This is less of a blog post than it is a rant. Sorry to all readers, but I have no girlfriends available and I just didn't feel that this would be an appropriate Status for Facebook...which leaves the Blog as the only recourse.
Now, for the ddisclaimer. I am well aware that there are more important thing going on in the world. Internationally my heart goes out to the women in Congo, the people of the Sudan and other strife torn African countries, including Egypt and I pray for those in the Arab world. Right here in Canada we have several new members of Parliament who are fresh-faced, eager and barely of drinking age. Mind you, as Jack Layton pointed out, we send our young people to Afghanistan, so why not to Ottawa? Good point, Mr. Layton! In my church family we have several people who are ill, some very seriously ill, and I do not mean to demean these life-threatening conditions with the pathetic whining I am about to launch into. Even in my own family, we have a baby just past-due to be born, whose Daddy is not well and may need a kidney transplant sometime soon. The complaints which are to follow are, in comparison, self-indulgent, I know.
That being said, I am still allowed to get my frustrations out and I appreciate your patience with my childish behavior.
So, has anyone taken a gander at the myriad of paint color available to the average home owner lately? There are thousands of choices of shades and several finishes, each with its own advantages, disadvantages and price. Then, each company has its own thousands of choices...so go from one company to the next and you get somewhat overwhelmed!
We will be moving into our new house in several weeks (yes, a great blessing for which I am grateful and stressed out over at the same time) and we will be painting the whole thing. Which is fantastic and also a lot of work. And I'm not even doing the actual painting...just the color and finish selection. I have spent a total of about 5 hours (so far) looking at and selecting possible color schemes for the house. The first rounds were done at Home Depot, checking out the Behr colors and the Disney Colors line. I found some great coordinating schemes and presented them to Stephen.
I now know that Stephen does not like blue. Not as a wall or accent color, anyway. This is kind of a pain for me, because my natural tendency is to go to greens and yellows and I was hoping to get myself into the blues as a switcheroo. That is not to be. No problem, I can work with that. I was also hoping to have Zoe and Charlotte's room done in mauves, but Stephen pointed out that he really likes Zoe's current room, which is bright yellow and orange with royal blue accents - this color scheme is one I made using a pretty quilted wall hanging that was made for newborn Zoe as inspiration. No problem, yellow and orange are my favorite colors, so I will decorate their room (and find more bedding, I guess) to follow this pattern.
I have also recently discovered that Stephen seems to want to have brown as the accent color throughout most of the house. I, myself and not fold of brown in the house, aside from my wooden furniture. The furniture makes for enough brown...I want the wall and trim color to accent the furniture, not blend into it. I would be okay with one room having a light brown as trim (Behr Desert Willow is lovely)...but not the three main rooms of the house.
Given that the first round of presentations didn't yield an agreement of the colors with the exception of one bathroom, yyesterday I spent a couple hours online with my new best friend, Benjamin Moore. I told Stephen last night that if anything ever happens to him, I am going to remarry Benjamin Moore. Why? Because I discovered the Historical color palette. I am IN LOVE with this palette of colors, I think that they were made for me. After school, all of us Wishart girls made the trek to The Hub in Beaconsfield, to look at the Benjamin Moore colors in "real life".
I coordinated the upstairs entryway, stairs, up and downstairs hallways, living room, dining room and kitchen in beautiful quite neutral shades (Stephen is very into what he calls earth tones). If anyone is curious and has time to check out the totally awesome Ben Moore Historical color palette, I chose Hepplewhite Ivory for all the walls (except the kitchen) and Anjou Pear for the door and window frames and the facing of the stairs - I can never remember what that part is actually called. In the dining room I plan a chair rail and the wall below that would be painted Van Cortland Blue, which is a very grey blue that I am trying to sneak in. :) There is not much wall in the kitchen and I would like it painted Salisbury green - which is an excellent match to the Hepplewhite and the van cortland blue also. The up and down hallways and entrance would be Hepplewhite and Anjou pear.
Last night, my very excited show-and-tell about the colors was interrupted at this point. Stephen is not sure about the Anjou Pear color...I can live with this it can be adjusted. We moved on...or tried to. I had to explain the chair rail (again), then I had to differentiate between a chair rail and wainscoting. Then I had to defend the cost of putting up a chair rail (probably something like $15.00!), then I had to defend the extra work for the painters. Then I had to explain about 8 times that the green of the kitchen will never actually touch the blue of the dining room because of the kitchen counter extending between the dining room and the kitchen and the chair rail being at the height of the counter. The green will only touch the Hepplewhite. But, in any case, the blue and green were chosen specifically to coordinate...Sigh.
Then Stephen started saying how he is really not against the expense of a consultation with an interior decorator. I pointed out that this had been my idea in the first place, and he had already agreed, which is why I already have an appointment scheduled for May 30th. But we can't just have her come in, look at our furniture, ask us a couple questions and then have her choose our colors. He wondered why not? I pointed out that I had spent 5 hours of work that he has not even bothered to see half of before bursting my bubble and the decorator charges $70.00 an hour!
Maybe I should just tell him to pay me my $350.00 and let the decorator take over. Except that I should also get Hazard Pay, because I did my work with a preschooler and toddler in tow.
In any case, for those of you who still care, I also choose the colors for the master bedroom (Hawthorn Yellow and High Park, the family room - Buttermilk, the ceilings - Oxford White and the downstairs bathroom - which I am positive Stephen will veto - Purple Easter Egg (It sounds hideous, I know! But it is a nice lavender...I may want to go paler, though). The girls shared bedroom will be in Disney colors, Bouncy Bouncy Orange (trim) and Sunny Spot Yellow (walls) with Infinity and Beyond Blue accents. Faith's room remains in Behr colors, soft pinks, and the upstairs bathroom is Behr too, in monochromatic shades of blue.
I guess my questions is this - why must he ruin my fun? It is not that he disagrees with a color choice, that is fine, I can change it completely or tweak the shade. It is the almost immediate call for the decorator - which does not imply but rather screams that I am considered inadequate to the task and the lack of any understanding whatsoever as to how much work this actually was - I mean, yes, I do enjoy it to a point, but I also want to get it over with.
You have no idea the discussions we have about him - his work, his this, this that...mostly his work. Rarely are the discussions about me - unless we are discussing the lack of housekeeping or the money spent. Here was a prime opportunity to have a fun talk about something I have been working on, which is, as usual, of benefit to our family. But it was not a fun talk, it was an absolute and complete downer. My excitement over finding a Historical palette of colors made for me? Evaporated. The pretty pictures in my head of the house all dressed up in these colors? Gone. Frankly, right now, I don't even like the house. It is too small, has no open space for the computer and the purchase was a mistake - made only because the price was so good and the location excellent for proximity to friends. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel a little more positive about the upcoming move. And no, this is not PMS.
Last night I was so frustrated I was almost ready to say -go ahead and paint the whole damned house beige if you want. But I knew that I would then hate the house and resent him for the next 10 years because that is at least how long it will be before I can convince him that the house needs a fresh coat of paint. And if you know my husband, you will know that I am not exaggerating. 10 years. At least.
Stephen is now almost on board with the chair rail and realizes that we have to present the decorator with our ideas for colors so that she has something to work with. Then, I welcome her opinions as to what might work better with the house's lighting and the likely layout of the furniture and so on.
Well, after all that "ventilation", I don't actually feel any less frustrated. Hmm, strange. Usually if I let it all out I feel better. Maybe I should eat something...that will even out my mood, I'm sure. In the meantime, thanks for being my ear.
Onward and upward!
