Several of our tense conflicts were more decorating issues than construction ones.  He hated the fact that I wanted an arbor in the dining room.  I felt I had already compromised (I wanted a tower and he wanted a roof line that didn’t cost as much as a castle).  Out of that came the garden room, where I “fixed” my texturing experiment with ragging and trompe l’oeil wisteria.  I just needed a simple arbor made for the ceiling with which I could attach the dried vines and faux wisteria.  After many “I’m not understanding what you want here.” And, “What are you trying to do?”  He relented and made the saw cuts and left me alone to finish.  It’s one of the first places he takes people who want a tour of the house.

I said Mike was thrifty.  Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, but he’s less about thrifty than he is about the art-of-the-deal.  Plumbing fixtures come to mind.  Looking everywhere from salvage yards to designer showrooms, I pick funky, very inexpensive, made to look old, from the discount warehouse chain store down the street.  I think, he’s totally going to love this!  Wrong.  I was supposed to pick (D), none of the above.  Of course there was a secret place (contractors warehouse) where you can get a great deal on quality faucets.  These faucets appeared one day in what looked like jewel boxes, each piece protected by foam.  “Look at these.  Aren’t they wonderful.”  I had to admit, they looked great.  I did get one funky faucet in the end. 

So, when I found this guy who made “green ware” sinks and he was willing to let me do my own, I never thought Mike would agree.  But he happily drove me all over Northern California to achieve this goal.  It’s the secret place, really good deal thing.