Makeover

For the past several years my daughter has been trying to convince me to do a bit of redecorating in our house. To her the white walls and honey-brown wood trim in our living room looked dated and tired. *B-O-R-I-N-G* She wanted the room that we spend most of our time in to be more inviting and to have a touch of our own. While I understood her point of view, my mind always thought about the expenses involved and the possibility of mistakes and accidents leading to even bigger headaches. In truth, I really did not mind the look of our living room and just decided to leave things well enough alone. However, I think the real reason for my cold response to her request was that I was just scared about taking on such a large project.

This past summer my daughter asked again about a living room makeover. I asked her to tell me more about what she had in mind. She then proceeded to relay to me her vision for the color scheme, for the accent walls, and for several faux finishing techniques. I could tell that she had really thought about what she wanted in detail. I loved listening to her creative thoughts and the passion with which she spoke. After we had come to agreement on how to proceed, we headed to our local home improvement store and picked up our supplies. Given the amount of work involved, we decided that we would go slowly and try to just relax and enjoy the process. She knew that if we moved too far too fast, that I would get nervous and frustrated. In fact, the project ended up taking about 4 or 5 months to complete. I was pleased that my daughter didn't lose her enthusiasm for the work once it got started, and I think we both ended up learning more about each other and growing closer together as we tackled this sizable effort together as a team.

The living room makeover was completed several months ago and my daughter remarked just the other day how happy she is with how everything turned out. I too am pleased and will not be so reluctant to try other new things with her in the future. Perhaps that is the best outcome of all.