Professional vs personal...

There is absolutely no painting going on today or will be until maybe next week.  Even after such a small job, my hands and body are in agony.  So, I am resting and resting and resting some more.

I find it interesting that all of the personal opinions I have actually received about the post color has been to paint it house red, as I am inclined to do.  However, all of the professional opinions that I have received (Interior Designer, Realtor, and Broker) have been to leave the posts white.  The broker I talked to tonight was helpful because I asked him to explain his thought process behind his decision.

That ... explain to me what you mean or what is behind that thought or conclusion ... is something I am learning to do ... to be braver about doing. I get so confused, at times, but I find it difficult to admit just how much I don't understand.  Asking for clarification in a way that is asking for help makes the request seem to defuse any potential defensiveness on the part of the person to whom I am speaking.

Anyway, the broker said that I don't want to highlight the posts over the porch or the house itself.  By leaving them white, I have a clean line of sight that will accentuate the new red trim around the window and door. Plus, the white paint will wear much better than the red.  Given the terrific storms that now blow across the back porch, that is a rather cogent point.

The paint I have is that special wood/deck/floor whatever paint I got last year in the GREEN for the basement steps that takes FOREVER to cure.  After being snowed on all winter, I can honestly say that the airing porch railing still looks freshly painted.  It is not dirty in the least, where as the primed railing below is dirty and in horrid condition.  So, painting the posts the same paint as the railing has its merits.

I suppose that I could try and match the house red in the special paint, but I think it might be best to stick with the high quality exterior paint on all the wood.  It is built for weathering in a different way. Maybe I am just talking in circles, but I have been surprised to find myself in agreement with leaving the posts white.

The other argument that comes to my mind is that painting them white makes the painting Firewood Man is going to do with me easier.  Not having to cut in around all the railing and such.  He is over painting, having had so very many people asking him for help in that department in the past couple of years.  I can understand and respect his desire to paint as little as possible for me.  He, however, is adamant that I not do the painting that requires standing on a ladder.  I am in complete agreement with him.

Actually, I want to beg and whine and plead and promise him my first born to get him to paint the railing, too.  I really, really, really want someone else painting it.  However, I know he would say, "Yes" even if the job would make him miserable.  He would not be saying "Yes" for the money, but for me.  I do not wish him miserableness.

The TALL grass was mown today.  All that hot weather combined with rain made it go a little crazy in the growing department.  He both admired my painting job, stating that he didn't realize how good the steps would look (I LOVE EFFUSIVE ADULATION), and the growth on my rose bushes.  He is in doubt about the power of planting banana peels, but I have dutifully done so for each rose bush.  The rose bush that is actually a tree now has three banana peels resting beneath it, one on each side and one in front.  Amos is sorry that my spate of eating bananas is over because he liked licking the peanut butter off the knife when I was finished with it.

Do you eat peanut butter on your bananas?????

Back to the contrast, in my final few jobs, I was always puzzled how folk would make professional things personal.  A task or a project is about the company/organization, not about the person.  For example, folk would get super possessive of their computers and their work, when in reality both were the property of the company/organization.  Asking folk to put all their work on the server in a standardized filing system so that all could access it was somehow akin to accusing folk of being terrible employees who need to be monitored at all times.

They would rather someone have to go track down whoever did a particular piece of a property development project, then be able to simply log onto the server and open the document.  No matter that the latter is far more efficient and cuts down on the institutional loss that stems from employee turnover (folk don't have to re-do what was already done).

My duties in knowledge management were always fraught with hurt feelings rather than rejoicing over finally, for example, having all the photos in one location, divided by property and then sub-divided by pre-construction, construction, and post-construction.  That just boggled my mind.

But, then again, there is so very much that I didn't understand back when I was capable of understanding....