End Result

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)

When I wrote about being mad at husband for taking me on the motorcycle when it was raining, there was a lot more to the story than just that. For several days, the tension had been building between us as we prepared to paint our living/dining room and hall. It was all husband’s idea. He first mentioned it while we were on vacation. I think being in that beautifully decorated cabin combined with such relaxation that our brains were mush caused him to think outside his box. For husband does not like change and hates to paint. Also, he thinks the only paint color allowed is antique white. So, when I jumped at the idea and painted a rainbow on our wall to try out a lot of different colors, he began to come to his senses and realize what he had unleashed. In my own mind were many conflicts as well. I was afraid of choosing the wrong color until Sayre Smiles encouraged me by saying I had a great gift for design and my glasswork proved it. That helped me relax and feel comfortable about choosing a color. Instead of questioning my decisions, I reminded myself, “You have a great gift with color!” I wanted to paint one wall a bright color and then, the rest a softer version of that color, but husband stood his ground that the whole room had to be the same. So, I suggested putting moss green on the bottom of the walls, with a chair rail in white and then, tan above that. Husband agreed, and I quickly bought the paint before he changed his mind. Still, the tension continued to escalate. I hate chaos. I like things neat at least on the surface and when we piled all the furniture in the center of the room to begin the prep work, it made me want to rush through the process so I could put everything back where it belonged. It didn’t help matters that every corner was full of cobwebs and the baseboards and walls had to be scrubbed of dog hair. Finally, on Saturday, we were ready to paint, but husband was AWOL having lunch with his friends. He finally came home about 4:00. We painted that night until about 10, getting half the room done and realizing that I had bought way too much paint. So, in an effort to justify all that extra money spent, I started daydreaming aloud about painting the rest of the house. Husband didn’t understand I wasn’t talking about doing it that weekend, so he lost his cool, called me “PUSHY” and then, my feelings got hurt and things really came to a head. We painted in silence for quite a while before I calmed down enough to clarify what I meant and we could reconcile. We finished painting the walls on Sunday, hung chair rail on Monday night, put the furniture back on Tuesday night and sat down to admire our work. We are so happy because the rooms look like they are brand new and so fresh and pretty. I really did start dancing and singing. I can’t remember being that happy in a long time. We were talking about the experience and whether the next time we would hire a painter. As much work as it was and as mad as we got at each other, I think I would chose to do it again ourselves if only because the hardship made the end result so much sweeter.