(#10) Cabin Chronicles: 7 Things To Do When You Have Renovation Fatigue
Some days, this feels like the most magical thing we’ve ever done. Other days, it feels like we’re one inconvenience away from a breakdown.
Between our last update in January and this one, written in April, the progress has been slow. The bathroom that was supposed to be done in December, then again in January, is still a work in progress.
More delays, more problems to solve, more property management trips before our second rental season begins in May. Here’s what keeps us going even when we’re dead tired and deeply over it.
1. Count The Little Wins
The little wins are some of the best things to focus on for motivation to keep going… like a sweet message from a guest, a sink that no longer leaks, a microwave that finally works, a light fixture that turns on without flickering, or even an elk enjoying a drink from the water bucket you put out back.
It doesn’t have to be big, but if you can find progress somewhere, it helps.
One night, my brother sent me a photo of my nephew and their dog snuggled up peacefully on the couch. I replied with heart eyes, and he said, “It’s not always that peaceful, but the little wins keep you going.”
He was right. The little wins do keep you going—even when you’re tired, or nothing feels like it’s going according to plan.
One small step at a time, it all adds up!
2. Get Reminders From People Who Love You
I called my dad one night, needing to vent. I was halfway through my frustration of something not happening the way I’d hoped when he cut in: “Because they don’t care like you care.” Without missing a beat, he added, “Kel, I built my own business. And no one freaking cared!”
He said it with gusto and the kind of exasperation that comes from years of experience. I couldn’t help but laugh, feeling instantly seen. He wasn’t literally saying no one cared; he was saying he understood.
He knows the emotional challenge of building something that matters to you, and then handing parts of it off to others. Trusting it’ll get done, but trying to accept that it may not get done exactly how you would do it.
The conversation itself didn’t fix anything on the property, but it did make me feel less alone, and that matters, especially when you’re just trying to find the strength to tackle one more day or one more project.
3. Take Stock of the Quality of Your Problems
After a long string of little disasters and frustrating surprises, Jon looked at me and said, “Yes, but… Look at how the quality of our problems has progressed.”
Last year, our first-ever guests had no hot water and no working microwave. This year (spoiler alert!), our first guests of the season will see a few spiders. Next year, our guests might be asking whether we stock two-ply or three-ply toilet paper. (Kidding… sort of!)
It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come when the to-do list is endless, but if you stop for a second and look around? You can usually spot something that’s working, something you’ve fixed, or something you’ve figured out that was previously a problem on your to-do list.
Progress doesn’t always feel dramatic. Sometimes, it’s just less chaos than last year, and that counts.
4. Solve What’s Right in Front of You
Sometimes you make a plan, order the parts, and finally install air conditioning in your 1930s cabin! Then you realize one of the AC units doesn’t match the indoor head it’s supposed to connect to… and you undo all of the work you just did.
While we felt frustrated about our error, the contractor just shrugged and said, “I’ve been doing this for 17 years. It’s always something.”
He wasn’t saying this in a cynical way; he was saying even when you have experience doing something, mistakes happen, and unexpected things arise. There’s no need to beat yourself up over it.
For someone like me, who tries to think of every possible scenario in advance, it’s been humbling to realize: I can’t plan my way out of everything. Sometimes you just have to do what you can today, solve what’s in front of you, and trust that tomorrow, you’ll keep going and do what you can then, too.
5. Trust in Divine Timing, Magical Moments, and Godwinks
These are my favorites! One night during a recent property management trip, I woke up at 4 a.m. from a depressingly accurate nightmare. You know you’re in deep when your subconscious doesn’t even bother with symbolism, just a realistic to-do list and a vague sense of doom.
Half-asleep, I did what Amanda Frances calls making God a To-Do list. I grabbed my phone, opened my Notes app, and typed out the things that had been haunting me:
– The blinds
– The surveyor
– The AC
The next morning? The blinds we thought were stuck in customs got delivered. The surveyor, who hadn’t contacted us in a year, called out of the blue. The AC install began that day.
It sounds made up, but it wasn’t. It was one of those strange, but beautiful moments of divine timing and cosmic rearranging that reminds you: You’re not alone.
Earlier that same week, we landed in Bozeman after a delayed flight and an hour wait at the rental car counter. Apparently, the Bozeman airport was undergoing major renovations, shutting down every weekday from 3 to 11 p.m., so when we landed, everyone else did too.
