Four Pieces of Slate

There is a scene toward the end of the film "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" where Cary Grant, playing the beleaguered title character/new homeowner, receives a bill from the contractor for over $1,200 (in 1947 dollars) for a slate floor. Outraged, he demands to know who ordered this change and why. His wife (Myrna Loy) hasn't a clue. Finally, she admits to having seen four pieces of slate lying unused and asking the contractor if they could be placed in a hallway near the kitchen so she could have an area where she could cut flowers without getting any water on a wood floor. The architect figures out that the contractor probably thought a drain was needed, which meant running a pipe under the floor, installing a new sub-floor so the drain would have a proper slope, cutting through a supporting joist that runs under the hallway, moving a nearby column, patching and re-installing the nearby cabinets, and re-painting the whole surrounding area. All because of four little pieces of slate.

My tale is an updated version of this story, as I try to describe our experiences during what has turned out to be a major renovation of our house. Our four pieces of slate, as it were. I started keeping a journal back in May so the dates of the first several entries won't reflect what happened the date they are entered. But, based on the pace of the work we've seen so far, I'm pretty confident I'll catch up on my backdated entries before the project is finished.