In the Engineering and Program Management disciplines, there is a term called "scope creep".  Scope creep basically means the uncontrolled expansion of a project boundaries.  The following details a personal example of "scope creep".

A little bit of background before we get down to the specifics.  My bride of 30+ years and I are planning on retiring in a couple of years.  Coupled with the retirement, we are planning on selling our existing house and move into a new home more appropriately sized for the two of us (and the "pooch").  To that end, we decided to start to prep the house of it's eventual sale.  This preparation includes the usual painting and "fixer upper's".

So one day not too long ago, my bride comes to me and says something to the effect of "Honey, you know the kitchen is really the principal selling point of the house for the woman."  Being unaware of what was to follow, i replied in typical male fashion "oh".  On to next subject.... (wrong answer).  She points out to me that our white formica counter tops were not really a strong selling point in the world of kitchen design these days.  So after a little bit of coaxing on her part, I agreed to start the search for suitable replacement counter tops.  We spent an entire afternoon scouting around between the home improvement centers and the various kitchen "boutiques" in the area.  All I can say about that experience is that I definitely needed to retreat to my world of weber barbequing and killing a couple of MGDs in the process.

We finally came to the conclusion the replacement counter tops should be granite.  OK, now to start the search for someone to make this all happen.  Through our local preferred listing of who to call, we pulled, I think 3 names of likely candidate companies.  The first guy showed up and genuinely conveyed a sense of not really caring for our business.  The next dude to grace our doorstep was the original "wise guy".  His motto was just relax and leave everything to me (as in you don't have a clue of what you are doing, but this is going to cost you one hell-of-a-lot of money to support my Hummer parked in your driveway).  Bye-bye candidate #2.  Candidate #3 shows up with 50,000 pounds of granite samples mounted on presentation boards.  He spends a fair amount of time actually talking with us (as opposed to talking to us).  With samples in hand, we start to whittle down our choices to 5 different styles of stones.

OK, time to call him back and tell him we made a decision (sort of).  So, step B in this whole ordeal is for my bride and I to go to a warehouse (about the size of the Mall Of America) to look at actual slabs of granite.  Talk about being overwhelmed.  So we get there with our little list of stones we pre-selected.  As chance would have it, we couldn't locate any of the stones we picked out (sales people were there only to finalize your order).  So after spending another couple of hours wandering around the warehouse looking at gigantic pieces of marble slabs, we came away with 2 or 3 actual selections this time.

With another agonizing trip to Granite Warehouse Gargantua, we made our rock hard decision.  We confirmed all of the necessary information to the installer-guy.  Done deal, right.... WRONG.  With the selection of our new counter tops also comes selections of a new sink (I couldn't for the life of me see what was wrong with our old porcelain sink... even though it had a few "minor" chips in it).  OK, new sink selected, done right.... NOT..!  With the sink comes a new faucet assembly and, of course a new reverse osmosis faucet.  I'm starting to see an emerging trend here.

Finally, we go through the installation and, I must admit that my bride did a great job of selecting the granite tops and sink and two faucets.  The kitchen upgrade is now complete and we can move on to more important things  like how much mesquite wood do I need to buy for next year's grilling season, right... you guessed correct!

About a month after the counter tops etc. were installed, my bride blinks her baby blues at me as says "Honey, you know the dishwasher should really be replaced.  It's not doing a good job anymore on the glasses."  I squirm a bit contemplating this additional delay in getting the mesquite smoking wood.  I'm starting to sense that this is another battle I should surrender in before the actual skirmish begins.

Off we go to the home improvement centers again.  Based on past experience, we did manage to by-pass the kitchen boutiques this time.  So after an hour spent looking at new dishwashers ( as opposed to looking at really important stuff like lawnmowers and gas powered weed wackers), we make out decision.  So the big day comes and the dishwasher is delivered and installed.  I make what later turns out to be a fatal error in the initial dishwasher buying decision.  Instead of the "white" appliances that we now have in the kitchen, my wife picked out a replacement dishwasher that is black and stainless steel.  This decor option matches the new counter tops closer and the stainless steel matches the new sink and faucet.

 Done deal.. right?  No, the dust doesn't eally settle before I'm faced with the stove and microwave needing replacing.  "Honey, they're getting a bit old and white appliances just don't match with the dishwasher."  Again, the same routine.

I'm eying my one remaining white appliance with a feeling of foreboding.  Yep, the refrigerator is definitely on the radar screen.  This one takes 2 trips to the home improvement center as we need to make certain that the monster black and stainless side-by-side refrigerator-freezer fits into the space allocated.  After measurement and re-measurement, I have at least 1/8th of an inch to spare.  Pedal to the metal, all of the kitchen appliances have been replaced.  Bear in mind, this project started out as a lonely replacment of counter tops.  Sure has gained some girth since then.

OK, after mucho dinero's spent on this kitchen upgrade, I'm finally done with this project me thinks...  As fate would have it, my bride blinks her baby blues at me a couple of months later and says something to the effect... "Honey, you know the gold hardware we have in the kitchen doesn't match with the rest of the decor."  Holy Bat Man, this one really escaped me.... You guessed it, off to the home improvement center (remind me to buy stock in these guys).  After we did some shopping around for replacement drawer and cabinet handles, I dedided to do a body check of how many handles we are actually talking about for the whole house.  Yikes, it comes to 65 handles to retrofit the whole house!

OK, make the purchase and spent 3 hours going around replacing all of the hardware.  This project is finally done.  Time to get on to the other serous things in life (me thinks).  No sooner do I get the hardware on then I am informed that the door knobs (oops, they're gold) need to be replaced so they match the stainless steel sink in the kitchen, the brushed steel faucet in the sink, the back and stainless steel dishwasher, microwave, stove and refrigerator.  So much for getting my needed mesquite firewood for now.
So, my friends that's where,  what now seems like an ever-expanding project now stands.  Just between you and I (don't even think of mentining this to my bride), the entrance chandelier is gold!

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