Thinking Outside The Box

Today is home improvement day. 

B-man and I have decided to re-carpet our lower level and re-furnish our living room.  

Instead of just replacing what we have, this is an opportunity to do everything different.

To inspire new thinking, DSH Vetyver is the

Scent of the Day.  With its gasoline/leather/musty attic/second hand smoke opening, Vetyver settles into its namesake slowly...unlike many others.

Armed with a feisty perfume, I am ready to shake it up.

The excitement of home improvement is dampened by the tedium of buying the products.  Let's take carpet, for example.

B-man is doing most of the decision making, dealing with both sales people and installers.  He has a much better eye for these things, so I trust his judgment and know that, by the time it gets to me, he has done all the hard work.  

After spending hours filtering through carpet possibilities, B-man brings home three samples and I pick one in under three minutes.  He is amazed by this.

I'm like, 'what, it's just carpet.'  

We're not talking about cheese, after all.

Then, there's Paige.  I keep forgetting we have a furry toddler that loves to act up for strangers.

Paige looking so very innocent with her toy monkey

The guy that measures the rooms comes to our house this morning.  Paige doesn't like it.  She barks, but not in a bare-your-teeth 'I'm going to kick your ass' way.  No, it's more of a 'bitch, what are you doing on my turf?' sort of way.  

Measuring Guy doesn't know the difference and looks all nervous as I go downstairs to interrupt B-man's workout so that he can handle the whole carpet prep thing.  Then, I make Paige stay upstairs with me, sitting at my feet.  She looks mournfully over her shoulder with eyes that say, 'you so don't get me.'

Later in the day, Paige gets to stay home and Think About What She Did while B-man and I go place our order for the carpet.  We're waiting for B-man's favorite sales person and it's hot, crowded with other people who are also mingling in Carpet Hell.  The hotter I get, the more I can smell us.

B-man is wearing Azzaro as his SOTD, which is a lovely compliment to Vetyver.  But as we stand there, waiting in the heat, all I can think is, 'god, we reek.'  I envision everyone else in the store thinking, 'what reeks?'  Then they plan an attack and we can't get out and...

An idle mind is the devil's workshop.

Mercifully, B-man's guy gets to us and we purchase the carpet and decide to look for living room furniture later, when we feel fresh and inspired. 

We end our shopping with the most important errand of the day, buying cheese.

Thinking outside the box is hard work.

Pictures from fotosearch.com and B-man