Jig-Saw Puzzle

Around two years ago I decided, or I should say, Mark decided that we needed a new living room floor. I have to give Mark credit, he did pay for the new floor. What he didn't pay for is the labor to put it down, so I was the labor. Over the course of two weeks I carefully carried out my floor installation plan. It involved moving all the  furniture in the living room and the dining room so that I could access said floor. I then carefully laid down all the foam underlayment. That took one day. From all around the room I removed the quarter round trim so that the new floor would fit nicely. That took another day. On the third day I started actually laying the new laminate floor. I carefully laid out each board, measuring end boards so that they fit just right. This activity included frequent "refreshment" breaks. Usually, by my third refreshment break of the day, I would be too tired to go on with the floor installation. This part of the installation took most of a week before I had laid all the flooring, except for the area in the little hallway and closets near the bathroom. That bit of floor was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. For a whole week I worked on that little area, measuring, cutting, fitting, cursing, re-measuring, re-cutting, re-fitting, re-cursing, until with minimal screaming at the dogs to get the hell off the floor, I was done. It looked beautiful. It really looked great, and I was very proud of my work. And then the air conditioning system leaked. Funny thing about laminate floors. They don't like moisture. They suck up liquid like a sponge and puff up like little waves breaking across the room. So yesterday I hired a man to come and replace the area that had been damaged. It was the very area that took me a whole week to do. The hallway area. At one in the afternoon the man showed up to start work. He measured, he cut, he fit the new boards into place, he did not curse. By four in the afternoon he was done.