The painter fiasco has been nothing short of a nightmare for me. One of the nobs for our den lights is missing (presumably it came off when the painters took the tape off to turn on the lights, but decided not to tell us. I can only assume it's not in the trash somewhere, or lost within the confines of the painter's supplies). The fixes in the kitchen and the den were simple enough, leaving the rooms with their right color. This was not the case in the foyer. The blue was so vibrant and the cream color we wanted in the foyer instead was so delicate, the blue kept coming through. And since blue + yellow (or at least yellow base) = green, our foyer, front wall, and first and second floor hallways (aka the one area I agonized over because it was the biggest and first thing guests would see) has a green tint to it. A green tint that is like static to my eyes.
We'll be meeting with the main painter as well as one of the owners today to discuss our grievances. It's safe to say that my Type A, perfectionist personality has been completely on edge thanks to this ordeal. Anyone who spent weeks comparing colors until their heads cave in on themselves can understand just how disheartening this type of situation is. I spent hours -- solid hours -- going back and forth on what particular shade of cream I wanted the foyer to be. I was exactly that lady, wanting a "purple but like a purple but not a purple."
My husband tried to reassure me in the best way he knows how: by making a silly voice and saying, "Whatever are we to do when things don't go perfectly?" His "silly voice" shtick is usually enough to break me from whatever neurotic mess I had gotten myself into. However, his comment yesterday got me instead about things going awry versus things not going perfectly.
When I was planning my wedding, there was no difference. If things weren't going perfectly, then things were going awry, and my stress was through the roof. Which, looking back on, it's funny how it all got lumped into one. I put "accidentally getting sharpie on my brand new manicure" in the exact same category as, "bridesmaid quits 2 months before wedding for dubious reasons, even after we offer to pay all her expenses." But they were all things going awry in my eyes, and all worth the same amount of worry.
The painting situation has shown both types of situations. The painting project was delayed a solid three days, the first two of which were the only ones I knew of. The painters kept leaving behind their empty water bottles and styrofoam Dunkin' cups. We spent a couple of hours unscrewing all of the wall plates, leaving two blank wall plates that we wanted painted over. They unscrewed those wall plates... and proceeded to paint over the cables that were behind said wall plate. These are all things that would fall under "not going perfectly". A little annoying, a little frustrating, but, really, small problems. Most are easily fixable (we can paint over the wall plates ourselves, we can throw the water bottles in the recycling bin, and we can start working on projects that wouldn't interfere with the painters, as we did yesterday) or, at the very least, easily glossed over.
Things going awry are on a completely different scale. These are things that can't be fixed as easily, things that definitely cannot be glossed over, things that are worth your time and energy. For us, there was only one thing that really went awry: they painted our foyer the vibrant blue meant for the den, and proceeded to just paint directly over the blue without any primer. And, unfortunately for everyone involved, that one big thing that went awry only amplifies all those little things that didn't go perfectly.
With situations like this, the only thing I can do now is see what can be done and focus on the positives as much as possible. Because there are a lot of positives to our interior getting completely repainted. Our den now looks fun and inviting (instead of drab and nondescript). Our kitchen now looks bright and welcoming (instead of closed in and old fashioned). Our dining room now looks open and neat (instead of dark and closed off). And the bedrooms we have been painting ourselves are coming out better than I could have expected or hoped for.
And, at the end of the day, we are still homeowners. If the foyer needs to be completely repainted by someone else, so be it. But it's still our foyer, and we're still incredibly proud to call this place home.
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