Another Quality Conversation with the Teen

Our house is not pretty. In fact, it's pretty plain and boring. A single story ranch with ugly brown trim. It wasn't even brown, really. More like the color of rust. The ugly brown trim was peeling paint which made it look even worse. In fact, that's how I gave directions: we're the corner house with ugly brown trim. They always found us.

We updated the trim to a more neutral, less gaudy color and added shutters for some aesthetic appeal. (Window boxes will be next, if I can figure out where to get decent ones for under $200 a piece.) Not huge changes, I'll admit, but surely noticeable, one would think.

BEFORE

AFTER
(you cannot imagine how much I dislike
those wires on the side of the house)

Bean, you haven't said anything about the house.

What about the house?

The outside.

What about the outside?

What? Go out and look at it.  [forces teenager outside]

Yeah?

Well?

Well what?

Do you like it?

Umm.... yeah.

The color. It's a new color. That's why that guy with the big painting van was parked outside our house.

Oh. OH! Yeah, I like it. It's nice.

Thank you. What about the shutters?

Umm.... they look exactly the same.

Exactly the same as what?

As the ones we had before.

We didn't have shutters before.

We didn't have shutters?

No, we did not have shutters.

Are you sure? I swear we had shutters.

No, we did not have shutters.

Oh. Well they look nice.

You don't see a difference, do you?

Not really. But in my defense it's not like I walk around staring at the outside of people's houses all day.



* I would post a picture of the actual front of the house, except that would mean remembering to take a picture of the actual front of the house. And it's not like I walk around taking pictures of the front of people's houses all day.