When we finally got the keys to our rental car, we were handed an upgraded truck. Thirty seconds later, we got a call that our new couch was ready for pickup at a warehouse twelve minutes away. We drove over, loaded it up using our surprise truck upgrade, and hit the road to Gardiner. It saved us a delivery fee and spared us the uncertainty of a delivery window.
Something that keeps us going is putting a lot of faith behind the moments that make us pause and say, “Wow… that worked out well.”
6. Let People Help (Even When It’s Hard)
Midway through our first rental season, our cleaning team had to step away unexpectedly. If you’re not as familiar with short-term rentals, the turnovers are arguably the most important part of your business and the only part you can’t handle remotely.
We had just three days before our next turnover, which is when one guest checks out and another checks in. We were in Texas, while our cabins are in a small, remote town in Montana, 90 minutes from the nearest big city.
It was a scramble. We asked for help, called in favors, reached out to everyone we knew, and within a few days, someone we knew connected us to someone they knew and… it all worked out.
I don’t love handing things off; I prefer to do them myself so they get done the way I want. However, I’m learning that support is non-negotiable, and there are many people who can do things better than I can. Sometimes the best thing you can do is let go enough to let them.
While emotional pep talks are great, so is someone physically taking something off your plate when you’re overwhelmed. Even if you have to ask. Even if you have to pay. Even if it feels uncomfortable. Support can keep you going.
7. Be Like Dory and Just Keep Swimming
Sometimes what keeps us going is a motivational speech from a loved one or a guest leaving a handwritten thank-you note on the counter.
Other times, it’s the way the porch catches golden hour just right, and for a second, we can see the future version of what we’re building—finished and lived in. We can picture guests sitting under the twinkle of string lights on a warm summer night, swapping stories over a shared meal about their day in Yellowstone, before retiring to separate cabins in this mini village we’ve created for moments just like this.
At first, the vision was what kept us going. Slowly but surely, it’s becoming the realization of the vision and the confirmation that others are starting to see it too.
It’s spending hours getting a wall mural just right, only to step back and see—this is the showstopper you imagined. It’s picking a siding color after weeks of indecision and realizing it’s perfect after you see it glow in the afternoon light.
It’s climbing up to the rooftop deck for the first time and realizing you can see into the park and that one day soon, we’ll see wolves from right here—just us, a scope, and a pack moving across the hills.
It’s coming back to the property trip after trip, always with a long to-do list waiting… and each time, feeling a little bit more at home.
That’s one of the things that keeps us going now: the hard work becoming felt by us, and by the people we built it for.
A Letter to the Person Wondering If It’s Worth It
One of the reasons this off-season feels so challenging is that we’re tired of making decisions about, well, everything. Tired of every conversation revolving around the property, every weekend consumed by problem-solving, every "quick trip" to the hardware store turning into a marathon.
It’s easy to miss the days when weekends meant freedom. When we woke up on Saturday mornings without to-do lists already running through our heads. When we could grab brunch without hauling an old mattress to the dump along the way, and our biggest decision was which hiking trail to take, not which brand of grout sealer to buy.
Weekends, especially during Travel Season, used to mean a break, and now they mean lists, errands, and things to get done. They mean making a dozen decisions about things you never imagined you’d care about… light switch placements, the exact shade of white for the trim… knowing no one will ever see this part of the work, but it has to be done.
As we build the Cozy Yellowstone Compound, we’re collecting splinters and paint samples instead of souvenirs and photo albums, and we have to work harder to remember what we’re doing it for: to make a place where other people will make memories with loved ones because we showed up for the work.
In the process, we’re making memories too. They just look different. We’re making the kind of memories that age well, the ones you grow more proud of with time.
When you chase a dream, some days you make beautiful progress. Other days, you haul trash and fix leaks and wonder if you made a terrible mistake. Right now, we're deep in both kinds of days, but we’re still showing up, still holding onto the vision, even when we have to squint through the mess to see it.
If you’re working toward a dream and ever wonder if it’s worth it, you’re not alone.
After one especially trying week, I told Jon—repeatedly—that I just wasn’t sure the juice was worth the squeeze on this one. I wasn’t convinced we’d made the right call with any of it. We were stretched too thin. Second-guessing everything.
Once we got home from that property management trip, I turned on Netflix to decompress and scrolled to the show I’d been watching for weeks. The title of the next episode? “The Juice Is Worth the Squeeze.”
I stared in disbelief and laughed out loud, grateful for the not-so-subtle Godwink I desperately needed. It’s one I’m passing along in case you need it too: Keep going. The juice is worth the squeeze.
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