Dan and I are finishing our basement. As anyone who has lived through construction on their home will tell you, it's really stressful. Most days, Dan calls me with a punch list of questions to convey to the contractor, and then in the evening, we survey the work and discuss more in depth over dinner. This has been going on for over 3 months and to say I'm getting sick and tired of having construction workers trapse through my house and for this project to be the central focus of most of our conversations is an understatement. I'm actually starting to resent Dan over the whole thing. Because truth be told, as much as a finished basement will be nice to have, I much would have preferred to spend our money on furniture for the rest of our house, a new car, or even just squirrel it away. But i acquiesced to Dan, and now I feel like Murphy Brown (remember her painter, Elvin, was basically in every episode? Yeah, that's a feeling familiar to me.)
But here's the thing that really burned me up: All I asked was for the trim be painted the same color as the trim in the rest of the house. Dan says, "Right, white."
And I said, "No, off-white."
He shrugged and walked away. Next thing you know I'm in the basement looking at bright white trim. I said to Dan, "That's the wrong color. It's too bright. It should be off-white."
He says, "it's the same color."
I protest, but he says it is. I let it go because, really, do I really care that much?
Then the painter painted the trim all the way up the stairs and asks me, "Where do you want the white trim to start and the off-white trim to begin?" I glare at Dan, and in that moment, I swear I could strangle him. Not because I'm some crazy b---- who is obsessed with the white palette of paints, but because Dan didn't trust me. He didn't listen to me. And like a typical man who won't stop and ask for directions, he wouldn't say to the contractor, "Is that white or off-white?"
In the end, the contractor is fixing the trim to match. But we're paying extra. So I say to the contractor this morning in my bathrobe over coffee (b/c he basically lives with me he's in my house so much and this is actually pretty normal for my mornings), "Sorry about the miscommunication over the trim. I told Dan that white and off-white are two different colors. He didn't listen to me."
The contractor smiled and said, "Well now he's learned his lesson."
And I say, "What's that?"
And the 50-something contractor, who has been married for over 25 years, smiled and said, "To listen to his wife."
Exactamundo Elvin! I couldn't have said it better.
Posted by Jane
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