Chaos Subsides Slowly ... but the frustration remains

This is the last time I will ever leave my husband in charge of dealing with contractors ... The patio extension is twice the size [and cost] I wanted and we now have a fancy quarried stone planter box going across the whole the front of the house that I didn't ask for and at an additional $1800 ... well there goes any hope of getting a china cabinet for the dining room. Re-configuring my dining room was going to be my stay-cation project. It was going to be a way of jump-starting the kitchen re-hab by cleaning out some of my kitchen cabinets into the now in-my-dreams-only china cabinet and doing a general clean and de-clutter of all the remaining kitchen cabinets. I have a meager $200 left in my home improvement account and have to start saving all over again. I figure this puts me at least 6 months behind in my master plan. And I can't even kill the wretched man since I don't have sufficient bail money or court costs ... though I don't think a jury of my true peers [wives of many years] would ever convict me. The frigging planter box will have to remain empty of plants because I haven't the money to buy any ... You'd think, after being married to the man for 39 years, I'd know that he always thinks he can "improve upon" my priorities and budgets and that I'll be delighted by his creativity. I love him dearly but at the moment I want to strangle him very very slowly and very very painfully. In future, all contracts and/or estimates will require my signature before the contractors can order so much as a brick!

Because the project was expanded, I'll be stuck at home tomorrow as well, while the men finish up the job. Another day of no air-conditioning because all the doors, front and back, are wide open. Another day of masonry dust choking the air. Another day of five or six sweaty shirtless men speaking languages I don't understand tromping back and forth through my home. Another day of not being able to use my driveway. They say they only need a few hours to finish up but if tomorrow is as hot as today, that will slow them down considerably ... or they'll fit me in "around" other scheduled jobs, meaning I'll be waiting around, unable to run the simplest errand, for fear that's when they'll choose to show up.

And just to add the perfect touch to a very crazy day: I just went out front to check on the planter box I didn't want. They built it around the entire front of the house and buried the gas meter! So now I can look forward to an argument with the firm's owner in the morning when I insist that they dismantle that end of the planter and rebuild it to end before the gas meter ... oh and, by the way, fill in the blacktop that was cut away in error. What kind of an idiot builds a planter around the gas meter? Where was the owner when his laborers destroyed my driveway to do so? All I can say is, I'll happily cut a check for the patio but I am not paying for the planter box till the error is corrected.

I know that when I calm down, I'll find reasons not only to accept but actually to enjoy the "new and improved" version of this phase of the renovation, at least, once the front of the house is repaired at the contractor's expense ... I'm just not sure how long it's going to take me to calm down ... a day, a week, a month, a year?