It was not my intention to go another month without writing something here, and I guess it has not been an entire month, but I am only a few days shy of it.
I do have a few topics in mind, so maybe I'll hopefully get those addressed in short order and be here more frequently.
I've always found summer to be an odd season. People will ask me, "How is your summer going?" I don't remember anyone asking me the same about winter, fall or spring. I guess it's because of the school calendar and since most all of us went to school at some point in time, many of us still think of summer as a time of having a break in the routine, or for travel.
That's beside the point, other than to tell you that just as Wife and I entered the summer season, we found ourselves still in the midst of a house project that we had expected to be done long before.
Late last year we decided that this year we would do a renovation of our master bathroom. Our house was built in the 80s and while our bathroom was a nice size, it had a wall separating one of the sink/vanity areas and the true bathroom -- the area with tub/shower, toilet and another sink. There was also a walk-in closet on the other side of the sink/vanity.
Our vision was to knock out both walls and open it all up. We would reconfigure a bit and have a walk-in shower only rather than a tub with a shower.
We were mostly able to do what we envisioned, but ended up keeping part of the closet, which was a good thing. It all ended up very nice and we are pleased but oh my, it sure took a long time. Demolition started in February and the finishing touches did not take place until about two weeks ago.
Since I am not handy like my blogger friend Ed who regularly impresses with pictures of his home improvement projects, this was a hired-out job. The folks who did the work were great, but there were a lot of moving parts (and different crews for demolition, tiling, plumbing, etc.) that caused it to take so long. In addition, two fixtures arrived broken and had to be returned and replaced, and the first toilet did not fit. All of that set us back.
I got kind of tired of it along about month four, and when Wife would ask me a question about something like a paint color, I would tell her it did not matter to me, that I had lost interest! That's not entirely true -- I was just frustrated. And I should have been more cooperative when she asked my opinion.
But today we are about there. I say "about" because the bathroom is fully functional, but we're still putting things back in place. I put up shelves in the closet over the weekend and Wife is in the midst of filling them with sheets, linens and miscellaneous items.
Over the 17 years we have lived in this house, we have had a number of such projects. The owners from whom we bought this house would scarcely recognize it today. It definitely has our signature.
When budgeting time and money for such a project, my policy has been to triple the original budget in my mind so I won't go crazy when we only double it (that's an exaggeration but you know what I mean), and to have no expectations about a completion date.
That's easy for me to say, but when the budget is exceeded and deadlines pass, I still become impatient. To be fair, we stayed mostly on budget this time, but I did become a bit antsy when it ended up taking so long.
But now it's done. I just took a lovely shower in there. It was worth the wait.
