Never anything positive

Yesterday Heather and I went to Mike and Ramona's house to get some paperwork for them.  While there, I looked around the house.  Mike is a good handyman and does alot of home repair work.  Without meaning to put down his skills, I noticed that several projects were still not completed, including a deck project he had been working on for years.  They have a smaller yard and it's in dispepair with a dirty pool and many weeds.

I only mention this because I've always seen Mike as a great craftsman and have thought of what a great job he has done on his house.  By comparison, I have put myself in a lower category for the projects I've completed and the work that I do around the house.  Seeing some of his projects undone and not completed, gave me a better feeling about the work that I do around the house.  I have many projects and, while they are not perfect, most of them are completed and done.  I have a bigger yard and I keep it in good shape.  Again, not trying to put down Mike, but seeing that he wasn't perfect made me feel better about the work that I do around the house.  We have done alot here and we should be proud of it.

I spoke to Heather about this topic.  I mentioned my thoughts about Mike.  I also mentioned how my buddy, Chris, used to comment about how we made him feel lazy with all the work we did around the house.  I mentioned several other houses as well, and how much work we have done on this house.  I meant it as a compliment on the work that we had done.

Instead, Heather started defending Mike on reasons why he hasn't finished projects.  Mentioned that he has three houses that he's working on.  Said that I'm not basing my conclusions on enough data.  She said that the reasons that we have so many projects is that we have not kept up with the house.  Then she said that the projects that we had "finished" are not done because they were done so poorly that they need to be re-done again correctly in the future. 

A simple, "your right, we have done alot on this house" would have been a great answer.  Instead I left with this negativity.  I'll keep my own happiness knowing that I work hard and have done alot around the house.  I'll not be sharing such feelings with her in the future.