The Faults In Our Floors

"Nope."

"No."

"Not that one."

"Absolutely not."

Or is it absolutely knot?

DW likes perfect pieces of wood, and for her, that means unblemished, creamy-honey-coloured slats.

I, on the other hand, love the little waves of different shading and the imperfections in the cut of a piece of hardwood flooring. I like a board that has character.

At the very start of our home-reno project, DW stated that she was hoping for perfect pieces of wood. "I don't like the imperfections," she said.

"But I'm full of imperfections and you love me," was my comeback.

"Precisely why I don't need any more imperfections in my life."

I pointed out that if we only chose what she thought were perfect pieces of wood, we'd blow through our pile of wood pretty quickly and would be left with more pieces of marked wood than we could hide in closets.

She saw my point but still claims veto power over pieces that she finds too knotty.

Or did she mean naughty?

"That one looks like a vagina," she said of a piece that I was admiring. Maybe that's why I was admiring it so much?

"That one looks like a squashed bug."

It's taking us longer to finish the hardwood flooring than we counted on. Perhaps, in addition to some tricky sections and some pieces that ended up warped, we're delayed by DW's overly discerning choices in wood?

The project continues.