A Different Point of View

The "foreman" inspecting the frame work

For me, the remodel has been exciting and interesting and fun to watch. I leave for work in the morning, and when I come home I see the results of the day. So far I've been able to look at the big picture, seeing each day's progress as it happens without getting my hands dirty, so to speak. But for Darryl, this project has been quite a different experience.

For Darryl, it's all about time wasted, work done and then re-done, mistakes made and frustrations. Since he's home during the day, he gets to see minute by minute the entire process. He's such a hands-on type of person, I know it's driving him crazy to have to stand by and watch while someone else does the work. He has tried to stay indoors and write, but the lure of the hammering draws him outside throughout the day.

He has seen time wasted as the plans were drawn, taken to LADBS, sent back for revisions, redrawn, resubmitted, sent back again, and redrawn another time. This past week he has seen time wasted as the supervisor from DWP (who a mere three months ago came out to the house and assured Darryl that the power box could be moved) told Darryl to his face that he had never been out to this house, that he had never mentioned anything about moving the power and that he didn't think it could be done. Fortunately, the man must have a split personality disorder, because his next sentence was all about how the DWP could move the box (for a fee) and how he'd send someone out later this week. Of course, it's now Friday evening and no one came out. I wonder how much later he meant.

The frustration of mistakes has surrounded the seemingly never-ending saga of the plumbing. The irony is that the plumbing for the new part of the house is perfect and if we had just stopped there things would be just fine. But we decided to redo the entire waste drain circuit and that's where we ran into problems. I have lost count of how many times the plumbers have been out to fix things, but Darryl could tell you in great detail about every visit - including the visit from the owner of the company assuring Darryl that he'd send his master plumber out to fix it once and for all. Still waiting for that to happen. Darryl says the worst part was when the owner told him that the original plumber had been fired from the company for his shoddy work. Darryl felt pretty awful, but the company owner told him that it's not his problem and he should put it out of his head. As for sending out the number one guy, we did have someone come out to try to fix the mistakes, but he made it so the pipe was level instead of sloped. The way Darryl found that out was by crawling under the house and inspecting his work. Sure, he's a stickler for detail; but the fact that he's willing to shove himself into the crawlspace and get covered with dirt has been a blessing in this process.

So we're still waiting for that to get resolved. Meanwhile, Darryl spends his days worrying about all the minute details that go into a home remodel project, while I get to come home and take photos. Pretty sweet deal, huh?