This Just In: home improvements can put a strain on a marriage

I'm not going to come out of this post looking like the good guy. And that's OK. This is me, warts and all.

To the right of the office where I sit at this very moment, is the bathroom. And emanating from that bathroom is the sound of aggressive sanding and indignant grunting, and the smell of drywall putty dust.

You see... we are updating our bathroom. And we are doing it ourselves. We are smart capable people, and we have access to the internet. We can do anything. We remodeled our kitchen by ourselves*, so we can handle the bathroom.

Right?

Well, technically, yes.

The thing is. I am a bit of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to home repairs. I mean, this mess of wood, brick and glass is an investment. I want a good return on that investment. I know what I see when I go to open houses, and I know what people are going to see when they eventually come see ours†. My long-suffering husband (and I say this with only a smidge of sarcasm, because it can be hard to deal with a perfectionist, I admit this. it IS hard to be me sometimes.) doesn't see things the same way I do.
The walls in our bathroom were in bad shape. Especially once we chipped off all the old tile that was on there previously, leaving behind gobs of mastic. I suggested that we take it down to the studs, throw up new drywall, and then go from there.
My husband disagreed. He wanted to just putty the shit out of it and then sand it smooth. I did not win that argument, and he has spent a large part of a lot of evenings and weekends puttying and sanding the walls. Today he tells me that we are near to priming. Very exciting. I can't wait to paint. I have picked a brilly color, "Mermaid Net" from Behr. (The color isn't quite true on the monitor; trust me, gorgeous)
He knows I am a perfectionist, so he wanted me to look at it before we prime....

A Tragedy in One Act:

• E: walks into bathroom to survey the handiwork
• R: waits nervously in living room
• E: (says sweetly) "Do you mind if I use a pencil to mark the places that need work?"
• R: (says sourly, with a bitter twist to his pretty mouth) "Yeah, sure."
• E: marks a few blatantly obvious imperfections on the walls, leaving a LOT unmarked, because they will probably be behind cabinetry/toilet anyway
• R: walks into bathroom and exclaims "What the fuck is this??? What the FUCK is this?? Arrows? You used arrows."
  
• E: "Listen, you wanted to do it the hard way, so we are doing it the hard way, but I am not going to let it look like shit."
• R: gives E a vicious cut-eye, and storms into bathroom
• E: goes into office to post to blog

I know, I am a big meanie. Posting on the internet while my poor husband sweats in the bathroom. But hey, if we had done it the way I wanted to, there would have been a lot less tears.
I just heard deep, try-not-to-kill-her-because-prison-is-no-fun breaths coming from the bathroom.


*Home Depot installed our cabinets though. Great job HD.
† Although we aren't selling any time soon.