(Today, Thursday, is my “Friday” since I’m off work tomorrow to prep for the party. Since I doubt I’ll even think about blogging tomorrow, I wanted to get this update written up now.)

Can you guess what Todd worked on this week?

If you said wiring, you’d be right. On Saturday he ran all the new lines he needed, wired new switches and outlets and started the box for the light.

On Sunday he finished the “light box”– a framework or soffit that will allow the overhead light to sit level despite the fact that the ceiling will be sloped. We certainly could have mounted it flush with the joists, but I was worried about it casting weird shadows in the room.

While Todd worked on that, I trimmed the drywall to form the corner of the new wall–anything to get us closer to a completed bathroom.

Now, in order to hook the new everything into the existing wiring, he had to open up another portion of the hallway ceiling. So we have another hole in the house, but this one led to pretty quick results and we now have the hall light switch at the back door instead of 5 feet away. No more stumbling into the hallway to find the light switch–how novel!

And as he was finishing up with the bulk of the wiring, I asked about the bathroom light (it still isn’t installed). Namely, if it would be installed before this weekend. Turns out he needs to cut a piece of drywall to fit the bottom of the box/soffit before he can install the light.

Need, of course, is subjective. If he doesn’t cut the drywall to size and install it with the light, he’ll have to take the light out when we drywall the ceiling. And that makes total sense, right? “Might as well do it right,” he says.

And I realize… “might as well” is part of the reason this project is far exceeding its 9-week timeline. (Well, that and the floor surprises and other things we had to do in a very if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie way that we weren’t expecting.) Scope creep, man, it’s real.

And I can’t even be mad–at Todd or the project in general–because of course I want to do it right the first time and not half-ass it. Of course I don’t want to make more work or have to undo work to proceed with the rest of the project.

And yet…

But, no, the reason why I really can’t be upset about the scope creep is that I started it.

I totally did.

“Might as well” may be synonymous with scope creep, but so are “why don’t we” and “while we’re at it.” And two months ago I reopened the discussion on the bathroom renovation with “why don’t we install a pocket door” and “while we’re at it, why don’t we bump out the wall to meet the pipe chase.” This entire project has a foundation in scope creep.

I don’t know why I’m surprised.

There are three things I’d really love to see happen before 2pm on Saturday (when our guests are expected to arrive), and preferably well before then (as before as you can get in 48 hours, several of which will be spent at work or sleeping, pfft):

1. Overhead light installed (with or without drywall)
2. Sink installed (keeps getting pushed back for larger projects, completely understandable)
3. Door facing and hardware

That third one’s kind of a biggie. See, right now, if you close the door to have it meet the other side of the doorway, it comes loose of it’s little guides, and just swings on its tracks. Even with the door facing there’s a 2″ or so gap. Thankfully we figured out last night that a 2×4 and the facing should fix that gap and allow the door to close without leaving its guides. And then we still need to set the hook and latch deal that keeps it closed.

Obviously, beyond those three items, we won’t be working on the renovation further this week, and I hope Todd will take the next week off to just chill. We shall see. I mean, I don’t want the project to languish for months or anything, but once the basics are covered I think we can take some time and approach the rest on a less frenetic, less hurried pace.

And thank goodness the next project is 100% outdoors!