I've been keeping tabs on the project mostly via telephone lately, as I've been all over the place. The work is going very well, and so far the schedule that we've developed is pretty much right on target. We're spending this next week setting things up so that we'll be right and ready for the tradesmen (plumbers/electricians/heating guys/etc.) to come in and do their thing, and then close it all up and finish it. We've still got some design stuff to iron out (kitchen and also upstairs bathroom), but I feel we've got a good handle on where we are going, and are moving along. It's not to say that things couldn't still stall out-- we still need to firm up those tradesmen-- so far we've gotten very expensive quotes-- and while it might just be that the work just costs a lot to do-- I feel I need to do the due diligence before signing off. Working on this project has reminded me/informed me of a few things. #1) It's great to renew old friendships. Aaron and I met 15+ years ago, he built a couple of shows that I was in, and was also one of the main actors for my Master's Thesis. We were fairly good friends back then, but I moved away, he moved away, other things happened, and you know, keeping people in your life when you've moved away is super hard. But it almost feels like we didn't drift away for 15 years. It's kind of amazing, that sort of friendship chemistry. It can pick up almost where we left off. #2) It's great to have somebody that you trust implicitly on site everyday, and somebody who you know is working for you and looking for you. I don't know that I could be travelling and/or working away from the project without somebody like Aaron-- somebody that I have faith in and a relationship with, a relationship longer than the time it took to read over their references and write a deposit check. #3) I've been there helping out and doing labor projects, like pulling out the third floor carpet, etc. Although I'm not particularly fond of the hard labor stuff, it's fairly satisfying when you are done, and there is a big pile of cutup carpet on the floor, and you can say "Hey-- I did that!" It's a good feeling. Anyway, I'll be back onsite tomorrow and Friday, getting more quotes from tons of people, doing more grunt labor that needs to be done, and will almost certainly be wiping more sweat off my brow and saying "Hey, I did that!" (and hopefully, not wiping blood off my fingers and screeching "Ow! Why did I do that!")