There are many phases of a construction project, and as anyone who has talked to me in the last year knows, our basement encompasses all of them.  It is an old, well-built home, but that in itself makes things difficult at times.  It took us many months just to gut the places we were going to upgrade, and then the “Tom needs surgery” phase, followed by the “Tom is not allowed to lift more than a gallon of milk for two months” phase, followed by the “Tom waited the two months and then lifted stuff and was hurting, and probably needs to heal again and slowly step into it” phase, followed by the “Tom really doesn’t care about the pain any longer because he will die of old age before this project is finished” phase.

So I am back and forth the the Menards, and Lowes, and Home Depot……daily.  This leads to the picture of Lou watching me return to the car (and yes the other two are in their somewhere) from one of our “yea! Let’s go for a ride to the store” phases.  I know I hate needing to go back and forth all the time, but they love it.

And this has led to the “Ben it is about time you learn to do some of this stuff like Stephanie and Scotty did from me” phase.  This phase has been far more challenging as Ben loves to have his own tool belt and gear, but he seems to have an allergy to working, at least with me as his foreman.  Amanda is involved too, but more as a consultant.  She decides what she wants, and we try to create it.  On my FIFTH trip to Menards today, we all went.  She has to decide on tile, a bathroom fan, and light fixtures.  When she said “this tile we can just do the hallway in too,” which I had no intention of doing although I probably should have, I just shut up and added another phase onto my list.  I did believe I got her back when as I was checking out, she walked over from the candy isle and put a bag of jelly beans among the stuff.  I looked up at the girl ringing up all the stuff and said, “Ma’am, I do not even know this lady.  I am certainly not paying for her jelly beans.”  I suddenly was made of the “no woman listens or believe a middle-aged man” phase, particularly when jelly beans are on the line.

But we are now heading into the “Tom will either complete this project or die trying so we can use the life insurance to finish it up” phase.

Regardless, it will be finished one way or another!

Advil blessings to you all.

Tommy+