Spousal Miscommunications

We had a moisture problem in our hall bath. Water had managed to get behind the tiles surrounding the tub and change the shape of the wall—and by change the shape I mean it used to be, you know, flat, and then it became not-so-flat. Each time we bathed the baby I swore it was only a matter of time before tiles started falling into the tub. We finally decided something had to be done and started the process of hiring a “Tile Guy”. First Tile Guy wanted too much (for what he wanted we could have installed a Jacuzzi tub in our bathroom and I could have hired someone to bring me drinks while bathing) second Tile Guy didn’t show, but third Tile Guy’s price was right and he was able to start the job quickly. Hubby suggests putting in tile that matches the beige-ish floor tiles and going with a larger tile rather than the small white tiles that were there. I agree and we take a trip down to the local home improvement store to check out what’s available. Indeed they had shower wall tiles that matched our floor tiles, and they were larger—I’d say about a 5-6” square as opposed to the 4” squares we had. Somewhere along the way we had a conversation that went something like this:

Hubby: So, you like the darker tiles?

Me: Yes, they’ll look nice with the floor tiles since they match.

Hubby: And you like the larger tiles?

Me: Yes.

Fast forward to day of tile installation and I glance down the hall to check on Tile Guy's progress. After the unfortunate realization that the plumber's butt "feature" also carries over to Tile Guys I then look to see huge 12” tiles going up on the bathroom wall! The same size as the ones on the floor. What the…? How on earth did this happen, I’m thinking. I call hubby at work to blow my top politely explain the situation and his response is: “You said you wanted the larger tiles!” Umm, yeah, larger than the ones we had—not as big as the ones on the floor! So, hubby comes home [he’s only right down the street] to check on things as I’m asking Tile Guy if you can even use these tiles on a wall because to me they look like floor tiles and I’ve never seen that large of a tile on a bathroom wall. He assures me you can use them and that he’s had other bathrooms done with them. After much debate between the hubby and I in front of poor confused Tile Guy we finally decide it’s fine, no biggie, we’ll stick with it. And the bathroom does look good. I think the moral of the story here is that next time I need to “get it in writing” since apparently hubby’s interpretations are vastly different than mine. You’d think I’d know better by now.