The Work is in the Prep

Jeff and I spent the whole weekend prepping for our living room and dining room renovation. The whole weekend. We never anticipated it would 1) take 2 full days; 2) require such thorough work and re-work; and 3) the scope of work would expand as we revised the project plan.

As I am sitting here, preparing to write you the summary of our weekend - and truly how much work it was - I am struck by how REAL this real-life example applies to my WORK life right now.

You see, I partially messed some things up this week at work (the other partial was out of my control but not sure if people are remembering that part). I actually messed it up way back a few months ago, and it is just coming to pass that there was a problem. As I am now doing damage control and clean-up this week, I am practicing the arts of humility, admitting when I was wrong, and acknowledging I was over-worked and skimped on details. I skimped on the PREP. And just like with our house project, things turned out poorly (but our house project won't because I have a great perspective-giver named Jeff who makes sure our prep gets done).

Anyway, I digress. Back to the renovation stuff.
GOAL: Three-Room Renovation: Dining Room, Living Room, and Entry / Foyer.

TASKS: Paint ceiling and walls in dining room and living room. Install hardwood flooring.

PREP: Move furniture. Move piano. Relocate and rewire the cable modem and router. Remove non-essential fish tank equipment. Drain fish tank 3/4s and move it on sliders. Re-install everything on fish tank. Apply crabgrass preventer, spray clover weeds, and fill bird feeders (ok, not part of prep but still necessary). Pull out carpet. Pull out pad. Remove tack strips. Remove carpet staples. Scrape up plaster and any other imperfections in the subfloor. Fill nail holes. Wipe up excess putty after drying. Repeat if necessary. Sweep and clean ceiling. Clean light fixture. Wipe down all walls with TSP solution. Wipe down all baseboards, molding, and chair rails with TSP solution.

Collapse.

P.S. - this was only in the dining room and living room. We haven't started prepping the foyer yet.