Breaking the Bottleneck
This month started off with a lot of progress being made on the Devil Queen. It was very gratifying, but work has now slowed to a crawl. The first thing that lodged in the proverbial bottleneck is the mural I've been moaning about for the last month. Between the heat and my inability to accurately determine how long a project will take, it has dragged on week after week. I honestly thought that I would be done by the 17th of this month, but it's still not done. This is particularly frustrating since I've been devoting a majority of my free (i.e. not at my desk job) time working on it instead of the Queen.
Since I've been painting, my wife has been trying to carry on alone at the Queen. She's made a lot of progress, but it isn't as much as we are use to making. The kitchen is holding up most of the progress on the Queen. We need to finish painting the kitchen so we can install the wood floors. Once the kitchen floor is in, we can rent a drum sander to sand the kitchen, back hall, laundry room, pantry, master bedroom, and master bath room. With freshly sanded and finished floors, we can then start installing our toilets, tubs and other plumbing fixtures. And, the list goes on.
I've tried moaning about it, but it doesn’t help any. This mess calls for heroic action. I'm going to use up all my remaining vacation time at work to take next Monday and Tuesday off. That'll give me four days to break this damn bottleneck of unfinished projects. The weather seems inclined to cooperate with my plans. The temperatures be 10 degrees cooler than the last week or two, so I can work through the entire day. No more of this wussy waiting out the hot afternoons. My dad has volunteered to work on the Queen for 5-6 hours Saturday. We're going to concentrate on finishing some interior carpentry projects (wallboards, missing ceiling boards, and some missing & rotten floor boards). One of my wife's friends may come by to help paint for a few hours (we're still waiting to hear from her). After my Dad heads for home around noon, I'm going help paint & caulk the kitchen too. I plan to work on it until it's finished. When we get the bugger painted, I'd like to lay the wood floor. Monday, I plan to paint on the mural until it is finished. No ifs, ands, or buts. Finished.
Tuesday, if I'm behind schedule, I'll finish up whatever is left. Otherwise, I'll move onto a new project and maybe kick my feet up and rest (if I deserve it).
If four days of heroic effort isn't enough to get this mess cleared up, then we are screwed.
As a good omen (I hope), our truck is working again. How did we manage to get it fixed so soon? We didn't. It turns out that the cables weren't the main culprit. It was the starter.
Last night my wife says, "Dad got the truck to run."
"How? Did he put in new cables?"
"Nope. It was the starter."
"The starter," I asked. "How did he get it to start?"
"Beat on it with a hammer."
"Huh, imagine that. I wish I'd thought of that."
Anyhow, I'm itching for the weekend to get here. I'm ready to work.
Since I've been painting, my wife has been trying to carry on alone at the Queen. She's made a lot of progress, but it isn't as much as we are use to making. The kitchen is holding up most of the progress on the Queen. We need to finish painting the kitchen so we can install the wood floors. Once the kitchen floor is in, we can rent a drum sander to sand the kitchen, back hall, laundry room, pantry, master bedroom, and master bath room. With freshly sanded and finished floors, we can then start installing our toilets, tubs and other plumbing fixtures. And, the list goes on.
I've tried moaning about it, but it doesn’t help any. This mess calls for heroic action. I'm going to use up all my remaining vacation time at work to take next Monday and Tuesday off. That'll give me four days to break this damn bottleneck of unfinished projects. The weather seems inclined to cooperate with my plans. The temperatures be 10 degrees cooler than the last week or two, so I can work through the entire day. No more of this wussy waiting out the hot afternoons. My dad has volunteered to work on the Queen for 5-6 hours Saturday. We're going to concentrate on finishing some interior carpentry projects (wallboards, missing ceiling boards, and some missing & rotten floor boards). One of my wife's friends may come by to help paint for a few hours (we're still waiting to hear from her). After my Dad heads for home around noon, I'm going help paint & caulk the kitchen too. I plan to work on it until it's finished. When we get the bugger painted, I'd like to lay the wood floor. Monday, I plan to paint on the mural until it is finished. No ifs, ands, or buts. Finished.
Tuesday, if I'm behind schedule, I'll finish up whatever is left. Otherwise, I'll move onto a new project and maybe kick my feet up and rest (if I deserve it).
If four days of heroic effort isn't enough to get this mess cleared up, then we are screwed.
As a good omen (I hope), our truck is working again. How did we manage to get it fixed so soon? We didn't. It turns out that the cables weren't the main culprit. It was the starter.
Last night my wife says, "Dad got the truck to run."
"How? Did he put in new cables?"
"Nope. It was the starter."
"The starter," I asked. "How did he get it to start?"
"Beat on it with a hammer."
"Huh, imagine that. I wish I'd thought of that."
Anyhow, I'm itching for the weekend to get here. I'm ready to work.
posted by John | 4:44 PM
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