Too. Much. Choice. (Too. Many. Decisions.)

We’re about half way through my renovation project.

I say “we” – perhaps royally – because, any day that I have any involvement in the project – and that would be pretty much any day – I come home (actually my sister Kath’s home) and go into a swoon. Find me a fainting couch, ASAP.

I drop by my “real” home every couple of days to pick up my mail and to the see what’s up  Or tp make some decision about something that, prior to being asked to make a decision, I didn’t know existed. And that, post being asked about it, I realize I really don’t have an opinion on. Nor do I give a damn about.

Some things I do care about. Like paint colors. And they’re something I more or less understand. Or at least I know my own tastes.

In the past, I’d just go to the hardware store and figure out what colors I liked.

But this is a real project. And I made the mistake of sending away for a couple of Benjamin Moore color wheels.* Yowza!

Fortunately, I made a bee-line to the colors that are “mine.” And even more fortunately, I decided to use a professional to help figure out how the colors would hang together as we moved from room to room. The colors I ended up with aren’t that different than what I would have done on my own – hey, I picked Blue Hydrangea for the bedroom, and Blue Jean for the hall outside the bedroom – and Manchester Tan (which in my mind is actually called Manchester United, which I think would make it red) in the living room is pretty much what I already had there. Yet Linda’s deft touch is going to make the entire thing hang together. Blues and neutrals are us, with a slight detour into green (Peaceful Garden) for one of the bathrooms.

Most of my decisions were made over the summer: Plumbing fixtures: Grohe Seabury downstairs (Peaceful Garden) bathroom; Symmons Carrington upstairs (Santa Monica Blue) bathroom. Kitchen flooring: Armstrong Alterna – Enchanted Fog?; etc. (Why are there so many choices for kitchen sink???? My contract picked it up today so that we could have it for the countertop template. “Is this the one you ordered?” he

Yesterday’s pick of the day was the knobs and pulls for the kitchen cabinets. Easy-peasy.

Today’s is the countertops.

I had originally wanted to go with tempered glass. And I did my research, which suggested that it was going to be about twice what any normal person would spend on kitchen countertops. But, hey, I argued, this is a pretty small kitchen, and more than half of those countertops are only 12” wide. So I threw in what I thought was a fairly outlandish figure into my budget. Only to get an estimated that came in at nearly $500 per square foot. (How much of this is the Beacon Hill Markup is anyone’s guess. I’m guessing at least 50% of a whack for the address premium.)

For that kind of money, they should throw in both new pots and pans and a chef.

So today I’m going to pick something out.

Hey, tempered glass would have been nice, but I’ve had crappy formica countertops for the last 25 years. Anything will be an improvement. (I was leaning toward marble, until I read that if you squeeze a lemon or spill red wine within 20 feet of them, they turn into pitted messes. No thanks.)

We’re getting towards the end of the spending spree.

I still need to figure out a medicine cabinet for bathroom one, and a mirror for bathroom two. That should be relatively straightforward. I had to wait on these because bringing the bathrooms up to code meant the incredible shrinking vanity, and the incredible shrinking medicine chest. I think we’ve got it now.

At least I hope so.

There’s way too many decisions, way too much choice.

It’s going to be great, but, boy, do I want it done.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------*My cousin Ellen had a fun post on color names on her blog, Hello Lamppost. For the record, my favorite OPI name is “I’m Not Your Waitress.”