Here is the godawful wallpaper that used to be in the master bathroom. Actually, it's still there; they painted over it.
My bathroom now looks terrific and I'm left wondering why I didn't do this long ago. The Dog's Favourite Person asked why I had them paint the walls white [it's a perfectly lovely creamy off-white]. Why not something pretty, like blue? I told him it's like inviting someone to decorate an Easter egg. You wouldn't give them an egg that had already been decorated. You want them to imagine their own design.
Every morning I think, today is the day they'll finish up, but every afternoon they tell me they'll see me at the same time tomorrow. I'm starting to believe they'll continue to show up every morning until I sell the house. Maybe even after that. Caution to new owners: This house comes with its own work crew that will arrive at the crack of dawn every morning, just in case something needs doing around the place.
And it's never nothing. They keep finding more things they can fix. I want to say, "STOP it, that's ENOUGH already!" -- except they're just trying to help. I'm convinced it's a guy thing. They see a problem, they want to solve it. The most recent offer was to point up the mortar between the bricks on the front steps.
"You know how to do that?" I asked.
The contractor gave a shrug and looked at me with a self-confident grin, as if every man knows how to do that. "Sure I do, love. Not a problem."
"Wow. That'd be great. Thanks."
Yes, it really needed to be done. I just hadn't noticed. See how nice they look now?
I'm notorious for not noticing things. For instance, when the real estate agent first came to look at the house, we were in the master bathroom and she said, "Can we get rid of the cup holder, or are you using it?" I said, "What cup holder?" She looked at me like I had three heads and none of them were functioning very well.
This cup holder:
I swear, I stopped "seeing" that damn thing a week after we bought the house. Oh, I tried to take it down. But it's stuck on there pretty good. Probably I got distracted and wandered off before I found the right tool for the job. And then, because my brain can do magic, it became invisible. Maybe I'll ask these guys whether they can remove it. No, not my brain. The cup holder.
Really, this whole hiring people to do stuff thing is making me feel helpless and ineffective and less than capable of being a homeowner. As I said, all this progress comes with a price.
3 comments:
Definitely go with off-white!
I lost track of the number of homes I saw that were painted in the latest 'designer colors', and it was always a turn off. The guy next door has his (fairly small) living room painted an intense deep orange. The house has been for sale for over 7 months.
One house I went to was painted in the U of Oregon school colors: bright yellow with kelly green trim. That one's come down about 30K in price while I've been looking.
Here's an example from my blog:
http://blogsheesh.blogspot.com/2007/11/sometimes-you-just-have-to-marvel.html
The house I ended up buying was painted off-white with taupe accents. I know that sounds deadly dull, but it works!
You are right the DFP is wrong--just watch all the home shows about selling your house.
Of course when we bought this house the entire downstairs was painted battleship gray--walls, woodwork and ceiling. It was like walking into a cave. Second thing we did before moving in was paint.
Hey you've got many other strengths and abilities, you don't have to be able to do construction work too.
The front steps look great.
Yeah, when we bought this house the family room was dark wood paneling with Williamsburg blue walls above it. I painted it. Took three coats.
The workers of last week did not come back this morning. So I guess they're done. Well, there's one more thing they have to do but they have to wait until someone else does something first. Which might be tomorrow. GAH!
On to the next phase.
The actual move is going to seem like a reward after all this nonsense. Hmmm.
Post a Comment