Project mishaps...

Steve was out of town earlier this week. I anxiously waited for the garage door to shut so I could run up to Hallie's room and start a few small projects in preparation for a larger project next week.

I'm sure I'm not alone, but my projects never go as planned. I always meticulously plan everything out, time, materials and money in hopes of a smooth process. It never works that way. Instead, I misjudge how much wood I need which means more time and another trip to the Depot. It's a measurement that I took twice and still managed to screw it up. Which results in wasted materials, more time, more money. This happens with every project!

After I trimmed out Hallie's windows, I decided I would quickly trim out the closet as well. (Many Arizona homes don't have moulding around windows and even closets...it's weird.) As I removed the baseboards in preparation to install the trim,I realize the carpet was installed really close to the old moulding and I need a little breathing room to install the new trim. I slowly start cutting the carpet away. My extensive efforts yielded very little progress. I moved to another section hoping I would find my groove and quickly finish. No luck. Something wasn't right. I pulled out just a few of my Sherlock Holmes skills to investigate why I was struggling so much. It didn't take me long! Verdict: Previous owners were more than lazy on several home projects, this was no different. They had created an extra bathroom upstairs utilizing Hallie's old closet. Which meant they created a new closet for that room. They slapped up a subpar framing job (I'm surprised the closet is still standing!) and put the walls to that new closet directly over the existing flooring. At the time it probably seemed like a minor inconvenience for the labor that was saved. But let me tell you how difficult it was to cut away the old carpet. 1987 mauve carpet is difficult to cut through, trust me. It has strength like you can't imagine. Two hours I spent carving away at the carpet. Two hours. I grew more and more annoyed with each pass of the knife. Sadly enough I only had to cut through a couple feet of flooring, and I'm still not finished. As far as my projected timeline went, I should've completed trimming the closet and door as well as all the caulking and putty for the nail holes. But it didn't work like that. Instead I spent way too much time trying to solve a ridiculous problem that should've been avoided years ago.

I'm just reminded that every project has its surprises. Now I'm just trying to figure out how I can get back on schedule so I'm ready for a new project on Monday!