With any large project like this, you've got a good chance of reaching a breaking point. I reached mine today. The guy who came over to install the radiators over-stated his experience level and we were just chasing down leaks and it was driving me crazy. One leak wasn't really a leak, it was him forgetting to hook up a pipe. This flooded the upstairs room to the point the water was coming in to the hallway, and dripped down 2 floors. He didn't even apologize for this.
I had planned a bike ride with a friend of mine for the afternoon and it looked like I was going to have to cancel to chase down leaks with this guy. I nearly broke down. In over 30 days, this was the first thing that I planned to do for myself. Not for the house, but for me. And I was going to have to cancel it. Then I decided no. I have to get out of this house and this guy will have to come back tomorrow. I needed the break. I'd figure out a way to get this job done even if it needed to be done after the carpet was installed (not the preferred order, but it'll work).
So I went for a bike ride all the way in to center city Philadelphia. One of the great things about our house is that it's 3 blocks from the Schuylkill River trail - an awesome bike path. When we bought the house, I pictured Fanette and I taking time off from working on the house and making little rides now and then. With all the work, that just never happened. But a friend of ours who lives nearby likes to bike it a lot, so I told him the next time he goes riding to let me know. He's a pretty avid cyclist, and although I do have an Ironman finish under my belt, that was 11 years ago. I am not 29 years old anymore, but I forgot that. We went for 50 miles and the last 20 killed me. I came home, sat on the freebie couch and passed out, not doing any of the work I was supposed to do. I just couldn't move.
But it was good. It cleared my head a little bit. Spending 24 hours a day in this house and doing nothing but working on this house left things a bit stressed in my head. When the pipe leaked it didn't just mess up the floor, it felt like it messed up my life. My life had become getting this house finished. It's the only thing that stands between me and my wife who is living far, far away. I just want it finished (the house, not the wife). I've been very zen about things up until now. I work on projects knowing that they are going to have unexpected turns. I expect the unexpected and just keep plugging away. But now every time it looks like the end is in sight and a valve breaks and I know its going to be a half-day job to replace it, I curse the powers that be and just sulk.
It was good to go for the bike ride and good to write this all down. Both seem to be theraputic for me. And maybe this blog is not the right place for to write about it, but then again maybe it is. This blog was intended for us to be able to look back on, but also for others who might think about doing a rehab. Well, this is the part you don't see in the TV shows.
I still like doing this work, and still think we'll rehab another house and look forward to that. But given this particular situation and the deadlines, it's just not ideal at the moment.
For the record, we estimated 6 weeks for the actual rehab. We started work on Jan 2. That means its almost 10 weeks. Still within budget though. However, the plumbing we were told would be 4 days and it was nearly 4 weeks. We didn't really start any other work until that was done. Had that been on time, we'd be at about 7 weeks, so not far off the original plan. The big delay was the zoning. That set us back over 2 months. Had that gone ok, this whole thing would have been so much easier.
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