Suppose you are happily married to a Mr. Save for a Rainy Day type.
Suppose Mr. S.F.A.R.D. came to you last year with a proposal to
have the house paid off in full in a short amount of time.
Suppose his plan made sense to you.
Therefore you agreed to give up trips to Maui, new appliances, and the dream of beautiful, white plantation shutters. Oh the shutters, the shutters.....
Anyway, continuing on with this most hypothetical situation, you go along with the savings plan.
It's not that much fun.
But being the friendly, agreeable type that you are, you smile and give Mr. S.F.A.R.D. a pat on the back when he proudly shows you the growing balance in your savings account.
Things are fine until one day when you happen to be reading the blog of a friend who is having a little remodeling done on her house. She casually mentions that she is having her shiny brass door knobs changed out for a more current, stylish look.
Your heart starts to covet.
You have disliked your own shiny brass door knobs for a very long time.
You start imagining your door knobs looking something like this:
You find yourself dreaming about the knobs. They become foremost in your mind.
You approach Mr. S.F.A.R.D.
You present your case.
After all, it is knobs you're talking about here.
NOT shutters, for Pete's sake.
He listens.
He pauses.
He listens.
He pauses.
Then he does exactly what all good husbands do, he agrees!
He gets the name of a contractor.
The contractor comes. He counts the doors. You pick out the door knobs of your dreams!
All is well until you get the quote....
$1,000.00 just for the knobs!
Not to mention the hinges, towel racks, shower frame and light fixtures that now must accompany the new knobs.
Mr. S.F.A.R.D. wants you to be happy so he encourages you to just pay the money and make the changes.
You can't get yourself to feel completely comfortable with that decision.
You think about it.
You think about it some more.
You dream about it.
You dream about it some more.
Suddenly, a brilliant idea comes to you!
You jump in the car and drive to Home Depot!
You rush to the paint aisle.
There in a $6.00 can lies the answer to your problem....
a special paint made for metal!
You hurry home to experiment.
The conclusion? It works! It works!
You remove all the door knobs to spray them with several heavy coats of the $6.00 miracle.
You love the new look.
You start to get excited and a little carried away.
You begin taking down towel racks, light fixtures, anything that was shiny brass in a
previous life.
While the knobs are off, you decide to give the doors a crisp, clean coat of bright white paint.
Mr. S.F.A.R.D. is so impressed with your efforts, he encourages you to buy a few things to go with the lovely new look.
You choose a fancy new handle set for the front door.
How about one for the back door too.
And two new rocking chairs for the porch.
Wait! The French door off the kitchen is looking a little beat up. Order a new door.
You can't very well paint a ceiling fan. You need a new one. Oh and while the husband is installing one, he might as well install another one in son's room.
The new bathroom / bedroom needs a few accessories. About $300.00 should do it.
And new bedding is a steal at $200.00 with a Khols coupon.
Oh, and this time of year is perfect to invest in some new patio furniture because it is on sale and would look striking with the new back door that was just installed.
As you sit down to tally up the expenses in this purely hypothetical situation, you gasp.
You breathe deeply.
You wonder how to explain yourself to Mr. S.F.A.R.D.
Lucky for you, you married the most genuinely nice person you know.
He thanks you for all you've done, he hugs you and tells you how great the house looks.
You collapse into bed after a long week of work.
You curl up next to Mr. S.F.A.R.D.
You happily fall asleep in his arms....
and thankfully, there is nothing hypothetical about that.
10 comments:
After 12 years of shiny brass knobs (and growing tired of them atleast 6 years ago) I am in need of the $6 miracle. However, you are much handier than I and that is the scary part. Shutters are also on my list. Believe it or not, my 1 inch aluminum mini blinds are out of style!! Ha ha..
Your house looks great!!!!!
I am so amazed at what you can do. Where do you get your energy? All I can do is sit here and read about it and collapse into my chair. Send some of those get-it-done energy vibes my way. Maybe I will be able to finish the half painted rocker I have in Mason's room or those curtains I have never sewn for Douglas' room. Maybe I could simply get the house picked up for once this summer:). I know it would drive you batty to be here!
Hey I bought the same Khols bedspread about a month ago! I always knew you had great taste!
Everything looks great but you forgot to mention the awesome job you did on your front door and garage!
Everything looks beautiful. I guess we've all got our own talents.....mine is not that! (but I wish it were). And I'm with you on paying the house off early too. It will be worth it, right? :)
Look at how good it looks!! And how much you "saved" =) Isn't it fun to have two personalities in a marriage? It is so good to balance each other out isn't it. You did a fantastic job and go so much more for you money.
Inspiring. Really. :) Our whole pad needs an overhaul!
Robert is always so impressed with your husband. He says he just seems so genuine- like he really does care about you when he talks to you.
You always have the cutest posts :)
I can so relate! There is so much I want to do to my house, but my Mr. SFARD would like to put that time, effort, and $$ in to a new house instead. *sigh*
Get your talented little self to Idaho and help me decorate. :) We'll do up a proper tea and send the guys out to find manly pursuits.
I love the way you write! It makes me laugh. You are so talented- I need to bring you to my house some day. Just as soon as I stop being a Mrs. S.F.A.R.D. I think I talk to John like Mark talks to you about my great savings ideas. :). However, I think you're right...these Barlow boys sure are the nicest boys in town. John is just so great about every other crazy thing I do (they just don't ever involved $- usually I ruin things from being a space cadet)- I'm just amazed at their patience and generosity.
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