How to Give Your Contractor a Heart Attack,

your husband a stress-filled lunch and yourself eyes full of tears...

I really wanted to show you how the rooms look all nice and freshly painted, but guess who came to join the party?

The table saw!

He's taken residence in order to get our bathroom tile work done.

Remember our tile, cabinet and counter top choices?

So here's a big pile ready to go:

Here are rows and rows of tile that was specially cut to line the shower walls. They didn't come in the size we wanted, so two men spent the whole day yesterday cutting and cutting and cutting.

Then they started laying the tile on the diagonal, just like I asked them to do.

Here's the heart attack:

doesn't the tile look SO MUCH DARKER than the tile I selected?

Let's compare:

I thought it would lighten up overnight, but it didn't.

Today when the contractor knocked on the front door, I mentioned to him that it looked, um....too dark. He replied, "Well, it only comes in two colors: walnut and ivory. That's walnut!"

I think it should be ivory. He says we ordered walnut. His wife who was with us at the tile store says walnut. The tile guy at the store says walnut. Am I crazy?

I showed the contractor this picture, and he assured me that we did indeed pick the walnut.

As long as it matches the counter tops, I'll be happy.

Right now, I'm nervous. And the table saw drones on...