Keeping up with Whoever

We had a really good day yesterday. It's a three day weekend, and I wanted to talk about some of the stuff we're going to do here--things we've been tossing around for awhile, both large and small. So made a list by room, listing everything we wanted to do and might do. Most of it isn't pressing, but its things we want to make sure happen (plus some optional ones) and it felt good to get it all down. The next step was figuring out where to go from there, and we chose two things:

1. Get granite countertops in the kitchen.
2. Decide what to do with bathroom walls.

The countertops are something my realtor said I would need to do when I moved in. I have laminate counters, and they are in decent condition, but granite sells better. I have the money for this project, I'm stopped by my indecision. Do I find a contractor who then can suggest a stoneyard? Go to the Home Depot and have them take care of it? Go to a stone yard and get recommended contractors from them? I've been researching this for awhile, and didn't know what to do, but we talked about, and determined we need to go get three quotes. If the quotes vary widely, we can get more, but for now: three quotes. I also made a diagram of the kitchen, confirming measurements I'd already made.

My bathroom walls look lumpy. I'm not sure how else to describe it. There's a light fake brick texture in places, but then what must be repeated bad patch jobs and light cracks all over. Its not pretty. I also don't like the colors. This is bearable, but I'd like to change it for myself, and it will sell better if it weren't so ugly. We already decided the new color would be a pale sage-y green, with the rest white. Here's what it looks like now:

White, with beadboard. I dislike yellow. And lumps. You can see the lumps a little better below:

Our two options were: green below the molding with white on the upper half or beadboard below the molding with green on the upper half. We'd do a rug or mat with green in it either way, and a shower curtain thats the reverse of the lower wall color. We just weren't sure which, both in terms of effort and expense. So we talked about it, and decided we want to do green on the bottom, white on top, no beadboard. Next steps for that: Figure out how to flatten out the walls and get the supplies to do it.

So Saturday I emailed both my parents with a list of the things we thought we might need, asking to borrow whichever things they had.

And then...

My mom emailed back first. She said she had some of the things and we were welcome to them. But if the walls were plaster and lathe, we might want to take them all the way down and do drywall (you're good at drywall, aren't you?) (I am.)

And then Mark got a ride home from church with friends. Who really don't see the point of the granite, and said I wouldn't get my money back anyhow*. So they think I shouldn't bother.

And my dad emailed, telling me he could lend me some stuff but I'm likely to want it in the future, so I ought to buy it. And by the way, you shouldn't try to scrape the brick-ness, fill it in with spackle.

And.
And.
And.

When Mark was leaving to go to the grocery store, he said, "I really hope this is a fun project for us. And not stressful. Because I feel like its been stressful today." Which, I think, is largely because everyone else has an opinion about how we should live our life and what we should do and why and in what order and what's worth it and what isn't.

But we just aren't going to be able to please everyone. I hope this is fun for us too, and I don't know if that means not telling anyone what we're doing (to avoid their varying opinions) or telling people we are just sharing what we're doing, but not interested in any changes (my father once famously told me, "If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."). We might go get some counter quotes tomorrow, and maybe pick up some preliminary wall supplies while at Home Depot. I hope we can keep it to us trying some new things and leave everyone else out of it. Except my mother. She said she'd help. And she forgets her opinions pretty quickly anyhow.

How do you keep the peace when everyone wants to put their two cents in?

*How can you tell if you get your money back anyhow? Like, "Oh, by the way, if those were laminate, how much would you have paid for my WHOLE HOUSE?"