It’s been a couple of weeks since we heard a genuine anecdote about home remodeling installation failure and it just seems like the right time to serve up another.
Not long ago, a family friend of mine who lives in rural Southern New Jersey decided enough was enough. She had a teal, cracking wooden mantle surrounding her fireplace. Matters were made worse by the thick, wall-to-wall light pink carpet adorning the room in question. It was ugly – at best it was outdated. I visited her just after she had come to the decision to tear up the carpet and expose the wood below. I endorsed the decision because, and let’s be honest here, a decades old thick, stained, pink carpet that really never should have been laid down in the first place had run its course years ago. She then told me that instead of painting over the teal wooden molding she would do one better. She was going to have contractors come in and re-do the fireplace front with marble. Additionally, she requested that they widen the front and re-do the interior of the cauldron. She seemed to be happy with the choice, but knowing her finicky nature I had a pretty good idea of just what was going to happen.
Out with the old, in with the new.
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