Everyone knows that I wouldn’t be the person I am or have the family and home I do without HH. He’s my support system and my partner in crime. I have the vision; he brings it to life. I think it’s high time HH had a voice on House*Tweaking, don’t you? HH has graciously agreed to field one ‘Ask Handy Hubby’ question a month. You can ask him about anything from DIY to what it’s like living with me. {Surprise! I’m not always easy to live with.} Just leave your question in the comments section below.

Q: We all know how Dana feels about the surround sound speakers you insisted on installing. Are there any design decisions she’s made that you wish she wouldn’t have? – Giordi

{The dreaded boob speakers.}

A: So yeah, this was supposed to be a once-a-month thing but you can see how well that’s worked out so far. It’s not due to a lack of questions. You guys rock.

Hi, Giordi.  Thanks for the question.

To be very honest, there haven’t been many design decisions that Dana has made that I wished she hadn’t. Anything questionable, I’ve come to really like over time. A recent example of this was Mabrey’s room.

I came home from a work trip and Mabrey’s room was BLACK – or so it appeared to me! I absolutely detested it. I kept having visions of my sweet little daughter growing up to be a goth teen with black fingernails, locking herself in her cave and listening to The Cure all day. {I hope I didn’t offend the large portion of goth H*T readers just now.} It reminded me of a room one of my fraternity brother’s had that was painted completely black, furniture and all. When you walked in you felt your soul slip away. This was the same guy who would order chemicals used to make plastics off the internet for “personal experimentation.” But I digress. I wasn’t fond of the color.

Once we started adding all the light elements though (mirror, wall stuff, white changing table, floating shelves, etc.), the room really took shape. Now I love it. Dana knew what she was doing after all ;) and I’m learning that’s usually the case. She has a gift in the ability to see things in their entirety before they’re done.

I’m going to elaborate a bit further since I think it’s especially pertinent given a recent post. While there haven’t been many design decisions she’s made that I’ve ultimately disliked, there have been MANY design decisions that I’ve questioned “WHY?!” I’ll let you in on a little secret about Dana. She changes her mind. A lot. Maybe that’s not a shocker. I often shake my head in frustration and say “I can’t keep up with you, woman.” Dana alluded to one of these times when she repainted over the stenciled area in the laundry room. She felt I was disappointed because I thought it was a mistake. That’s not the case. I make mistakes constantly. Sometimes the same one twice.

I think the fact that we approach projects from completely different perspectives is at the core here. The reason I bring it up is that I think you’ll find this is common in a lot of relationships. Dana approaches things from an asthetic perspective. She wants things to look and “feel” effortless and natural. And while it often takes several tweaks to get there, she always does. While asthetics are important to me as well, I approach things with more of a focus on functionality, time and money. A perfect example of this conundrum was the boys’ bedroom.

Dana wanted to repaint the bedroom a few weeks ago from a light gray-blue to a taupe. When she told me this, all I could think of was how less than 7 months ago I was painstakingly prepping and painting that room at 9pm on a Thursday. And I could not help but run through the laundry list of tasks that I felt were a higher priority {finish second bathroom, fix the front door, fix the garage door, cover the opening to the attic, put the baseboards back on in the hallway, complete the area above the TV, etc.) We liked the gray-blue. Was the improvement really going to be worth the effort?

{A sneak – albeit messy – peek at the boys’ freshly painted room. Yes, that is an “I love you” note taped to the bunk with painter’s tape.}

In this case, yes, it was worth the effort.  The color is much better in the room and I’m glad we did it. In the end, I think these different perspectives actually complement each other, as long as we recognize them. I keep her honest and somewhat focused, making sure she pauses to consider all the implications. She doesn’t allow me or our home to become stagnant. She enables our house to reach its full potential – something I wouldn’t be able to come close to on my own. – HH

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle

“I don’t think about death in a romantic way anymore.” – Robert Smith of The Cure

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking