What A Way To Pick A Color

[RSteve]

I stopped by to visit with a friend at his condo today. His condo is in a very large building in an upper middle class St. Paul suburb. He's in his mid 60s, divorced for about 20 years from an absolutely horrible woman. His son is about 25. He's a CPA and allowed himself to be torched by his ex in the divorce settlement, even though they'd only been married less than five years. Going into his condo, I immediately noticed that it had been freshly painted throughout the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. All were painted a somewhat relaxing light tan, after previously being an institutional off-white. Curious, I asked why he'd gone to tan.
"Steve, to tell you the truth, the walls needed paint and I really wasn't too concerned about color. I went to Home Depot to buy paint with no particular color in mind. I just wanted one color for the three rooms. I was walking down the paint aisle and at the end cap were several cans of "mistakes." There was a 5-gallon plastic tub of Behr Ultra for $18.00, so that's what's on the walls."
I had to laugh. My friend is financially comfortable. He bought "mistake" paint and painted himself...and actually did a really nice job.

I'm not sure if I would or wouldn't have done the same thing. The paint he bought is regularly $36.00 gallon. He got 5 gallons for $18.00 and it's a pretty nice color.

 

[RSteve]

I just got back from Home Depot, where I went to buy some fluorescent tubes for my kitchen. Thinking of my friend, I looked to see what was on the "mistakes" end cap; nothing but dark colors or variations of pink.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I appreciate personalities and people who can be this loose with decisions. I'm generally not like that, but it is an aspiration. In my opinion, something worthy of a wee bit of envy. What's that idiom? Don't sweat the small stuff. Or is that a platitude? Which makes me think of the book, which I've never read, titled Don't Sweat the Small Stuff..and It's All Small Stuff.

 

[GtrSmoker]

My brother in law swears by the clearance sections of Lowe’s and Home Depot. He and my sister have owned roughly six homes in the past two decades, each one bought as a fixer-upper but used as their residence while he slowly but surely turns them into showpieces.

It’s a much slower version of house flipping. I haven’t asked specifics, but I imagine his rate of return is impressive, considering at least 75% of the fixtures he uses he bought for pennies on the dollar. It’s like his super power.

 

[RSteve]

My late wife's brother is a skilled carpenter, sometime general contractor. He's bought several homes and used ReUse Warehouse for most of the materials and appliances in his rehab ventures.

Dying of thirst in a barren desert, I wouldn't buy a gallon of water from him for $1.00, even if I had $1000.00 in my pocket.