Are We There YET?

This final push of building is the fundamental top of the mountain pass, with an hour left on the road trip; you have to pee, kids are restless, the in-car movie is over and someone spilled their chips all over the ground….

With today’s new normal & repeating phrases of “limited inventory” “delayed deliveries” & “short-handed staffing” and I a micro manager and over scheduler, assumed I was being helpful by ordering cabinets, plumbing, furniture etc far in advance so that there would be no waiting once we got to this phase.  With an original timeline of an August completion date, It seemed organized in doing such, however I am now staring at my cabinets and the trim stacked neatly in the garage (also in everyone’s way) and our furniture pieces showing up in daily delivery truckloads…and the words un-voluntarily emerge, “ARE WE THERE YET”

We have all experienced the family road trip, kids in the back and you hear “are we there yet” and as a parent the words are drilled into your subconscious like the repetative skipping of your favorite ’90’s cd.  With pressure rising, you grimace and respond “no sweet darling little munchkins of mine we are not there yet.” Only followed by the “how much longer until we get there” with your only suitable, parental response being “we will get there when we are there” Or “what TIME will we be there” calmly answering through gritted teeth “ when the clock says 4:00 we will be there”  until finally one of you snaps off with a “I will Turn. This. Car. Around.”

You are likely thinking it is our children driving us insane with the pesky question of “are we there yet” or maybe it’s my parents (aka our landlords) quoting “how much longer until we get there” or possibly our friends with a “what time will we be there” but no it is ME!  And poor Zach is the driver of the old family truck-ster telling me, he is about to Turn. This. Car. Around.

So if you see Zach around town… buy him a beer, pat him on the back remind him the vacation is always worth the road trip because these next few weeks are all his specialties, cabinet install, finish carpentry & tile and I am in his ear whispering like the skipping of a cd, “Zach, are we there yet?”

What’s Next?

Sheetrock took about 2 weeks longer than planned due to our sheetrock mudder coming down with COVID.  We are back on track and we will get the interior painted next week, followed immediately by Zach moving in for the finishing touches, installing cabinets, base,  closets & tile. We plan to have countertops templated middle of the month and installed beginning of next.

Somewhere in this whole mix, the exterior will start to look like a yard rather than a pile of dust, dirt and scraps from the previous contractors. We have 2 very good friends in the landscape field one with a landscape architect degree and another with the best install team in town and I cannot wait to see the outside begin to take shape.

Shout Out:

This month’s shout out goes to Zach…. We just had our 14^th wedding anniversary and my gift to him was to NOT talk about the house or ask any questions of said house, for the whole 24 hours…. I will preface by saying the first hour of our 24 hour date was VERY quiet… we sat just the two of us in one of our favorite settings, (a local dive bar) sipping salty dogs and eating wings for a late lunch and I couldn’t come up with a damn thing to talk about ( he I am sure was smirking and enjoying the silence ).  After a few cocktails and competitive rounds of cribbage we remembered all of the other things we like to discuss when our lives, our thoughts, our dreams are not all consumed by the approaching moving day!

 I know we aren’t there yet and I know you want to turn this car around.  Thank you for keeping your cool and reminding me the destination is always worth it and just around the next corner. This road trip will end and we will double cannon ball in to the pool as soon as we GET THERE!