Always Plan in Some Margin

I once got a "cease and desist" letter from the town because I was "performing major vehicular repairs" in my driveway, and that I had however many days to get that car out of there
I called the phone number and shot the breeze for a while with the guy, explained to him I was waiting on my torque converter to show up before I could finish the job (which really wasnt that major, I was simply increasing displacement by 2 cylinders)
We finally agreed I would take the car of the jackstands while I'm not working on it, and they would give me 3 more months to finish the job