Basement Boogie: Get real

When Hubs and I decided that we would be gutting and renovating the basement back in August, we set a self-imposed deadline of St. Patrick's day. It seemed far enough away, but close enough to keep us motivated.

As partially-Irish fans of booze, aged cheddar and drinking songs - we are pretty enthusiastic about March 17. No surprise there.

But, there were surprises with this reno. First, our rebuilding contractor surprised us by never calling us back. No money changed hands, so we were safe there, but we decided the best (read: cheapest) route would be to DIY. Surprise number two.

Add to that a million little changes, surprises, extra steps and setbacks and here we are: February 24.

We might still hit our deadline and be able to invite our pals over for a timely ribbon cutting/Wild Rover sing-a-long. But it's not likely. At least, not without a surprise bestowment of two weeks paid off from work or a sudden, intense desire to stay up 24 hours a day mudding, sanding, priming, painting, laying floor, laying trim, installing heaters, finishing built-ins, building the concrete countertop and moving everything back in.

Don't hold your breath for that, friends.

Despite our competitive and type-A natures, we're OK with letting this deadline slip by. After all, we set the deadline having no idea what all went into a basement gut-job and we think we'll still finish in March, so we weren't too far off.