coffee only to find myself stepping in a puddle of water, then noticing water on the countertops, and then seeing it drip from the upper cabinets. Ugh… I tried to figure out where the water was leaking around the tub, but there was major caulk build-up from poor attempts to fix this leak before combined with a cracked acrylic shower enclosure. We decided immediately that the only real way to resolve this is to rip it out and replace it. In the short term, the temporary solution was to tape a plastic tarp around the tub enclosure. That was a year ago and it’s still there. Were so klassy that way!
Since this is going to be our future guest bath we don’t need to go too fancy here. We want to replace the tub/shower with just a walk in shower. A nice one, but not fancy. Also, this being our sole shower in the house, we need to get this done in a couple of days (lest we begin to smell). This folks will be hired out… I know my limitations and I do not possess the skills to do this work myself. Even if I did, it would take me weeks to get it done leaving us without a shower. I am still figuring out what we are going to do, but for now, I think I need to set aside my dream for a hand-built tile shower and just get an insert and get it done.
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[Image: We knew about the haphazard handyman fixes during the home inspection, but we have come to learn they are worse than we thought.]
Once the these five tasks are getting wrapped up, I will post about my next five tasks which will include some convenience plumbing and electrical. I am also excited to do some posts about the pretty gorgeous things I have planned for our parlor room. Hopefully I haven’t bored the crap out of you, I hope you haven’t felt the need to overthink this too. But if you have, it’s fine to blame me. 🙂
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I solved my dryer vent problem by bringing it up into the back of the lazy Susan cabinet in the kitchen and then out the back. I was certainly not willing to bore through the marble. At least you have your window bars, so having the vent in the window won’t show too too much.
Do you need a place to shower?
Agreed that having the window is a big help for the dryer vent. I am lamenting the loss of a quarter of the window glass in the basement, but will survive. I plan to paint the wood panel dark and also spray paint the vent so that it won’t stand out any more than necessary. I am hoping the excessive moist air doesn’t cause any rust issues with the metal bars.
Thanks for the offer, were not there yet, but will let you know if it comes to that. 😊😊
Can you use Plexiglas instead of wood?
I’ve considered it, but I need to cut the hole near the top edge of the panel to work around our security system. I was concerned about breakage…. But as I type this I have a fresh idea of how to pursue it. 👍🏻👍🏻
WOW, lots to do but glad that you have priorities set. That’s the best start. Isn’t it amazing when people rent, I’m sorry but they do not take the same care as a person who owns. On one hand, it’s nice to have so much original stuff to work with, on the other, I’m sorry it’s so overwhelming! I have total faith though, I saw what you did on Horatio Street and I saw that wonderful uptown kitchen you did…in time, this will be spectacular!
WOW!!……that’s all I can say. As we say down south, you have a long row to hoe, but after reading all of your previous posts going way back, I have no doubt you’re up to the task. I really admire all you’ve done ( wish I were 50 years younger and I’d be doing something similar) and look forward to reading and seeing the results of your hard work…..one day at a time.
Go get em’ Devyn!!
😉. 👍🏻
Holy Moly! You have a lot of work ahead of you – we had a similar bathroom situation in our first home. All the floor joists had been cut through to run the waste line! Wow! The things people do – makes you wonder how they sleep at night?!? You will get there – based on the kitchen in NY and even your Lipstick Kitchen, it will be wonderful. Keep the faith and the patience as much as you can. Good luck! PS – I found it highly enjoyable to strip the entire staircase at our first house – would love to see photos of yours! Best!
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