My online real estate brokerage is growing by leaps and bounds. This means we constantly need more space. No matter how much you plan for expansion, you're never ready when the new people arrive. Recently, we doubled our area by expanding into the space next to our office. Let me recount this harrowing experience:

On Friday morning, the team from the cubicle supplier arrives. We've had problems with the company before. This time, the account representative offered us a great deal and swore service would improve. The price was truly unbelievable, so we went for it. For once, they show up on time. This is a good sign. If they don't get started, the wiring and cable people can't do their jobs. The phone people are due over the weekend to upgrade our system for extra lines. We cross our fingers.

One hour later, trouble starts. The cubicle crew changes its work plan. It's efficient for them, but paralyzes us. They've kicked half the staff out of their spaces. Our company's designated overseer for this project goes off to deal with other problems. I'm getting a bad feeling.

"SPEND MORE MONEY." Two hours later, the electrical team arrives. On time. Great. They check the work of the cubicle people and find problems. Nothing in life is easy. Luckily, they have the wherewithal to fix the problems. Now, the cable people call: "Hey, Scott. Hate to let you down, but we're having a little trouble getting people out there just now. You know, the holidays..." (It's two weeks before Christmas.) We remind the cable-company president of the footing on which our warm relationship rests, i.e. the money we have spent and will be spending. The president pulls two people off another job and sends them our way.

By 3 p.m., the cubicle team has successfully stopped any meaningful operations at zipRealty. Wiring is on track, but the cabling people are nowhere to be seen. We now have to call the phone provider to say that cabling has fallen behind.

By five o'clock, I send staffers home. We wanted to do this on the weekend but couldn't get any vendors to commit to it. All workers are on-site, even the phone vendor who said he would work alongside the cabling workers. Looks like we're back on track.

At 8 p.m., the cubicle people are nearly done. They forgot a few parts. Nothing serious. The cable people are another story. They did not bring all the material they needed. They'll have to come back on Saturday. The phone system looks good, but the voice mail seems buggy. A technician will come on Monday to fix it.

All those annoyances pale in comparison with the electrical problem. The house we are using was not designed to have so many computers and other equipment operating. The electrical guys have come up with a creative solution: "Spend more money." We need that power. Bye-bye, money. What a day. We hope everything will be solved by Monday.

Monday comes and goes. Yes, it looks like we will indeed have twice the space. The phone system crashes a few times, power is intermittent in some of the new spaces, and the cubicles aren't finished. The only problem is with the cabling. Our network engineers keep finding problems. This is a major disappointment. The company had done great work before. Unfortunately, that crew had left the company. We told the cabling company that our beautiful relationship is over.

Expanding is painful no matter how much you try to plan for it. Now we are getting ready to hire another 40 people, so we'll go through it all again in four months. Anybody know a good cable company?

Scott Kucirek is president and co-founder of zipRealty.com, an online real estate brokerage. The company's Internet site and online real estate agents let people complete the entire purchase or sale of a house via the Web. The company's Web site is www.zipRealty.com, and you can E-mail Scott at Scott@zipRealty.com.