As one can probably tell from my infrequent posts of late, I’ve been preoccupied with none other than our never ending remodel saga. Frankly, I just want my life back. It’s been six months. It was supposed to take two. Yes, I was realistic enough to know that it would inevitably take longer. But not THIS much longer.
So here I am, living life without a master bedroom door for the 181st day. Five children. No master bedroom door. Think about that.
When I complain about our remodel experience, I feel a little guilty. I acknowledge that the inconveniences we’ve endured are truly first world problems.
Still, for the sake of journaling, I want to document some of the things I’ve come to appreciate more deeply in my current state of perceived deprivation.
- Privacy. This goes without saying. I miss being able to use the restroom without hearing our contractor call out my name. I want to do laundry without worrying about someone catching glimpses of our piles of underwear. I want to be able to leave my house without wondering if someone will start thumbing through drawers. I assume they want to be professional, but it simply gives me the creeps opening up my home to total strangers.
- Naps. Without a bedroom door, it’s safe to say that my regular power nap has pretty much gone out the window. Along with my even temper and my mental health. (And if I even hear you working parents mention how spoiled I was to get one in the first place, I just might clock you. See what I mean?) Those 20 minutes of shut-eye every few days may have saved my life on more than one occasion. Not to mention my kids’ lives.
- Temperature Control. When we came home at the end of July to a barely-framed addition with only recently-installed windows, the temperature in our house was 88 degrees. With the air conditioner running all day long. It’s now November, and, while redoing those same doors and windows that were not installed properly the first time, we have the opposite problem.
- Friends. It’s safe to say most friendships are not one-sided. So imagine how detrimental it might be to those friendships when you can’t invite them over. Ever. For six months. Because you live in a freaking construction zone. Our friends (and our kids’ friends) have been more than accommodating but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel slightly disconnected from our usual social circles.
As the saying goes, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. I can personally attest to an increased affection for things I previously took for granted. I have the remodel to thank for that. If nothing else.
Ugh. 6 months is a long time. I feel like you should be on one of those DIY network shows about bad contractors. There is no excuse for improperly installed windows/doors, especially when you are paying for a professional installation.
Did they remove the bedroom door for the flooring install or did the reconfigure your room that you getting a whole new bedroom door? If it’s the former, the hinges should be there and it should not be a big deal for them to rehang it (like 15 minutes). If you are getting a new door, make sure they ordered it and have it ready to be installed. It takes a couple of weeks for a new door to come in. In the case of our bathroom our door was supposed to be available in 2 weeks and Lowes took about 2 months!
The doors were reconfigured and placed in a new spot. They were the first items we ordered. In June. We finally got them just over a month ago but because the framing around the door was done poorly AND they were hung incorrectly, we had to hire a new contractor to right all the wrongs of the first one. Which leaves our master bedroom door as one of the last things to be completed. It’s been a nightmare. I can not believe how naive we were in taking this on.
That is a major bummer. Framing a doorway should be pretty basic contractor stuff, so the fact that they did it incorrectly speaks volumes about their level of incompetence. I hope your new contractor does good work. Fingers crossed that the saga ends soon.
We are pleased with our new contractor. We thoroughly vetted him, something we should have been wise enough to do the first time around. It’s painful to have to pay twice for the work to be done. It gets better though. We are getting calls from sub-contractors who have not been paid for work done MONTHS ago. It’s looking like we have a lawsuit on our hands, unfortunately.