Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Stalemate

Okay, something pretty momentous happened in The More, The Messier household yesterday evening. For the first time in over 2 decades, I cooked a lentil dish that received - I kid you not - rave reviews. EVERYONE ate it. And today, for lunch? Unbidden, they ate the leftovers.

In other news, hell has indeed frozen over.

So there you go - anything can happen. This opens up worlds of possibility, doesn't it? Maybe this means that I WILL someday find my waist again. Maybe my children WILL, at some point in their lives, learn to turn off lights and shut doors. Perhaps, even, SOME DAY, Larry and I will manage to agree on area rugs for the newly renovated (hardwood floors!) basement family room.

Actually, that last one? No. No, we will not. Folks, after 26 years of marriage - 26 years of raising children, living together, learning to agree to disagree - we may have finally met our Waterloo.

You see, we need one of the rugs for what we call the fireplace room, which will have some blonde-wood bookcases against the walls, a reading chair or two, the white-brick fireplace, and a large central area left open -- for children to sit and play games on, etc. Hence, the requirement for some comfortable floor covering.

See? NEEDS RUG. Preferably a colorful one...
Now, I have envisioned our walk-out basement family room(s) as an airy, modern-looking space, designed for both TV watching and play. Brian (who actually cares about such things) has even weighed in on the style couch we will eventually (when we win the lottery) buy: a light-colored one with clean lines, modular and up-to-date (as opposed to the dark brown reclining behemoth I dragged home from a neighborhood yard sale a few years ago). We picked a striking color for the walls, to make the white brick hearth pop.

I had a plan, people. And all it would need for completion was a modern, low-pile area rug, with contemporary/geometric design and some color. I spent several hours online, finally spotting a number of reasonably priced possibilities on Wayfair.com. Wanting to achieve consensus, I put several of them on my wish list so Larry could weigh in on the decision.

Susie's FAVORITE

And this, friends, is where it all fell apart. When I showed Larry what the kids and I had put on the list, he looked -- in a word -- disgusted. It wasn't just a "Oh, how about a different shade of color?" look. Rather, it was a look that almost screamed, "Who are you and how did you get into my house with your perverse home decorating ideas?" Seriously, he couldn't have appeared more put off had I showed him carpets screenprinted with naked Playboy bunnies.

So, yeah, this problem isn't going to be solved any time soon, I'm thinking...but, hey, I guess there's always hope. After all, he DID eat that lentil soup.











12 comments:

  1. Yeah, good luck with that rug. And congratulations on the lentils! And hello from the past . . . I was clearing out dead links when I saw this one and thought, "I wonder what she is up to!"

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  2. Well thank you for posting a link to the recipe. We are already big lentil eaters over here, but this looks like a whole new flavor. I never thought of brightening it up with lemon. I do add a bit of balsamic sometimes. I hope the rug dilemma is resolved soon. You think you would have earned enough extra credit by now (with the patience with home reno stuff) to get your first pick!

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  3. AnonymousMay 25, 2017

    I have literally stopped asking my husband for his opinion on furniture. He gets structure, paint colors, etc. Just not rugs.

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  4. I love the wall color AND the rug. I also have a fond hope that my family might like the lentil dish, if I cook it for them. I think you should win the rug battle.

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  5. Oh, the rug. Yes, I know this battle well. When we moved in here, I decided to move away from the earth tones that we'd had for years. This was met with resistance. I persevered and we now have soft gray walls - which he now loves. But the one place he has put his foot down is the rug. I want a gray rug with a trellis pattern and he declares he hates it. Meanwhile, we have a very earth-toned rug that is messing with my decorating scheme. I have decided, I'm just going to order the rug - once it's in maybe, like the paint, he will learn to love it.

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  6. I like that multi colored one! I left the bathroom up to Scott to decorate. Trevor was a newborn and is now 14 and he still hasn't even painted the trim.

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  7. I think the rug looks lovely, and goes well with the wall color. So what style/color of rug does Larry propose?

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  8. Larry was setting you up so he can surprise you with a rug from the wish list on your birthday.

    And hopefully some chocolate. There is chocolate on the wish list, right?

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  9. It's so frustrating when they stick their noses in decorating stuff. Coach wallpapered our front hall in our first house. When he was at work the next day, I hung pictures going up the staircase. Hardly an extermist approach to decorating. He went nuts. I think he felt like he 'owned' the wall since he had hung the wallpaper. I couldn't have been more shocked. We are just beginning a kitchen renovation that is going to include an addition to the back of the house. I hope we survive!

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  10. That rug woke me right up! Around here, we end up with soothing browns and blues and creams... ho-hum.
    I can't access the recipe. Can you share? (We love lentils at my house.)

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