MAKING THE HOUSE OUR HOME, or MARKING OUR TERRITORY.

     Like any other relationship between people, marriage is often a series of negotiations.  Yes, it has another term, "compromise", but it is really an ongoing series of negotiations toward reaching a common goal, which is how to live under the same roof, happy.  It's a give-and-take.  I give, she takes (ba-doom-bah!  Thank you, thank you, I kid, because I love.)  But the Wife (aka, the OTMBO) and I managed to make it thus far, by finding a house that needed no compromise, in terms of location, size, number of bedrooms, location of the washer and dryer hookups, etc.  Now the next test: how to make the house our own.

     Anything that is obtained after it is used is new to someone else.  Same with houses.  This is not meant to be a museum dedicated to the way of the life of all previous owners, this is our casa.  Or, will be ours (closing on June 21).  And "ours" should mean what we both agree on, to represent "us", like a combined, fused vision of the domocile where we will spend our golden years.  Umm, yeah.  right.

     Times like these, I am jealous of cavemen.  Low expectations, low maintenance, and no concerns about decorations beyond stick figures of Og and his compadres killing a buffalo, with the wimpy caveman Iggy impaled on the horns.  His Wife Ogetta never complained about how the cave would look so much better if the floor had Brazillian Cherry wood laminate, or if their dwelling would look so much brighter if the walls were medium eggshell white.  Or to get rid of that ugly drawing on the wall of her brother Iggy and the buffalo.  "Want"  and "need" were almost interchangable: "I want food", "I need food".  That was it. As relative wealth and luxury became available, Oggette expected the medium eggshell white walls and the Brazillian Cherry laminate (even before there was a "cherry", "laminate" or even a "Brazil").  And the record of Iggy's hilarious demise would remain undiscovered for centuries.

     Today, "want" and "need" are equally interchangable, as well.  "I want 12mm handscraped hickory laminate flooring and white vertical blinds" means "Get me the 12mm handscraped hickory laminate flooring and white vertical blinds, I need them".  Hence, the latest round of negotiations, about the floors in the family room and the front hall/ kitchen/ dining area.  Currently, they are vinyl sheeting, in a homage to 1970s interior decoration.  Today, they do not even qualify as kitchy.  And the seam between the sheets is starting to come up.  This leaves room for compromise between the OTMBO and I.

WIFE: "I want the Nantucket Beech wood planks with the 3mm padding underneath, installed by those nice people at the flooring store for ONLY 80 cents a square foot, and that will get rid of those ugly seams.  Won't that look wonderful with the eggshell white fabric vertical blinds?"
me: "I have clear packing tape that will keep that seam down."
WIFE: "You don't love me any more, do you?"

  See?  Room for compromise.  That's why we will likely get the wood laminate, and I get to install it.  What wives lack in negotiating and rhetorical skills, they more than make up for in leverage.  Guys, you  know what I mean.