Getting Stuff Done

Lynn had said that over the summer, she would get most of the work finished on the Office of Multiplicity, across the street from my house. For some reason, she filled her summer break from school with other activities and only got a few things done. When school started, I hoped she would still come on weekends to finish. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened, and when she stopped returning cell phone calls, emails, or calls to her school, it became obvious that she didn't need the cash any more and had lost interest in the project.

Luckily, the gentleman who rents The Blue House is a former house remodeler, and he's jumped into the void and is working on the project on weekends. He has finished the room that will actually be my office, complete with bamboo flooring, and now he's at work on the kitchen, which must be done before the rest of the flooring.

What we have discovered in the past few weeks is another clue in why Lynn quit. She had made a number of decisions during the course of the project that were about to become problems.

1. On the doorway between the kitchen and sun room, she installed the door jamb and panelling in the wrong order, leaving the facing off. Turns out that the facing cannot be installed now without leaving an obvious gap that would run from the top of the door to the floor. Also, when the door facing is installed, the oven door may not open, and we most likely can't pull out the range.

2. The electrician installed the boxes and plugs before the paneling, so Lynn *should have* loosened them and moved them to the front of the paneling. She didn't. So, if you try to put the face plates on the plugs and switches, the screws won't even reach, and the plugs and switches are recessed in the wall.

3. In the bathroom, the linen closet unit was built so short that the crown molding will not cover the gap between the top and the ceiling.

4. The pantry unit for the kitchen was built too tall, and we couldn't stand it up without ruining the ceiling. The solution for that was cutting an inch off the bottom of the unit.

We don't know what else will show up as we work our way through the rest of the project, but it is frustrating to have these problems reveal themselves after she stopped communicating and working. She let me down, and I think she let herself down. It appears she worked herself into a corner where she was going to have to admit she had made mistakes, and instead of dealing with it, she disappeared. It's sad.