More than Expected

I have noticed lately that I seem to underestimate how long projects will take. When we had the garbage disposal installed, I really didn't think the plumber would take a full day to complete that project, and I didn't expect it to be nearly as expensive as it was. When our home was inspected in early July 2008, the inspector said the faucet needed to be tightened. I didn't realize fixing it would involve tearing a hole in the wall in our bathroom to get access to the tub in the kids' bathroom. If I could go back in time, I would have asked the previous owner's to have that fixed as one of the conditions of our contract to buy the home. If we move in 2012, I hope I can remember this lesson. I've been trying for months to get a different plumber (since the first one we used was SO expensive) to come and install the new faucet. I had hoped he'd come before Thanksgiving as my parents have a really hard time operating it to take a shower when they spend the night at our place. He finally called last night and is supposed to come tomorrow. I'm also hoping he'll replace a leaky valve on our water heater in the basement.

Another example of my underestimating would be last week when I asked Paul to fix a picture frame that kept falling down in the bathroom. We were just hanging it on the edge of the frame. The little hook hadn't been afixed to the back of the frame. I thought it would be a 5 minute project, but Paul accidently dropped the frame, and the glass broke. It took at least 5 minutes to clean up the glass. I went to Walmart the next day and bought another frame on the way to gymnastics class. Then it turned out that the frame I bought had two hooks (not one in the center like the other frame did) so Paul had to put two new holes in the wall.

One last example would be the Christmas lights. We own MANY Christmas lights. I used to use white lights. Paul prefers colored lights so we have some of both. We also have used a variety of different kinds of lights outside - some that are like a netting that go over a large shrub, regular lights, icicle lights, etc. The last two years we didn't put up any lights outside our house due to life being too hectic with a new baby, having recently moved, etc. This year I wanted us to put up at least a few lights. I had hoped we'd put them up the weekend after Thanksgiving and then set the new goal as having them up before Ian's birthday party. When Paul went to put them up on Friday, he couldn't locate the proper extension cord. So he spent 30 minutes and about $10 running to the hardware store to buy some. Saturday morning he started hanging them and discovered we didn't have enough icicle lights to do the whole front of the house. My parents had previously offered to give us some icicle lights that they don't use any more; they could have brought them up on Saturday if we had known we needed more. Paul's brother picked some up for us and brought them to Ian's party. So thus far the project has now cost us $22 (I didn't think we'd need to spend a dime since we have seemingly 5 million Christmas lights stored in our basement), and it's not completed yet. To be honest, I think the lights look fine (they're only on the porch). I really wasn't trying to turn this into a time consuming or costly endeavor.

Maybe some day I'll get better at estimating how long a project will take. Maybe I should just multiply my estimate by 2 or 3 or some other number. One thing I probably underestimate is how much time I spend working on this blog - particularly picking which photos to post. I'll find out next week when I'm without my laptop exactly how much time I spend! Two things on my to do list that I want to tackle in the not so distant future include getting life insurance for Paul & I and getting our carpets shampooed (once Ian's reflux seems to be a thing of the past). One project I want to complete this week is mailing our Christmas cards. Can you tell by the pictures in this post that we took a LOT of pictures this weekend? I went a bit camera crazy between Ian's first birthday and special Christmas outfits. :-) It's a good thing I bought more photo storage for my blog!

 



Our tree is his best motivation to crawl. He loves the lights!