My Dad has stage 4 cancer. He has moved out of state to be near his grand kids, my niece and nephew. I am taking care of his house and getting it ready for sale. One the big things for that was replacing the floors. The carpets were 20+ years old. You can imagine the shape they are in.

We know hardwoods or engineered hardwoods are popular for resale, plus he has always wanted them but has never gotten around to it. I have made arrangements to have this done but it is a slow process. The floors were just delivered. It takes 2-3 weeks to acclimate to the space. The contractors have scheduled to come in the week of Aug 7th-12th. It is a big complicated job because the house is post and beam, nothing normal about it. The contractor is even supposed to come back out to take a look at something discovered, no subfloor to nail into, so they may have to add that. That is more time, and money, if so. It may also affect the door clearance and they will have to be trimmed on the bottom so the doors can be moved.

Dad has since decided to surprise me for my birthday and is coming the weekend of the 18th-20th. We are going to try to make this happen given his health and this will probably be his last trip out. The whole family is now coming plus a boyfriend of my niece. This will be our last get-together in this house that we love but a full house of people.

My concern is that assuming things go on time, go well, it will give me less than a week to put the house back together, which is tight given that I have a full work week that week. If it does not go on time and is delayed as I know a lot of construction is, it might be better off waiting. However, it would be nice to have this done for him when he comes. I'm just not sure if this is wise and better off making sure there are places to sleep and such, and perhaps it is better to leave the house as is the way everyone remembers it. I do wish I was on one of those home shows that things are done in a matter of days.

What do you think:

Risk it that things will go as planned and to make it happen some how, surprise him?

Play it safe, wait, and have less stress?