Risk-Reward

Surprisingly, given how notoriously cheap I am, I insisted on hiring a general contractor. Equally surpising, given what a perfectionist Dawn is, she was willing to tackle the mansion without one. We compromised: The GC has responsibility for the "skilled" jobs, while Dawn handles the unskilled jobs, like the demo work, cleanup, etc.

When they pulled up the linoleum in the kitchen, they found the wood floor was sound, but covered with glue. Scraping that off seemed to land squarely in Dawn's "unskilled" camp. Dawn, however, wanted to rent a floor sander, which to my mind put this back in the "skilled" camp. Despite repeated pleadings, Dawn rented the sander yesterday and ... it all worked out fine. She got the glue off without doing irreparable harm to the floor, the cabinets, or herself.

So on the one hand, she got the job done much faster than she would have by hand. On the other hand, she spent $70 on the sander, when her labor was free. Hmmm...

On the bright note, we finally got the web cams working. It's very nice to see Dawn after again after a three-week hiatus. I keep asking her to put the camera by her bed so I can watch her sleep, but so far she's not cooperating. I don't think she realizes just how much I miss her.

Dawn listening to me cry like a baby