Ever lose interest in a project?

I was the opposite for many years, if I didn't finish a project I would loose sleep over it, now I just don't start something if there is even a small chance I can't finish it.

I had a good friend that probably had 20 things in process at any given time, he would jump around on them but only a few were ever finished.
 
Ive lost interest in everything.Im so mentally burned out from every thing in my life ,i just eat sleep and go to work and very little else.

Sadly I feel like I'm there. I have been working on the bathroom in my @#$@#$ing house for 2 years now. Originally planned for $6000. Up to $14000. Still $5000 away from finishing it. Fiance wants a kitchen next. Probably going to have to go the HELOC route or a refinance and hire a contractor. I absolutely loathe working on houses.

My father spent 2 months in the hospital barely hanging on. 3 times a week for 2 months, I drove 2-4 hours round trip (depending on which hospital he was in) to go see him. While trying to balance work, life and house work.

He's home now, thankfully. About halfway into his hospital stay I finally said the heck with the house work and stopped. I need to do something I enjoy so I pulled the Jeep out of the weeds and got started on that again. I've been having a blast driving that around! I had hoped to get my garage fixed this summer, but that will have to be next year. The water table has rose too much for me to fix the foundation.

But I know the stupid bathroom is looming over my head.
 
At my last job I really enjoyed custom work. An old customer found me and asked if I would do a side job I jumped on it. Figured a few nights after work and I would be done.

Then the problems began.

Having a tough time finding parts. When I do find them the price is sky high.

Finally got most of what I need.

Then the extreme temps hit. 110-120+ for weeks now. Too hot to work outside on it. By the time it cools off I have to get ready for bed.

The condenser was a bear to find. I did not want to put one that's too small in the car. I found a big one and one I thought was too small so I got the big one. It's a big car so it needs all the condenser I can fit in it.

Can't blame the owner but he does not want anything cut or holes drilled.

I think I had the radiator/ condenser setup in and out 15x!

The condenser mounts to the radiator so I made brackets. The guy decided to have me put a new radiator in it while I had it apart. My brackets don't fit the new radiator! It's off just enough. Back to making new brackets.

There is no room to mount the receiver drier up front like he wants. At least nothing I was happy with. I tried for days trying to mount it. It's just too close and may rub a hole in that new condenser.

I don't need that kind of a comeback.

Can't drill holes in the inner fenders ( understandable) to mount it there. I ended up putting it on the side of the compressor its self for now as there are extra unused holes there. The other lines and hoses in that area will cover it. Plus with it there I can use the port on it for my combination charge port/ high pressure cut out switch.

I have become frustrated and have completely lost interest in the job. I must finish it though.

I have come to the realization that I just don't have time to do this kind of side job and work my day job.
Chris after all this is done, make sure to tell them not to refer anyone else to you.

Sometimes it's a lesson learned. Enjoy your free time. Next time they can pay more for the repair elsewhere.
 
This happens in my day job too. They bring in some big technology product that's supposed to be all things to all people and make our life easy. Then when we're a year deep into implementation everyone realizes man this stuff stinks. So we decided to go another direction that's supposedly better and end up with a bunch of servers running off in a corner that everyone forgets about. Then one day someone asks what these servers are for, we're like, oh we lost interest in doing that because it doesn't do what the vendor says that it does.

I have a lot of interest in my DIY projects, problem is my wife doesn't and it's hard to get time to do stuff in the garage because she takes it as a personal affront. Unless that "stuff" is cleaning the garage again.
 
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I think for me, and I wonder about others…. when I was younger I unknowingly sought meaning in the projects. Escape from the day, or at least something that would feel like an accomplishment. I needed a constant string of wins.

anyone else get that?

at some point, I’ve accomplished a ton of awesome projects, but none truly satisfied. Many have rusted, faded, been traded, or discarded. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy some, but when this all started to dawn on me, the thirst for them began to sour.
 
I can honestly say I’ve never lost interest in a project. I just work on things when I feel like it as long as it isn’t pressing. For example I have a 40 year old diesel garden tractor in pieces in my barn (it’s a nice clean pole barn, I just don’t use the term “shop”) and just work on it whenever. Wifey has been working a lot of 3rds lately so it helps me maintain my sanity. Hopefully this’ll stop by years end.

We do have quite a few things on our to-do list for around the house, but I’m not sure they are project status yet since they haven’t started.
 
