Soooo Close...

You remember how I compared the end of a writing project to Sir Lancelot attacking Castle Swampy? Far away far away far away on top of you with no middle distance.

The last part of a construction project is the opposite.

We are now past 95% complete. The cork floor tile ran out two tiles from completion last week and the new tile hasn't come in yet and we can't hook the washer and dryer up till the floor's finished. We have one and a half renovated and fully-functional bathrooms, except there's still work to do on the windows, one glass light shade broke and the replacement hasn't come in yet, one cabinet doesn't have the doors on, the plumbers broke a tile, we don't have the towel rods and so on yet, and the french door upstairs still needs the glass reputtied before it can be painted. The mudroom is completely done except for one window and venting the water heater. I forgot to ask the plumbers who just left about the saltless water softener, which goes under the house, so I won't see it one way or another. However, the current glass of water seems to have fewer flecks of lime floating in it than usual. You wouldn't expect it to be lime-free for awhile, since it'll take awhile for the ice cubes to be fully replaced in the icemaker.

But we are really, really, really close here. We've been really, really, really close for the last two weeks.

And once this project is finished, I can get to work.

Because projects don't end. They get handed off. The construction workers will leave this house behind and then I, with some help from Damon but realistically mostly me because I'm the one home all day, get to reorganize the entire house; decide on and buy such additional towels, shelves, and supplies as the new organization requires; and do the jobs that have been put off because there's no point doing a Great Book Shuffle till I know how many feet of bookshelf space are available. Suddenly I will be able to sew again, but first the sewing/laundry room must be set up. Similarly, I finish a book and mail it, and it becomes part of somebody else's job for awhile, till it comes back and I do more work on it; and it goes back and forth for awhile, ideally: author agent editor author copyeditor author proofreader printer proofreader author binder bookseller reader.

And the part of life during which you have to leave your projects in other people's hands is called limbo. Won't miss it. Having drive and direction is better.