From a geological perspective this project has been really fast

in ,

Things that take less time than our 10+ week home renovation project.

  • Tidewater Community College's Summer Session (5/19-7/29/2008)
  • My parents' engagement (10/31-11/26/1967)
  • Growing a new fingernail
  • Sailing around the world (~50 days at fastest pace)
  • Growing tomatoes from seedling to fruit 
  • The Neapolitan War (3/15-5/20/1815)
  • Typical American maternity leave
  • The Summer 2008 Olympic Games (8/6-8/24/2008)
  • The D-Day battles of World War II (6/6-8/25/1944)
  • The 2008 Tour de France (7/5-7/27/2008)

No, they're still not done.  I e-mailed the contractor a three page "punch list" of items left to be done on Sunday night.  He claims they will be done on Thursday but we don't believe him (they did absolutely no work on Monday).  We signed the paperwork (and paid our 30% deposit) on the evening of May 27, 2008 and the contract was supposed to be completed by July 25, 2008.

There were many things I thought I wouldn't be doing until after the house was finished.  First it was ALA (June 28), then BlogHer (July 18-19), then the conference I'm attending in New York this week.  Every time I've gone for a hair cut, doctor's appointment or to get my nails done I've thought, "the next time I'm here we'll be in the new house."  My hair is getting embarrassingly multi-colored, partially because I hoped I could report that our house is done for those two hours Joseph is coloring and cutting my coif.  

I try to not script things in my life.  I don't want to paint a picture of what my August or September will be like, because if for some reason it's not like that I'll be disappointed. My father has quipped several times that "Rome wasn't built in a day" in an attempt to be positive about this huge project we've taken on. And I admit in my research for the list above, I found a few things that took quite a while to finish. Michelangelo's statue of David took three years to complete. It takes five to seven months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail (which only about 25% of those who attempt finish). And Rich and my relationship has blossomed over ten years to where we are now (he and his ex were guests at my wedding to Jeremy, ironically).

So perhaps instead of trying to guess where I will be in X number of days I should just be happy with where I am now.