From where I sit in my cozy living room, the view ain't pretty. I see a chunk of rolled-up carpet piled on a stack of uncut baseboards next to a pair of fat mallets, an empty bucket, and a vacuum cleaner, very full. Across the way in the dining room I see the table shoved against the far wall and miscellaneous items piled on every chair, the detritus of a cleared-out closet. That quilt doesn't belong on the dining table but it will sit there until I carry it away on one of my many trips to our bedroom. Under the table lurk an old dusty briefcase, some torn jeans that need mending, a bag full of things to take to the Goodwill, an exercise ball, and a couple of suitcases. And looming tall beside the table is a big white shelving unit holding cleaning products, paper towels, boxes of lightbulbs, a basket of cleaning rags, and all the kinds of household items I prefer to keep hidden away in the laundry room.
We're at the stage in our home improvement project where the professionals have done their work and now we just need to put everything back together. This morning I was delighted to sink my feet into plush new carpet in our bedroom; later I'll make multiple trips across that carpet to put all kinds of stuff back where it belongs.
New carpet in the master bedroom and guest bedroom and our big walk-in closet, new waterproof vinyl tile flooring in our bathroom and laundry room, new baseboards in the bathroom and laundry room (which never had baseboards before). Everything looks and feels fabulous and all the big furniture is back where it belongs, so we're down to the niggling details.
Like nails. The flooring dudes ran out of nails halfway through installing the baseboards in the laundry room, so their supervisor will come out Monday to install the rest. We can't move the washer and dryer back in place and hook them up until those baseboards are in place, so it's a good thing we did a pile of laundry Thursday. The laundry room is a small and oddly-shaped space where things fit together like a 3-D jugsaw puzzle, so we can't get the big white shelving unit back in there until the washer and dryer get moved, which means it'll be hanging out in our dining room for the next couple of days.
The workers did a good job cleaning their mess but we'll be sweeping up carpet fluff for weeks. Everywhere I look I see a long day's work, but I'm more pleased by what I don't see: No more nasty stained carpet in the bathroom. No more ugly linoleum in the laundry room. No more carpet stains of unknown origin staring me in the face every time I go to the guest room.
The chaos is calling me: I need to get to work. But just for a moment I need to close my eyes and block out the mess and recall that wonderful moment when I stepped out of bed this morning and felt the new carpet underfoot. Feel the softness, caress the plush, relish the sense of accomplishment, and then open my eyes and get back to work.
Mess.
More mess.
New bathroom floor! 
New bedroom carpet!
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