About that color......

After submitting to months of wisecracks about my need for red shag rugs, rusty-smokey-pumpkin versus mossy-oak paint for the outside of the shipping containers, and other colorful topics, I got THE CALL that it was time to decide on the exterior paint color.

It was to be Jason, Michael, Me, Natalie and cheese burgers at Ebbet's.....Natalie as a possible mediator....cheese burgers as a probable deal maker....Ebbet's as a too-little-elbow-space for any significant violence or hand-wringing. (And don't think this wasn't planned in advance.)

Lunch was polite....the cheese burgers were good, and then it was time for a SHOWDOWN IN THE SUN-DRENCHED SILENCE OF THE PARKING LOT.......with Michael packing the chain of paint chips from Sherwin Williams, and the rest of us empty-handed. Names of colors like Laughing Orange....Amazing Gray....Balanced Beige.....Adano Bronze......Gusto Gold.....clacking through the air with piercing possibilities. We picked seven.....spit out their names while Jason wrote them down....and then went our separate ways.

Jason got a small can of each color, went out to the house and painted a long stripe of each on the side of the container.....propped up some of the cedar boards next to them that we will use on the porches......and a few hours later, I rolled in to stand back and look and.........decide. Jason had already picked his favorites, but kept them to himself. I picked the darkest one on the end, thinking it looked best with the cedar and it certainly looked like it belonged with the tree trunks and the river that were there first. BLACK FOX is the name of the shade, and that also happened to be Jason's pick.

We were standing there, firming up our decisions, and Todd (the builder) happened by. He made a smart remark about the seven-color rainbow painted on the wall of the container, and how it would look much better if we could just narrow it down to one color.......and agreed then, that the dark charcoal-brown looked the best. As did Michael, later on. As did Natalie.

It's going to be awesome. Jason remarked that the tree-trunk-charcoal-brown shade makes it less about the containers themselves and more about the land where they sit. And he may be right. (I wonder if that was part of the plan.)

Gabe has finished all of the wiring for the security, entertainment, and network systems....a one-tetanus-shot-only job....for which I will be eternally proud and grateful.....the insulation is in the roof....the inside looks real clean and organized in preparation for the next insulation phase....and I'll try to keep a more silent tongue and a clear head for whatever showdowns are next.