One Step Forward, Ten Back

Like I wasn't feeling down enough about the whole project and its lack of forward movement yesterday, I received an email from Tall Drink of Water -- it's unfortunately been a long time since I mentioned his name, so I'll remind readers that he's the contractor who's going to remove our perpendicular load-bearing walls and make our open-concept dreams come true.

Turns out he may be making dream come true, but they sure as Hades won't be ours -- at least any time soon. At first I was all excited to see his email and my first official contract for services ... until I saw the dates of completion. Work to be conducted from May 1 - May 30???? Wasn't this the guy who told me on March 27th that he had one job in front of ours, which would be completed in three weeks? I had even built an extra week into my schedule, ensuring that his work would be done by the end of April.

I emailed him back immediately and asked for the sake of my marriage and bodily safety if he could make the completion date April 30th. He called about an hour later to discuss our "miscommunication." I don't mean to bad-mouth Tall Drink; he seemed to really feel bad about our misunderstanding and completely understood if we wanted to hire someone else. But gosh darn it, he comes highly recommended, has already been in talks with Mr. Swift, the humorless structural engineer and has a work plan submitted to us.

It then came to me at like a bolt of heat lightening on a sultry summer night -- in the words of Seinfeld, I have no hand. I have absolutely NO influence on, or power over, these contractors. I don't have 100s of general contracting jobs under my tool belt. I haven't earned the right to call in favors from my construction buddies. I'm just an honest homeowner trying to save some cash by it doing herself: the very bottom of the Contractor Totem Pole. And there's not a dang thing I can do about it. They know it. Now I know it. But it stinks, even worse than those uneaten Easter eggs rotting on the old kitchen counter.

So in the end, since his other job involves outside work, Tall Drink of Water and I agreed that the May completion date will stand, but we will be his back-up plan of choice on days of inclement weather. Oh, boy ...

What's one more month? We'll be moving into the house at the end of May, kitchen or no kitchen. Looks like it's going to be hot plate city for a while. Who would have thought three months wasn't enough time to get a kitchen renovated??