I got to where I was skipping down to pros/cons cause I just couldn't wait! Pretty funny stuff.

How funny :) Cats have such individual personalities, they keep you constantly entertained. My cats know better than to get on my countertops or table. They are surprisingly good about not counter surfing too. I was searching the house over for the female one day. Gave up for a while, & then went back into every room in search. Suddenly caught sight of the flicker of the tips of her ears. There was a box on top of my dining room table & she was in it. Much larger than the box Snoopy is occupying though :) Thanks for sharing :)

I'm creeped out by spruce beetles. I run if I even see them flying within a 100 meter radius. Who can blame me!! When I was 6 I had one fly down the back of my shirt. Mom didn't believe me. I was too calm? But inside I"m SCREAMING!! I remember the horror. So my brother, who is a year younger, was playing pirate and had a REAL hook to be Captain Hook. All sharp and curved and...yeah, moms don't let their 5 year olds play with that kind of thing these days, but there you go--implement of death. Anyways, he fished the spruce beetle out for me--impaled it on his hook! (Don't like Captain Hook either anymore, so two phobias for the price of one!)

I kind of spoke on behalf on the contractor, now let me voice the other side. Many painters aren't good business people for many reasons one of which is not articulating very well what they do. An unexpected skill in my job is translator. I translate to the painter what the homeowner is "really saying", I translate to the homeowner what the painter is "really doing". Many painters quote by "feel". They just know how much all things paint stuff should cost. Done it long enough they know how long it's going to take, how much paint, difficulty i.e. moving and protecting furnishings, setting up ladders & scaffolds, etc. Itemizing all that with prices can be tough for someone who doesn't relish articulating the finer details of what they do to begin with. And you do have a point that I wholeheartedly agree with, many of them just assume that we all see what they see in terms of scope of work. I know I most certainly did not. Took me a while to understand all the layers and how they contribute to the bottom line. $50 - $150 can be attributed to region, what's considered "standard" for a specific market. East coast costs compared to on-the-border costs where I am in the southwest almost always differ greatly. Second biggest factor in determining just how much a bunch o'color is gonna cost you is difficulty in execution. You're paying for skill, not just labor (like washing brushes) when it comes to execution. Where do the colors change - 8ft, 10ft, 22ft ceilings?, how many transitions, and the actual colors. Transitioning midtones room to room is a lot easier than incorporating several dark accent walls in a sea of light Latte-colored walls. When I spec color, I'm totally aware of just how is it going to get done, how much is it going to cost and do we have that kind of time and money to work with. Sometimes I have no choice but to come up with less complicated options. So it all depends. And that's why a range of $50 -$150 is a good benchmark to reference in broad, non specific discussions like this one.