Finish Your UFO's Challenge #10: Team Challenge

This week I am continuing with my Finish Your Unfinished Objects Challenge.  And working with the Anniversary theme, the 10th anniversary, this week's extra entry theme is tin/aluminum.  So work on a UFO that involves metal for an extra entry. 
Since the beginning of 2016 I have volunteered as an assistant basketball coach for my son's basketball league.  While this volunteer job was outside my comfort zone as I know little about basketball, it was important to me because it was important to my son.  The league was short coaches and I believed in volunteering and I believed in the importance of sports for my boys.  So in honor of March Madness, I thought I might share a few lessons learned in basketball to help you finish your UFO's.  One of the important lessons our children get from sports is how to be a valuable part of a team.   Sometimes, our UFO's become unfinished objects because they are team projects and our fellow team mates are unable or unwilling to finish the project on our time table.  So, if you have a UFO that involves more than yourself to finish the project, try the great tips on finishing an unfinished object inspired by March Madness and basketball.
How to Finish a Team Project

1)  Be Prepared-Most of us know what our final goal is for our projects but may not be prepared.  As an example of a team project in may own life, my husband and I have been working on remodeling our kitchen since October of 2015.  We replaced our counter top first.  Our original counter top was laminate and we chose granite to replace it.  We had decided to keep our cabinets, as we love the quality and design and weren't interested in refinishing them.  But once the counters were in we struggled to chose a tile back splash.  To be prepared for pick our back splash, I ordered samples, shopped for samples,  and searched the Internet for photos of tiles in kitchens with similar counter tops and cabinets.  We consulted friends and family.  We took photos of our kitchen and the tile and copied and pasted the small samples into our photos to help us decide.  Below is an example of one of our cut and paste photos made with photos of the kitchen and sample tiles.  Not sure why the hubby took a photo with dirty dishes on the counter!

2)  Learn the fundamentals-Research design principles and current trends to help you decide.  Save photos of things you like that will work with your
3)  If the Plays Aren't Working Readjust the Game-Remodeling the kitchen has been on our to do list for a while, but it simply wasn't in our budget as a one time expense.  So, when our appliance began to fail with age, we began to replace them.  Below you can see a mocked up photo of a tile we tried and determined wasn't working.

4)  Be a Team Player, Be Unselfish-My husband and I tend to have very divergent tastes and this is has led to much inactivity in our decorating and remodeling.  I stayed home for 10 years when my boys were small and remodeling the kitchen was not a priority.  Now that I am working again we discussed adding this back on our to do list.  As a fashion design student, I worked in the same department with many of the interior design students and saw the value of a design board.  My husband struggled to see a finished room from small swatches and wanted to make one decision at a time.  So, I have worked on one small goal for the kitchen project every few months and we are close to the finish!  At the top of this post you can see one of our small steps, the cabinet and drawer pulls.  On the left is the before (brass and white) and on the right is the after (nickel).
5)  Never Give Up-When we were unable to make decisions, I took a small break from trying to design our kitchen by ourselves and then asked my husband about getting help from a designer.  We have met with a designer and seen samples of his suggestions in our kitchen.  We've made a selection that is timeless and works!  Now to place an order and schedule an install!