Extended periods of inaction. Hurry up and wait. Spurts of action. Missed connections and then 4 hours in the Frankfurt airport. Quick decision-making that make all the difference. Captured opportunities. One missed detail and painful delays.
I've seen it all in the past month. I suppose we ultimately wind up in the place we're supposed to be--even if it looks a little bit different than initially intended--but it's hard to keep centered amidst the whirlwind, isn't it?
After several months of delays, it took the new plumber 1 week to get the trench filled back up again. The trench turned into a canyon--you know your remodel is taking too long when the forces of erosion begin taking place in your home--but this plumber clearly knew what he was doing.
Trench:
It wasn't without drama however as we failed the inspection (again!). Turns out the temporary plug put in place to test the new pipes is a pressurized ball. The plumber set it all up in the morning, but 4 hours later when the inspector arrived, the air had leaked out of the ball, the plug was gone and the pipes didn't hold water. Four hours of leakage=failed inspection=another weekend with a trench. That was probably the hardest weekend thus far. To be so close, to set all the right things in motion, to have the sense of momentum only to have it stalled.
Monday morning bright and early, the plumber was back again. The inspector showed promptly and gave us the thumbs up. With the inspection passed and the trench filled in, it was quick work for the cabinets to get fully installed. And what beauts they are:
It was quick work then to move onto the painting. Found a great crew who have full time jobs and have spent their evenings and weekends busting their tails on a great paint job. These guys are really great and demonstrate just how lucky I am to spend my evenings lolling about watching Glee and 30 Rock. Double-time work for these guys=happy times for me.
Then we move into a rather dark place. The trip to Florence with the girls, in the planning for 5 months, strategically scheduled for dates when "surely we'll be done by then..." only to have them fall smack dab in the middle of the remodel. In a sign that I am doing too much, squeezing too many activities into too short of a time--I never actually received confirmation that the tickets I THOUGHT were booked went through. Turns out, when I was booking them at Expedia (1st time...and last with Expedia) they didn't actually confirm them. Pushed the reservation request through to American Airlines, but then never followed up to say the tickets didn't actually get issued.
In the whirlwind of my life, I never connected the dots until 2 days before the trip. God bless my lovely girlfriends who would not let my missed confirmation stop this trip and by sheer force of will got me on another flight. So...12 hours after I was supposed to leave (and double the original ticket price) I hit the skies for a wonderful time in Florence. (TransAtlantic flights will definitely force some serious time introspection. Not to mention the missed connection in Frankfurt and 4 hours of attempted napping in the main terminal amidst many German people). Truly inspiring time and a blast. Puts my 5 month remodel into perspective--hundreds of years of the dark ages followed by another hundred years of the Renaissance to produce such moving works of art. Perhaps my remodel is just not so bad (although those cabinets really are a work of art...)
So now I am back to a whirlwind of activity, albeit severely jet-lagged (and my suitcase finally made it, just 48 hours after I made it back home). The counter tops are in in part of the kitchen. Backsplash tile up. Floors going in on Friday. Carpet next week. We've even got a POD to make the flooring process a bit smoother.
We've hit a bit of a snag with my recycled glass countertops--the one-of-a-kind piece that I just can't live without. The guy making them--while a gifted artisan--is a complete flake. More on that next post--I need a little time to process that one effectively.
So now we've been so bold as to set a move-in date. Or rather a move-out date on the apartment. We've got to vacate by October 31. I am feeling tremendous trepidation on setting something in stone. I've spend so many months steeling myself to shifting deadlines, adjusted expectations and fluid timelines that a hard and firm date is causing a good bit of anxiety. But, I suppose, I'll eventually get to my destination. Here's hoping. I mean if USAir can get my luggage back to my door, surely I can find my way home too. Right?
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