Time Remaining: 8 days
It's the 48 hour countdown and we're camped out. Not to the baby, but to the house. I've asked SKGR to give me at least until next Saturday and she consented. Therefore, the baby won't arrive until after Saturday...
After coming back on Sunday and finding that progress had seriously faltered on Saturday and Sunday, the shit hit the fan, we went into overdrive and we're now on the site for the next two days making sure that everything gets done by Wednesday morning so that we can finally move in on Wednesday afternoon. If posting seems wierd, that's because it's all on the fly right now.
A big part of the problem has been scope creep on our part. We've wanted to add more onto the job as we've gone along. Skim coating was one thing we added. We'd never planned originally to skim both rooms.
Here you see the first skim coat of joint compount drying. It will be ready for the final coat tomorrow morning and then paint by day's end.
Track lighting going up in the kitchen! Our kitchen has never had good light. This is going to be a huge change.
We bought the track lighting on the Bowery for small change.
Our Robern cabinet that should have been installed last week! This deluxe but super simple guy is a result of not being able to find ANYTHING nearly like our old cheap version from. This one will carry all the storage in our bathroom.
It's a Robern M Series.
Our shiny vanity lights are fairly simple. We've never had vanity lights before, but we prefer them to a big thing over the top of the cabinet.
These are Motiv Sine Lights
"A big part of the problem has been scope creep on our part."
This is the biggest danger in decorating/constuction of any size, from repainting the closet to engineering Hoover Dam. It has nothing to do with knowing how to do the design or the engineering -- ultra-accurate scoping is a whole different mindset of documenting assumptions and expectations.
The weekend lull was part of my calculations of your being done in two weeks, so I think you're actually ahead of my projections.
I'm surprised by the lack of comments on this post. I do think that SK deserves sainthood!
Matilda, I think we're all just past the point of commenting. Kinda like arguing with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
What can one really say? Maxwell's project management style is how most people handle projects, including professional engineers. (I know how to scope precisely because I had to hold the whip over engineers when we were writing proposals.) The kitchen will be done when it's done. The baby will come when the baby comes. Both will be beautiful.
What Wende said..besides, now your family can look forward to wonderful holidays this year! Best wishes to SK!
Kudos on finding a plasterer who fits in your space. If he were any taller, he'd scape his head on the ceiling.
ah, poor maxwell and skgr. you've fallen prey to the very thing ALL renovators do ... the ''while you're at it ...'' my sympathies. i predict the baby will come, all will not be finished, but this too shall pass. peace.
Could someone elaborate on "scope creep"? From the context of the post, does that mean that you're adding things to the project as you go along thus making the scope of the project bigger than planned? I've never done a reno so I'm a little new to the lingo.
Maria -- Yup, that's "scope creep." There are two forms.
Form 1 (Emergency Form): "Omigawd, the floor joists are rotting! We'll have to fix that if we don't want the building to collapse."
Form 2 (Discretionary Form): "What the heck, let's skimcoat the walls while we're at it! It'll look great!"
Both drive up cost and extend the schedule. This is why people will tell you to take your original estimates and double them.
Thanks for your very helpful post, Wende!
maria