Why do best laid plans always fall to pieces?

I think we must be slow learners.

I have no idea why we thought we could pull off completely gutting and re-building the top level of our new house in 5 weeks?  What were we thinking? {Please refrain from the ‘we told you so’ comments}

We’re currently on plan D which involves just making the downstairs level liveable (which we had planned to leave untouched and rent) so we can move in there until we finish upstairs.  Now the area we originally thought we wouldn’t touch, has had the concrete sanded, the laundry demolished, the walls washed and plastered, a wall replaced, and hopefully will be painted soon. (If the painter we lined up ever actually turns up).

We planned to hire people to do a lot of the work so that we didn’t have to kill ourselves doing it.  And here I am researching how to spray paint interior walls .  This time last week YouTube was teaching me how to sand concrete floors.

We have 2 and a half weeks to go but we are beyond tired. The half and hour drive back and forth from our current place is killing us, especially when we are doing it a couple of times a day. The most challenging part has been not taking our frustration at hopeless tradies out on each other, and not letting ourselves get completely overwhelmed by the sheer size of the job ahead of us.  So far we’ve only had a couple of meltdowns each so I’m voting we aren’t going too bad.  They say we’re given challenges for a reason, so maybe there is something in this we’re meant to learn.  Let’s hope it’s not – ‘tackling a project this size is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had!’

Are we the only ones whose best laid plans always fall to pieces?