Home Improvement... and relationships

Some people believe that two people shouldn't live together until they're married.  Others believe that by living with another person you really get to know them.  I say that you don't really get to know another person until you hand drywall with them.

Working on a home improvement project helps you to really learn about your partner on a deeper level.  Forget about whether or not you have the same view on finances or whether or not you both like the name "Mike" for your firstborn's name. 

To this day Mark & I remember our experience remodeling the living room in our first house.  The painting went fine.  The installation of the fireplace went fine.  But installing a simple light fixture?  The two of us couldn't fit on stools to work on the light because I was 8 months pregnant and my belly kept getting in the way.  There was lots of cursing and frustration... and we still laugh about it today.

Granted, at that point it was a little late to be deciding if he was someone I could see myself with for the rest of my life.  But what if we had tried some major home improvement before we got married?

You learn a lot about your partner by doing home improvement.  Take these examples from our dining room project.

If confronted with "hydrangea" or "peacock", which color will your partner choose for the dining room?

If you were to paint the dining room (after a long argument about the assets of each shade of blue), would you do it in one very thick coat or two?  And when your husband curses and says "your idea of painting a wall is throwing a gallon of paint on it and then smoothing it out!" would you get offended?

 

Does the paint go on better with a beer or glass of wine in hand?  (I certainly think so!)

Are you wallpaper people? 

When you choose to paper the wall, do you carefully measure out each section to ensure it fits in the appropriate area and then match the seams, or do you slap the paste on the back of the paper, throw it up on the wall and hope for the best?

Are you creative enough to think of buying paintable wallpaper?  Or are you still stuck on the "I don't want any more damned wall paper in this house!" mode?

And can you complete the project as a team?  Or does one of you storm off and watch football in the living room?

I'm only joking about storming off to watch football, of course.  I did the project on a Tuesday night.  No football was on tv :)