Cob: finishing projects, truths about owner-builders

[Amanda Peck]

I'm learning this of myself as well.  Pretty good at researching, fair at 
planning and buying stuff, terrible at following through on my lists--even 
worse at getting down there and doing stuff.  But I tend to be slow starting 
but more predictable at finishing at other kinds of projects--quiltmaking, 
for instance.  I expect that all huge projects like this are exercises in 
knowing oneself.

But the perfectionists among us may have another problem.  I have friends 
who've lived in their owner-built houses for 20-25 years.  They're still not 
what they would call "finished."   Of course this has something to do with 
the fact that since they built it, they also get to remodel.

And I'm seeing bad decisions made by people who are getting in a hurry to 
move in, cheaping out on materials, rushing the planning process with the 
result that they are constantly changing their minds about what they need to 
do--and strangely enough this results in postponing the day they get to move 
in--or maybe worse, moving in to something like the Lincoln home in Southern 
Indiana, only three walls and a roof, the 4th omitted because it took too 
long, they didn't have the trees nearby, or whatever.

I'm delighted to see people on this list start with "Oh, wow, free house" 
then go through the soul-searching, the planning and the building.

Good thought from a writer of psychic advice:  If you want to change your 
circumstances (house or anything else) hating the current version is the 
worst thing you can do.  It leads to bad decisions, maybe because you know 
you have some responsibility for the current situation, maybe because you 
rush and grab the first idea that comes along without doing the planning 
that you need to do for a huge undertaking like building a house.  End of 
sermon.  The "you" definitely does include "me" in this.



...............
From: "Mary Hooper" <mjhooper at trccomputing.com>(snipped)

Once I learn how things are done, I often don't
bother completing the project. I have friends who complete every  project
before starting another... this is worth consideration I think before taking
on a cob project..... and worth knowing about oneself before contemplating
digging a hole in the yard and filling it with gravel and collecting a stack
of building materials....

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