Nearly Good Enough

When it comes to final touches, I have a nasty habit of keeping my hands to myself.

For example, many years ago, I renovated DW's and my ensuite bathroom. It was a modest renovation, where we replaced our counter and sink, mirror, and light fixtures. A new coat of paint and we were good to go.

But I never touched up the painted spots that got on our medicine cabinet, nor did I go back and cover the old, dark-green paint that peeked through on the edges of our bathtub. And I never installed the removed baseboards nor did I close the opening under the counter (I did make a makeshift cover for when we isolated our new kittens in this room).

When DW and I renovated our kitchen and family room, a couple of years ago, we hired professionals to look after the major work—the hardwood floors, installing the cabinets and island, hooking up the gas and plumbing, and installing the lights and electrical work. We handled the demolition, the painting, installing the baseboards, and (with help from a good friend) tiling the walls behind the stove and around the sink.

While we had an electrician rewire the kitchen, we didn't have him install lighting under the cupboards. We hadn't decided on the lighting that we wanted, so we just had him leave bare wires that we would hook up to our lights.

We have yet to do that.

So when our oldest moved out to attend school in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), we transformed her bedroom into an office space where DW and I work. We moved out DD19's furniture, replacing her bed with a day bed that can expand into a double bed, if needed. We've added end tables, two desks, and office chairs. We applied a bright colour to the walls and hung new curtains. We've decorated with plants and have hung photos on all the walls, and threw an area rug on the floor.

The room looks pretty good.

Good enough.

Nearly.

When we bought the day bed, second-hand through Kijiji, it wasn't until we assembled it that we discovered it was missing a piece. The former owner believes she left it in a storage compartment and would look for it the next time she visited her storage space. We haven't heard from her since, so we may need to order it from Ikea. It doesn't affect how the bed looks or works but it does make the bed unstable if it is pulled out to its full size.

We have some lamps that are plugged into side sockets, rather than behind the bed, which would hide the cords. A small, easy fix but we haven't gotten to it yet.

The cords that fall under our desks from all of our computer equipment are a cluttered mess. It wouldn't take long to tie them up but when we're in this room, we tend to focus simply on getting our office work done.

There are a couple of places where I slipped with the paint. Yellow blotches can be seen in a couple of spots on the ceiling. And some of the grey paint that used to cover the walls pokes out at the top of the walls in some places.

Eventually, I'll get around to those final touches. But I won't hold my breath. There's a good chance that I'll move the cords for the lights behind the bed and I'll likely tie up the cords, but I have doubts about the paint touchups.

History has shown that I tend to stop when a project is nearly good enough.