Two and a half months ago, I committed to fully renovate (by myself) the cabin we recently purchased by April 15th, so I could lend it to a friend, his wife and two daughters who needed a house for a month. This being a side-project, on top of my full time job and being a dad of 3 married to an ever-traveling flight attendant, needless to say I didn’t get a break in said last 2.5 months.

But I made it. Mostly…

Things that didn’t happen:

• Internet connection: required, Andy works from remote, like I do. 2 telcos bailed on me for DSL. When I say bailed, I do mean I went all the way up to the cabin (100km) during the week, waited for a tech who never showed all day twice, and then went through phone hell to find out why, only to find out they decided I was too far to provide me with the services they already billed me for after all. I’m now still waiting for over $600 in refunds from one DSL provider, which is likely to take a couple of months, as per their forums… Then I found an alternative with a satellite internet connection (expensive, but still cheaper than the highway robbery that are mobile hotspot connectivity prices), only to have their tech tell us that she couldn’t install it until we cut some of our trees. Not sure how having trees at a cabin which they fully knew was in the woods was unexpected to them… So that’s where we’re at right now with that.
• Couldn’t get plumbers or electricians to wire the dryer in time: oh well, that’s now dealt with.

Things that did happen at the end but I wish had not:

• I had a busted heel the last 2 weeks: still kept going, limping the whole way
• I had the flu for the final 4 days of the job: still kept going
• We had a freak snow storm on April 12th which made it impossible for non-4×4 vehicles to get to the cabin, the day before I had a shipment of wood and 4 appliances (fridge, stove, washer, dryer) coming up in trucks for delivery: I kept going, shoveling my driveway by hand because the snow-plow guy had finished his season, so the trucks could make it (which they did)
• I had to dig through 24″ of snow and 12″ of ice to get to one valve to turn on our artesian well
• I had to break through 12″ of ice to free some pipes from it so the kitchen sink would work
• My dog “ran away” for 10-15 minutes, which is not like him, leading to full blown panic and search (he came back, he was hiking in the woods)
• And to top it all off, once it was all done and my friends had moved in, I drove to the side of my driveway on what I though was hard ground (never saw the place without snow) but turned out to be an ice dam, which finally broke from under me. To point out how insidious that ice was, I drove over it to park all winter long with my 2 tons car, and two 5 tons delivery truck were driving on it 2 days before. My car dropped 12-16 inches, right on a large sharp stone, and snapped my steering rod clean in half, therefore not being able to move my front wheels any longer. I now expect the insurance company to decide that my 1999 Land Rover is not worth their time, and total it, which is likely going to make me lose around $5000 and leave me car-less, with a cabin 100km away. Edit: I forgot to mention that this happened Monday night, that the insurance company file was opened Tuesday, and that I still have no news from them, nor have they moved my car or provided me with the replacement vehicle my policy entitles me to, today on Friday…

But I’m keeping going… Not letting it all bring me down. If I let that happen, I think I’ll be out of commission for a while, both psychologically and physically. Sometimes, not letting go is the only way to not sink to the bottom. This is one of those times.

So I’m using the personal philosophy I told another blogger about a few days ago. I’m staring at “whatever is conspiring to make my life so much harder” and uttering those simple words: “fuck you, you’re nothing, I’m stronger than you are and I’ll do whatever the fuck I want”.

Almost over now… Wish me luck. :)