Moving the Finish Line...

Mate is working so hard--but laminate floors! Oh my God!

I couldn't figure out what was wrong--he'd done the living room and hallway a dog's age ago, and I remember him talking about how quick and painless it was. "Just snaps together! So easy! I should do the whole house!"

Of course that was fifteen years ago and the second to last home improvement project we ever tried. (What happened you ask? Six letters, start's with an S. Ends with an R. Give you three guesses...)

So, as I was listening to him swear, I started trying to troubleshoot all of the things that could be different. Was it age and condition? I mean I'M certainly fatter and less wieldy, but he seems relatively fit for a man in his early fifties--was that it?

Has the floor warped more?

Yes.

Well, what's going wrong?

When I pop one part in, the other part pops out.

Did this happen last time?

No. Not even a little.

So I think harder: Was the laminate a different brand?

Yes.

Wait a minute. Was the laminate a CHEAPER brand?

Uhm, yes?

How MUCH cheaper?

About two bucks per square foot.

We looked at each other when he revealed this, and he screwed his face up in disbelieve.

Ah.

Ah indeed.

Anyway-- it's taken him longer than we thought. Today he took THE ENTIRE DAY off  from work to get it done. Now I know for some people work from home is sort of an iffy proposition.  For me it's not. I have deadlines, both self-imposed and external, and promises I try to keep. For example, I've been doing a weekly reading on my FB page. I had to bail from that tonight and postpone it for tomorrow because, well, there was lots of banging in the background. Lots of non-naked, non-romantic banging--and he was on a roll and it would have been unfair to prioritize MY work when he'd just backed off from prioritizing HIS. And when he's "at work" he is equally AT WORK. He has meetings--three or so a day--and productivity goals. He's gotten extra equipment from work--he's working with like five computers. Our kitchen table looks like a combination of Sam the Grocer's and Mission Impossible.

But like I said--today he put that ALL on hold, and he's not quite finished with her room yet.

But he's close. SO CLOSE. He moved the bed headboard in tonight, and will move the rest of the bed and the shelves in tomorrow. And then? It's all Squish and ZoomBoy moving her stuff into HER room.

And I feel a little guilty, because it's a long time coming.

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with her. My first thought wasn't "How can we afford another baby?" it was "Where will we PUT another baby?"

Well, we put her in the same room with her brother--and there she's stayed. There were different reasons--we thought she'd need a new bed (because we thought her older sister would take that bed back) and then we thought we'd make it a game room and then it was just full of ALL THIS STUFF. But between the one thing and another, she had yet to have her own room, and she's 14 now and NEEDS HER OWN ROOM.

So, we can finally fit our dessert baby. I think she'll be the happiest child in the world when she moves in.

Tomorrow. But damn, we're close.