Fire Star Press: marriage

Friday, September 4, 2020

A Job Well Done

Last month I bemoaned the fact that my husband and I don't communicate well when it comes to home improvement projects. The comments by Kaye Spencer, Mollie Hunt, and J. Arlene Culiner both made me laugh and feel much better. It seems we certainly aren't alone when it comes to our lack of communication! 😂

Twenty years ago, one of the previous owners of this home put a lot of time and love into hand-painting the cabinet, sink, and toilet in the master bathroom. I will admit to feeling a slight twinge of guilt in painting over her handiwork, but it was time. The bathroom was extremely dated and desperately in need of an update. I am thrilled with the results.

It took roughly a week for us to finish our master bath update and, much to my surprise, we got through the process with NO major arguments. 😮 To be honest, I'm still in shock, LOL. I'm not 100% sure what made the difference this time. It may be that it has been several years since we've worked on such a project together. (We've been in our current home for 3 years. Any projects to date have been roofing or plumbing related and we leave those to the professionals.) I'd also like to think that some of the ease came from my insistence that we sit down and discuss the whole project in advance. I'd ask my husband's opinion on things to be told "We'll decide that later." I finally put my foot down and insisted on a sit-down discussion to make sure we were both on the same page as far as all of the various tasks to be completed and the order in which they needed to be done. This helped reduce the need for last minute trips to the store as I was able to, for the most part, make sure we had all of the necessary supplies on hand.

The end results were worth all of the hard work and I couldn't be happier!

One of my favorite parts of the whole room are the new lights. They make me happy. 😊

Until next month! 😘

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Friday, August 7, 2020

Communication, Wherefore Art Thou?

My husband and I have been married for almost 34 years. For the most part, we communicate fairly well - at least until it comes to home improvement projects. Once the home improvements begin we seem to begin speaking two different languages even though they both sound like English. We can be saying the same thing without either of us realizing it because we're saying it so differently. This means that the next couple of weeks aren't going to be easy. 😬

A couple of weeks ago my husband discovered water dripping from the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom - definitely not a good sign since it's right below the master bath. In order to troubleshoot, we had to pull down part of the bathroom ceiling. The ceiling is tongue-in-groove, which is fortunate; we were able to remove individual strips of wood rather than punch a ragged hole like we would have to do with sheet rock. The tongue-in-groove came down relatively easily - in spite of the miscommunications. At one point we had the following conversation:

Husband: No. You're doing that at an angle; it needs to be flat.

Me: *baffled* What do you mean? Of course I'm working at an angle. I'm not 8 feet tall and I'm working on the ceiling.

Me: (after pondering the situation) Are you trying to tell me that I should turn the pry bar over?

Husband: Yes.

Me: Next time, say that! Use your words.

Image courtesy of www.depositphotos.com

Over the next couple of weeks we will be doing the following in the master bath:

- Covering the popcorn ceiling with tongue-in-groove

- Replacing the light fixtures

- Painting the walls and cabinet

- Replacing the countertop and sink

- Replacing the current non-waterproof flooring

- Replacing towel rods, sink, and shower hardware

- Replacing the toilet