Earlier today, I was tired and depressed. Tired from having to live outside of my own home, worn down by the complete breakdown in schedule and regularity, and worry that things aren’t exactly going according to … well, not so much plan as “expectation”. And I’ll freely admit that my expectation is (was, and remains) out-of-whack.
Budget’s the big thing. I know it’s gone WAY past what I expected (see above note), but I also understand and respect that we’ve pushed it that way for a hundred reasons — none of which I disagree with, or don’t look forward to. Just that it’s more weight than I wish to carry. But, in the grand scheme of things, it’s something I know I’ll move past before too long.
The other issue is schedule. Now, for the record, I’m in no way suggesting that this reno is moving slowly. Given that it hasn’t even been two weeks yet, this reno’s clocked at a rate that seems almost unimaginable (especially when envisioned from the perspective of doing it myself). Walls removed, floors pulled, wiring ran, plumbing … plumbed, patches made, surfaces smoothed, structure reinforced, and so on and so on and so on. It’s almost inhumanely fast.
And, yet, I worry when I see nothing (effectively) happening for a day. Yesterday (Friday), I stopped by the house on my way to … um … well, not “home”, but where my temporary lodging happens to reside … and I became worried because I could not visually see any progress since the previous day.
I bit my tongue, and said nothing. I need to trust the guy who’s doing the work. (I mean, really, it’s the same as if I was building a website. I don’t get clients questioning my abilities — though I’m prepared if they care to.) Just that after so much in so little time, I really had to wonder.
Anyway, today was another bout of movement. Our contractor stopped by to make sure we’re clear on the size of the tiled space near the front door when you walk in. He picked me up, drove me over, and we did the numbers. Upon arrival, two other guys were already there, mudding the ceiling in prep for the knock-down spraying. Then two MORE guys showed up (one left almost immediately; he was only bringing over a tool) to deal with some more patches, and was also directed to deal with the messed-up main bathroom vanity installation we’d noticed a few days ago (the vanity’s been pulled out, and someone’s going to move the plumbing around).
The schedule, such as it is, has us in the borrowed house until next Saturday morning, after which we’ll be utterly, totally back into our own house. This is important because the contractor has this house rented out for TOMORROW, and he’s being exceedingly generous by letting us stay, and giving the renter a two-week break on rent. I’m certainly not going to argue about that.
This is a minor change in the schedule, but it works in our favour: the ceiling is supposed to be in on Thursday, the floors arrive Wednesday and should be done by Friday, the lights in sometime during the week (I only overheard part of that conversation), with the rest of the changes taking place as quickly as possible. The countertops are the only question, and it might not be for another couple of weeks. A sheet of plywood will solve that problem in the short-term, however.
There is the matter of cleaning, however, and we’ve got a fair bit of it. Despite best attempts, dust has settled on just about every single surface around the house, in every single room, upstairs and down. Not what we’d expected by a long shot. Given the changes we’ve made, though, not entirely surprising, either. Such is life, I guess.
If nothing else, the change in schedule will also let us deal with the moving aspects, notably cleaning (our house and this house), as well as packing and moving (which, hopefully, won’t be too big an issue).
I hate moving.
