Five years ago, I embarked on a remodeling plan. It took effort. It took concentration. It took determination. And most of  all, it took sweat.

I sculpted. I trimmed. I toned. I selected a new veneer to put on the finished product.

The journey was awesome. And I had so much fun doing it. Watching with ultimate satisfaction the almost daily changes as they gradually occurred with regular frequency over a period of exciting months.

But enough about me.

Now I’m remodeling the guest bath. And the difference in the experience is astronomical.

There is sweat, but it’s mostly the result of a blood pressure spike every time they show up late for a day’s work. Or worse, fail to show up at all. Without a word.

I asked the demolition/rebuilder man to let me know when he was coming over and to not just appear at my door. He said OK. The next morning he called me from my own driveway. I had to laugh. Maybe I should have told him to call me from his driveway, you know, before heading over to my house.

The project is going at a sloth’s pace. It was supposed to be a one-week job, Boss Lady said. She did my kitchen nine years ago. Beautiful. Looks like the day it was finished. So, I entrusted my bathroom to her.

Our house is old with its own little quirks. There’s always surprises when we start digging around, so I cleared two weeks on my calendar. When we entered the third week my patience began to run thin. In two days, it will be a month since the job began. We’re halfway there. Only ten more things to do!

Boss Lady called me yesterday, told me she’d misunderstood. He was on vacation this week. Not next week, as she’d told me when promising it would be done this week. Her promises now have echoes.

We threw in the towel and called in reinforcements. Tomorrow an electrician and a plumber come. I will have a working sink once again. Even that turned into a mission when she made the vanity beautifully wrong for the vanity top I had. 

Right now I wish I was with my Costa Rica roving,
tree climbing, travel-writing daughter.
She looks so carefree.

Sigh.

But I won’t lie.

What has been done is gorgeous.