Home Renovation or Teen Angst Movie?

Earlier this year we decided to take on some home improvement projects. When we bought the house, we knew that we wanted to change things but didn’t have the cushion in the bank account. So we saved until we had what we thought was a reasonable budget in hand. Working for an architect as I do, we thought we’d have an inside track on contractors and the process would be smooth.

Silly us. Silly, silly us.

Sure, I was able to get recommendations on some contractors from coworkers. But finding a contractor is kind of like dating. You talk to the contractors and hopefully find one who is interested in your project. Then you set up a meeting to take a look. If you don’t get stood up for that date and the contractor gives you a proposal to do the work then you get to wait around until there’s an opening in his schedule.

That whole process made me as anxious as a 14 year old trying to get the cute boy to notice me. Why won’t they call me back? We had a date on the calendar, why didn’t he show? Ok, he’s been over the house, when am I going to hear back from him? Oh, how long do I have to wait to see him again? See, not too different from dating.

The rational person would just cut their losses and move on to the next name on the list. But I’d rather wait for the right contractor to be available, the one I feel comfortable with who understands what I want the end product to be, than say yes to the first one who says he can start next week. To go back to the dating analogy, it’s trying to date the most popular person in school and then understanding that sometimes you have to decide to be alone for the right reasons than with someone for the wrong ones. (Quick, name that 80’s teen movie!)

This process started back in March. It’s September and I finally got the call last week to say that our job was next on the schedule. It took a while but I feel like I got the date with the cute boy at last. Now, what am I going to wear?