Remodeling Progress . . . Sort of

All of my fans (all four of them) will remember the story I wrote exactly three months ago about the touch-up painting being done in my office. I predicted that the painting might be done by the end of summer. Well, in my book, there are approximately two weeks left of the summer and nothing has progressed beyond the spackle sanding stage. And yes, all of my pictures are still off of the walls and the furniture is still away from the walls. A whole summer in the state of flux.

But there has been some progress - the new carpet is being laid. That's right. The new carpet is being laid before they paint the walls. Silly me, I thought it was smarter to paint with the old carpet down so, if you spill, it won't be a big deal. Silly, silly, silly.

I like the new carpet but it has been a huge disruption in our office. We are packed in tight anyway and I have a little fortress of banker's boxes full of files in my office on a regular basis. Everytime the carpet guys want to work on any area, they must move all of the stuff out of that area into another area. As it turns out, lawyers are not very good at sharing. They don't want someone else's crap in their office, even if it is for a few hours. It is very disruptive - they shut down the computers and telephones. (Actually, I don't mind being without a telephone - no phone means no phone calls which means no pissy clients.) I am trying to be flexible, but it is really hard when I have been hemmed into my desk because there are six conference room chairs in my office in addition to the tall filing cabinet, two side chairs, one desk chair, credenza, bookcase, side table, and l-shaped desk that are usually in my office.

The differences between the carpet guys and the painter guys are huge. The carpet guys only have as many people as necessary working and they all have very defined jobs, which they all do on their own. In fact, one carpet guy worked by himself yesterday and did the whole reception area and part of the hallway. All by himself.

At this point, my biggest fear is that they will get halfway done and then mysteriously disappear like the painting guys did. I will have a nervous breakdown if I have to climb over conference rooms chairs every time I have to go to the bathroom for the next three months.