Yesterday Eric and I got into a heated discussion about the screen door while we were outside. I was making a point, that maybe it would be a good idea to *consider* hiring a professional to cut the wooden door and hang it for us, and Eric wouldn’t hear of it– although the screen door is way way down on his list of priorities. Eventually he told me to come inside, where we could “discuss” behind closed doors and away from the neighbors. We still haven’t settled our disagreement.

As any houseblogging couple will probably tell you, you really can learn more about your partner while doing home improvement projects than any other activity. It becomes like a well-known song and dance, each knows his/her moves intuitively. Eric moves into the kitchen to do detail work, I move out. If he is doing something that might not be right, I know when to let it go, and also how to step-in without causing any major drama (when we worked on our first house I often gave my opinions continually…bad idea). Eric knows never to say “hurry up” because large gallons of paint might come toppling off step ladders (this happened once). Eric knows that when I’m on a mission, it’s best to just let it happen, even if it is somewhat shoddy in the end. Really, if you want to make your union strong right in the beginning, I suggest buying a fixer upper. It truly would help to build a lasting foundation (no pun intended).