But reading your post made me think of my hubby. We are remodeling our house and he has 5 or 6 projects going on and none of them are finished. The way I get him to work on a project that needs finishing is to mess with myself. Of course, since I'm a girl, I am not doing it right, which makes my SDA (Sir Dumb A**) get in there and take over. I do this regularly. Hehe!

~IT WAS WORTH IT WHEN I BEGAN~

EOW my hubby does nothing around the house because he is entertaining the man/child. The garage needs to be cleaned (I MEAN REALLY CLEANED, NOT JUST SHIFTING THINGS and sweeping underneath) and I WILL get it done. I will hire a couple of day workers (while the 6 ft father and 6 ft son sit on the couch) so they can clean out the garage. It is like everything has to stop because the pope is in town.

I have a hard time getting to even start a project, let alone finish one. He detests any kind of around the house work, and will go to any lengths to avoid it. I finally hired a handyman at 12 dollars per hour, gave him a list of stuff to do, and let him work. Cost me a few hundred bucks all said and done, but money well spent!! Now, when I have a little chore that needs done, I give him a call. I affectionately refer to him as my "other husband" (although not to his face).

But to answer your question, NO you are not overreacting. Living with unfinished projects is majorly stressful, imo.

my FH is like this too, he is all hot and heavy about a project till it is about 85% done and then it just all comes to a halt.
I have 2 bathrooms that he remolded. well one bathroom the knobs still leak water, the tile needs to be cleaned and bars and pictures still need to be put up and they are sitting right on the floor of the bathroom
the other bathroom has the electrical box still hanging out of it the trim is not done nor is the trim for the window- pictures still sit in my room waiting to be hung. but that doesnt keep him from wanting to landscape the back yard AGAIN..the project he started early last summer... now it is partially mulched and dug up...
zzzzzzz
“You will never be on top of the world
if you try to carry it on your shoulders.”

He starts one thing, then moves on to something else without finishing it. Then he complains that he doesn't like unfinished projects hanging over his head. Then finish one thing before starting something else!

On a related note, he is not very good at this stuff. I am better. My mom bought us a coat hook and I asked him to hang it by the front door. It kept falling off the wall and he told me I was putting too much stuff on it. Kept rehanging it. It kept falling down. Finally, one day, I asked my mom to help me while she was over. We put it up and it hasn't falled down since. And it is loaded with coats!

You want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. I hung all the pictures in the living room, hung curtain rods, etc. I asked him to hang shades in the breakfast room and he put the first one in wrong. After I corrected him and he tried two more times (with several holes), he managed to get the rest right.

We bought a house 2 yrs ago..gutted the inside. We walked around on plywood floors for OMG like 15 months.....

Now that the house looks great, we have to sell it because we are broke - due to unforeseen health problems. (And no, not because of renovations, that $ was set aside before hand).

But yes, A LOT of projects get started, but it takes forever and ever to get completed!! Mind you, going out to his shop does get him all flustered and he immediately goes and does what I want so I won't "screw" it up....LOL. Perfectionist ya know!!

Corie

Doesn't TLC have a show about this...you know they send in some guy and he helps out with all the unfinished renos but makes your DH do all the work?? LOL

When I first met my husband, he was impressed with the fact that my toolbox was bigger than his. There's a lot of things I cannot do, but there's an awful lot I can do. Before we sold our house I repainted all but 2 rooms. I painted the kitchen cabinets (they were faux wood formica). We both installed new kitchen countertops and a new kitchen sink. I replaced the closet shelves in the bathroom. I hung up all the new bathroom hardware. I replaced the bathtub faucet. I spackled holes and cracks.

Nailing the baseboards back on the wall is easy. Nail them back on then run a bead of caulk along the top of the baseboard to seal it. Dab some caulk on the nail holes (wipe off the excess), then you're ready to paint. It's actually easier to paint them first then touch them up once they're back on.

Pick yourself up a good do-it-yourself book at Lowe's or Home Depot. Don't be afraid to get in there and get your hands dirty. You'd be surprised at how much fun it is!

My DH is worse than me about perfection when it comes to projects. He always finishes what he starts. To the point he has had one surgery on his elbow from ripping the tendons/ligaments to needing a second surgery on the other arm from the same thing.
We always have a project and they always get finished. We are both perfectionists. What takes him more time than anything is the list that needs to be done before the project gets underway. Everything needed must be on the list - but we still make several trips to Lowes before we're done.

One time I started ripping out drywall in our front room due to termite damage. I just kept tearing and tearing and finding more. It bugged him so bad he took a day off work and finished the project. He completely drywalled, retextured and painted that room in one day. He had it completely cleaned up when I got home. Damn he's good!

Einstein's definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."