Lisa Speaks

Here’s what I want to say to Fred, but I’m afraid his reaction may delay our completion:

The house looks beautiful, there’s no doubt about that. The colors, the materials, the workmanship, the lighting. All of these things are everything we could dream of.

Yet while our house is truly beautiful, it doesn’t quite look like the house we dreamed of, the house we spent six months designing on paper.

Case in point: the beautiful granite bar was designed with a curve to match the curve of the sink and the cupboards. The window in the front bathroom was a bit bigger to let in more light. We planned for lots of built-ins for storage and convenience, from the “banquette” in the kitchen nook, to the desks in the boys’ rooms, to the little attic-access door that opened from the family room side wall, and for whatever reason, some valid, these parts of our dream are not realized.

This week, I have been completely thrown off by the stair railings. Dana called to ask me if I wanted them to be white or black, but I thought they were wooden. She informed me that was “too expensive” and that they were iron. We (you and Bill and I) had just talked about the railings, and I told you I wanted something simple, just plain, unadorned, rails. I assumed we were talking about wood since we designed wood rails in our plan.

When you sat down with us in July, we were so excited to be with you. You told us repeatedly and emphatically that your bid included everything “in the plans.” When I asked about the wood stair railings, you replied, “Is it in the plans?” Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that many of our special features, features we loved, were “finishes” and not included (the banquette, the desk, the tall linen closet in the boys’ bathroom).

So, I guess you have been feeling our disappointment. Again, there is no doubt that the house is beautiful, it’s just not the way we dreamed it.