How much tile did the bathroom need?
A week earlier, I had reduced the Poughkeepsie house to a short goal: make it sleepable. That meant running water, one finished bathroom, temperature control, and somewhere to stay while I worked through the rest of the house.
The next step was less abstract. I bought the bathtub and vanity for the second-floor bathroom. I sent the contractor the detailed tub information and said I would forward the tracking as soon as I had it.
Power had its own appointment. The utility was scheduled to be at the house Thursday morning to turn it back on. I did not need the whole project finished at once, but the basic systems had to work before the house could become useful.
Tile was the remaining question. The bathroom tile I wanted had to be ordered online. I did not know how many square feet the room needed, so I asked the contractor how he wanted to handle it. My preferred answer was simple: he would measure the space and place the order with the right quantity.
That was one of the strange parts of renovating the old Victorian from New York. I could pick a fixture from a screen. I could buy it and send the paperwork. I still needed somebody in the room with a tape measure before the tile order was real.
The following day, the tub tracking arrived and I forwarded it. A big object was now moving toward a house that still did not have working power.
The bathroom was not done. The tub was coming, the tile needed a number, and the utility had a window to turn the lights back on. That was enough movement for one week.