Sadly I feel like I'm there. I have been working on the bathroom in my @#$@#$ing house for 2 years now. Originally planned for $6000. Up to $14000. Still $5000 away from finishing it. Fiance wants a kitchen next. Probably going to have to go the HELOC route or a refinance and hire a contractor. I absolutely loathe working on houses.

My father spent 2 months in the hospital barely hanging on. 3 times a week for 2 months, I drove 2-4 hours round trip (depending on which hospital he was in) to go see him. While trying to balance work, life and house work.

He's home now, thankfully. About halfway into his hospital stay I finally said the heck with the house work and stopped. I need to do something I enjoy so I pulled the Jeep out of the weeds and got started on that again. I've been having a blast driving that around! I had hoped to get my garage fixed this summer, but that will have to be next year. The water table has rose too much for me to fix the foundation.

But I know the stupid bathroom is looming over my head.
I hear you on the house stuff, its nice to save some money but figuring out how to do a decent job of it takes time and patience... If you can find the right contractor, kitchens shouldn't require a second mortgage. Or just get some new doors and a counter top? I guess that depends on the fiancé...
There's always something I could/should do but I need to drop my blood pressure a bit so I go for a mountain bike ride almost every day. Health is more important than most projects for sure.
 
I hear you on the house stuff, its nice to save some money but figuring out how to do a decent job of it takes time and patience... If you can find the right contractor, kitchens shouldn't require a second mortgage. Or just get some new doors and a counter top? I guess that depends on the fiancé...
There's always something I could/should do but I need to drop my blood pressure a bit so I go for a mountain bike ride almost every day. Health is more important than most projects for sure.

It's a former rental. Most of the cabinets disappeared from when it was listed in 2006, to when it was listed in 2012. What's left are destroyed. So needs new cabinets and counter tops for sure. And I replaced the subfloors a few years ago but it needs flooring. And possibly drywall --- not sure, someone put up awful paneling. We also need to move the water heater out of the kitchen. New Lighting ( I can do that).

The good thing is the kitchen is pretty small. Only about 12x9. I'm thinking about $20k.
 
This happens in my day job too. They bring in some big technology product that's supposed to be all things to all people and make our life easy. Then when we're a year deep into implementation everyone realizes man this stuff stinks. So we decided to go another direction that's supposedly better and end up with a bunch of servers running off in a corner that everyone forgets about. Then one day someone asks what these servers are for, we're like, oh we lost interest in doing that because it doesn't do what the vendor says that it does.

I have a lot of interest in my DIY projects, problem is my wife doesn't and it's hard to get time to do stuff in the garage because she takes it as a personal affront. Unless that "stuff" is cleaning the garage again.
Canned software is a beast. You gotta feed the beast. As in money. Big money for mediocre results.
I hate canned software. Did you know Elon Musk hated SAP so much he had a team author an in-house ERP project? I was involved early on as an advisor to the CIO.
 
I lost interest in projects when I realized that money will buy just about anything. Why spend time, sweat, money on one time use tools if I can just go to work and buy the complete working thing at the end of the day.
 
I start dozen of projects constantly both for my business and for fun . I unfortunately procrastinate finishing one project mostly from distraction of starting other projects and losing interest in prior projects . Eventually I get around to finishing all of them . But that eventually could amount to a couple years .
 
Sometimes, I do and it's usually due to hardships related to sourcing parts more than anything else. I usually step away and then spring back after a while, and end up sourcing what I needed.

That said, Trav has been a great inspiration for any car related project I've undertaken. To him, "impossible" is nothing more than motivation.
 
I only ever lost interest in one car project, and that was my Capri after I bought the M5. I had some very lofty goals for that project and it just never got completed. I should have just swapped in the whole dash and harness from my Mustang, it would have been running and that would have helped, but I didn't, so it wasn't, so it sat and I eventually parted it out.
 
In the winter of 2018 I started building a DIY slide-in truck camper. It’s sitting in the workshop about 1/3 done and taking up a lot of space. This is how it looks now:
 

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I turned 45 this year and my desire for projects has certainly slowed. Maybe the fact new cars look like the old ones, but have AC, comfy seats, and get over 20mpg’s.
I’m slowly losing interest in fixing up my YJ, but I know $ is the first reason. Second is i just don’t want to….I’d rather just drive.
My twin boys are older than you at 48, me 74 and about to take on a 2008 CHRYSLER Town and Country but just as a daily driver
 
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