Low points: and how to get out of them

[ToughButterCup]

This time of the year gets to me - sometimes.

 

And in the context of self-building, its dark for longer, wet for longer, cold for longer, windy for longer than I'd like. Optimists say that some of that can be sorted by proper clothing, and decent site lighting.

But wetness can make a  site misery quicker than anything, cold can stop concrete and mortar dead. Wind is a bastard on a scaffold. 

Self building's a character test. The push to complete never lets up despite all of the above. 

 

I suspect that a few of us are having to 'dig-deeper-than-normal' these days.

 

Got any ways of picking yourself up when things are more than merely gloomy?

[Post and beam]

Perhaps weirdly, i had less problems with clambering  on ice covered roof rafters last january than i do now. We moved in in November with all of the internal painting, architraves & skirting still to do. We only have 3 doors out of a total of 15 required.

I am finding it increasingly difficult to motivate myself to do anything at the moment.

[ProDave]

Funny you should mention it but work on my long awaited car port ground to a halt when the snow came with the new year.

[mjc55]

I agree that this feels like the toughest time of the year when self-building.  This time last year we had just got our PP so prior to that it was just tinkering around the site etc.

 

This year is different as there are foundations in for the main house and the Pod we are building both to test the build process we have chosen and live in whilst we build the house is well on it's way.  However the rain this year is sorely testing.  We have a sloping site so we can drain from the front to the back but the Pod is at the back and although we have constructed it so its well out of the damp, at this stage it is very wet and the clay is sorely testing.

 

The thing is though, all the downsides are outweighed by the sheer pleasure at the fact that what we are doing is something that we have planned for many,many years.  Spring will be here before we know it, the evenings are getting lighter and ultimately the end goal outweighs all else.

 

Onwards and Upwards!

[SimonD]

 

48 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

The push to complete never lets up despite all of the above. 

 

This is the bit that's the toughest for me especially when trying to balance everything else that's important in life. With the build, it's not like going home from the office and switching off. One of the things here is that my boys have grown through their teenage years on a building site, but I've spent a lot of time with them away from the build, which at the moment seems to have been the best thing for them. They're living in a warm, dry house, and have their own bedrooms, a bathroom and a functional kitchen, it's just so many other areas of the house still need a lot of work.

 

54 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Got any ways of picking yourself up when things are more than merely gloomy?

 

Deepest winter does seem to be the worst. I approached it with the mentality of - just do one thing, however small it might be. Rather than looking around and seeing how much needs to be done, it's about seeing what little things can I do here or there, even when the weather or light is against me.  It's not the solution, but it can very much help. Sometimes I'm surprised by how much gets done as a result and how even just getting some plasterboard put up, can feel so satisfying.

 

But then, sometimes, it is just a pure grind and I see that as just a temporary phase that'll change in a few short days or weeks.

[Gone West]

3 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

Got any ways of picking yourself up when things are more than merely gloomy?

We cheated for several winters, and spent a couple of months in Madeira. We were refreshed when we came back.

[Spinny]

Never enjoyed this time of year. The festive period is over but still a long drag until warmth and daylight comes - UK can sometimes be getting snow in early April.

 

The constant flow of problems can seem overbearing - one of our plasterers cut his hand badly before Xmas - now the other one has badly sprained his right hand/thumb on scaffolding. Not on our job, but just stops them working on ours. FIL just diagnosed with dementia.

 

Spouse is really struggling. At my time of life I have concluded the only approach is the stoic one - keep pushing the rock up the mountain however little gain you make and however much it keeps rolling back down...

https://youtu.be/i-GD7R82y9Q?si=S_YVPJ3poHzILnbK

 

I like to keep thinking of each day having more daylight than the last.

[Russell griffiths]

@ToughButterCup

go indoors you fool, do the jobs inside, it will be spring in a blink of an eye come outside then. 
 

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#sillybilly #nofoollikeanolfool

[BotusBuild]

How do i cope?

 

Do the jobs you know will take short amounts of time - and pat yourself on the back to say "job  well done".

 

Plan in trips out, or visits to or by family members who will help your mood.

 

Go for walks in the rain - it can't stop you doing that!

 

If you have a local pub you like, go and have a pint or two once a week. Chatting to the locals/your friends always helps.

[ToughButterCup]

4 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

 

... you fool..

 

Never a truer phrase, you Southern Softy.

 

follow me for more apposite and gratuitous insults

#oldfoolsaremoreexperiencedthanyoungerones #southernersaresoft

Edited 3 hours ago by ToughButterCup

[JohnMo]

6 hours ago, Post and beam said:

We moved in in November

That's a killer, motivation once in the house is hard to come by.

 

Our roof was going on this time 5 years ago (where has the time gone), but was on mission, motivation was easy, I didn't plan or expect the build to take more than a year, which it didn't - year two would have been much harder.

 

6 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

having to 'dig-deeper-than-normal' these days

Lists helped me - a list of 10 achievable things, strike them off at the end of each day, anything left add to the next days list - even if you are not doing them and you are paying someone else, you see progress. Progress is a motivator on its own

[crispy_wafer]

Sometimes we just need to recharge ourselves, I and the family like @Gone West normally, just sod off for a week where the sun is out.  Cheap flight and a cheap apartment for 5-7 days where the sun is shining and where you can stroll around without a care just like ‘normal’ folk do!  

 

I found once booked the mind focuses on the little wins in the build, or those must do that before we go jobs, which all means further progress in the grand scheme of it.  

 

Once back i’m ready to throw myself back to it, albeit with a clearer mind and a fresh outlook.  Although I’m at the stage now where I need to pack my tools away properly and leave them in their ‘spot’ or i forget where I left the damn things and need to go on a hunt before I can get cracking.