Day 17

The painter arrived this morning to prime the walls and ceiling. Everything is so white. Everything except the tile.

The assistant production manager brought a couple of boxes of tile in and set them in the living room.

"Here are the tiles."

"But....they're not white."

"They're the ones I was told to get."

"Yes, but they aren't white."

The poor young man looked at me as if I was....

"It says on the box Snow White."

I held one tile up to the white wall in the living room. The room which hasn't been painted in 9 years. The tile made the wall look pristine."

"This tile is...is...not white."

So The Little Princess sent the brave knight on a quest to find the brightest, whitest and within the alloted budget tile he could find in the entire realm.

There was no joy and the original boxes of not white tile were brought into the house. Deep sigh. Forlorn look.

The Little Princess turned to her ever faithful computer and searched for white tile. The whole idea of doing the bathroom in white was so it would be easy to match. It shouldn't be hard to find a white tile. A glossy, bright white, hospital white 4.25" x 4.25" tile. Who knew white came in so many shades? Bone, Bisque, Biscuit, Snow White, Ice White, Artic White, Eggshell, Alabaster, White Sand, Oyster, Cream, Sugar, Cotton, Linen, Lace, Vanilla, French Vanilla, Ivory, Candle Light. Deep sigh. Forlorn look.

During the Little Princess' search she found a tile company American Olean carried a 4.25" square tile in Ice White. She searched for a distributor and found one down the road a piece. She called to ask if they had a sample of the tile at the store. Yes, they did!

Because a meeting was cancelled, Himself came home early. Now Himself doesn't come in as many shades of color as The Little Princess. He categorizes colors like the Crayola 8s.

"The tile's here," said the Little Princess pointing to the boxes of tile.

"That's not white," said Himself.

The Little Princess nearly cried tears of relief.

"I'm not crazy!"

"Well, wouldn't go so far as to say that. But you're right. The tile isn't white. It needs more titanium added to it." Trust a chemist. Better living through chemistry.

I grabbed a tile and off we went to the tile store.

A saleswoman approached as we entered.

"May I help you?"

"Yes, I called earlier today about..."

"I have the tile right here."

She had a board with tiny tile chips in all different colors.

I compared the tile I had with me to the samples.

"I think you want the Ice White."

And so Ice White it will be.

The Little Princess is happy. Himself is happy because The Little Princess is happy. The contractor is happy because The Little Princess won't be sending him on another elusive quest for the White Goose.

As an aside, I bet the cabinet maker will be relieved he took one of the doors from the vanity as a sample so he can match the cabinets. We're painting the roses red. (-;