I Painted My House

It all started like a vague idea in my head, until I voiced it. To my regret Lilly was around and she heard it. I wanted to paint the house; more accurately I wanted to get someone to do it. Before I knew it, Lilly was on the phone looking for painters. In a couple of phone calls she had lined up two appointments for painters to come and give us estimates. I knew my goose was cooked. The money I wanted to spend on something useful like shoes, or may be a few beers at my watering hole at Hot Peppers was now earmarked for painting the house.

The first painter arrived at six on a Friday evening. I was home alone. I did some quick thinking after I let him in. I didn’t like his looks. If I don’t like him then we don’t have to paint. Do you get my drift? Anyway I took him through the exercise of estimating the work. His estimate was a whopping $ 950 dollars. Impossible, I muttered; that’s three pairs of high quality shoes! I could go to Hot Peppers for drinks every weekend for a year with that kind of money.

I told him I would call him back. I was thinking; Lilly will never know I got an estimate. But carelessly I left the estimate on the coffee table and Lilly saw it when she came home. More was to come.

To my consternation, a second painter arrived Sunday morning when I was still in bed. He too had his own estimate. That morning Lilly did the unusual thing, she brought breakfast for me in bed! My escape root was closing in on me. The second painter gave us an estimate of some staggering $1,100 dollars plus tax! My shoes! My beer! My mind…