Remodel, day 3,000, er, 42

This is the point where we've hit the hard part. A lot is happening, but it's the stuff that has a huge negative affect on everything around here. The plumbers, finally, have left. They were here for six freaking days, and on Friday it was unspeakably horrid and they didn't leave until after 6 because they were going to leave me without hot water since they plumbed the wrong lines (though my ass would have gotten a nice facial with the hot water going into the toilet tank). Brent has been just beside himself over it; he's never, on all his jobs, had plumbers take this long and screw it up so much (this is what happens when you leave the apprentice alone to plumb a challenging job). Brent insists it isn't that challenging, either, but it has left both him and me frazzled. I have to keep driving places so I can go pee, and they leave the bathroom a mess, but OTOH, I have a now functioning tub drain for the first time in decades and don't have to take a shower in ankle deep water. Brent's trying to figure out what to do about all the plaster they punched out around the old lines.

At least it passed inspection after the older guy was here fixing things today, but it was another day without water, toilet, etc., and then compounded when Brent told me I had to move more stuff out and change things around because he needed to move the protective wall out and into the hall. So my puny living space has become even punier, and the microwave cart had to go in the office, and I can barely turn around in the office anymore. The good part is that he's taking the hall wall out, which has annoyed me for forever because of the heinous patch job someone did, so I'll get a whole new sheetrocked wall, no lathe and plaster anymore. I had to box up all my CDs for the third time in less than a year, and move 1,800 discs and the cabinet out to the garage so he could push it all back while they patch up the ceiling.

It is so stupid, but all this has left me at the point where I have wibbly chin and am on the verge of crying (see picture of my "living" area and you'll see why). Between the jackass electrical guys, the week of plumbing, and now the dark cave of living room, it's just feeling like a bit much. Nothing compared to someone living in Burma or Darfur, so I keep trying to remind myself to snap out of it, but then after a few hours I get wibbly chin again. I spent the whole weekend trying to talk myself into finishing my post about Vividcon, but I never did, because I just felt so down. I guess this is like hitting the wall for remodelers.

( Windows and doors! )