Donning the contractor hat

It seems these days that I have acquired yet another new set of duties in the household. I am now the official Chez Ragged Remodel 2006 contractor. I have a photo ID and a hard hat to prove it. I am the kinda contractor that is good at one thing: subcontracting.

Thus far I have hired a guy to refurbish the floors in June, am taking bids on carpentry work, am in negotiations with someone to lay tile and now I'm in search of handyman (or woman) to do a turn-key job on our bathroom. You see, Cynical and I have apparently thrown in the towel when it comes to "do-it-yourself" projects. We've come to realize that we just aren't handy people and have given up on trying to schedule and lure our fathers into assisting us. Our alternative is this: paying outsiders to get the job done.

There are a few things I can tackle myself, but without the proper tools, the necessary knowledge, a skilled assistant or the time, we just didn't stand a chance on the big stuff. The small stuff was tripping us up to the point of frustration, non-completion and mess making.

Today I have been daydreaming that we have come across a modest sum of money and many, many helpful hands and between the two we manage to complete Remodel 2006 and once the job is done, we all sit quietly drinking lemonade on our new patio, gazing at our newly painted back door. We'd venture to answer the front door, walking barefoot across our shiny hardwood floor. Then I'd walk to our remodeled bathroom (after drinking all of that lemonade) with cool-to-the-touch tile and marvel at the beautifully smooth walls. A girl can only dream. . .

I must go now, I have to talk to a guy about a bathtub.