Today’s post is sponsored by 3M.

It’s a pretty exciting swap for Martin and me because we’re buying a lot of their products for the hangar remodel.

3M is a pretty big staple in airplane maintenance work, too.

They’re holding a video contest called Couple Speak that you guys might want to check out.  It’s all about how couples don’t always see eye-to-eye in DIY projects… and it comes with two $5,000 prizes for your YouTube videos and weekly $250 prizes for “translating” the videos on Facebook.

I’m ready to do it!

But uhh… that’s actually the biggest area where Martin and I don’t see eye-to-eye.  I’m ready to sit at the sewing machine, paint, and play.  He’s here reminding me to keep on working or we won’t be in the hangar loft house this winter.

So on I work!  Then I drag him to Shakespeare in the Park at the end of the day. And we’re both happy.

If you and your partner don’t see things the same way and have a wee bit more time than us, totally consider entering that DIY contest.  You actually don’t feature 3M products in your short clip.  I mean, cash is cash, right?!

You can also share the fun on Twitter or Facebook.  Rules are:

• make a video demonstrating a couple-speak challenge – less than 2 minutes
• keep it clean, not mean!
• no 3M products can be shown in the video
• end your video with a provided end reel animation of one of five 3M products that could have helped the situation from the “materials files” on the 3M FrameWorksFacebook page

(Martin in deep engineer brain mode; me playing with the camera instead of examining dust masks like I should.)

One of the questions I got on this post of all your questions was:

How do you and Martin work together and know who does what in the remodel?  I’m guessing you two think pretty differently.

Everything tends to fall into place naturally, as insane as that sounds.  Martin does the engineering-type work; I do the handyman, cleaning, sanding, painting, assisting…. and lunch.

Somehow, it comes together.

Martin is your typical German engineer.  He is always thinking of what is logical and efficient.  Function always comes before form.

Meanwhile, I’m an emotional thinker.  I like a lot of color and the sounds words make.  I love the function Martin thinks of… as long as it’s pretty.  I won’t let him lock in on an idea until it makes sense to me aesthetically; he doesn’t give the thumbs up until it’s logical.

“Why on earth do you keep cutting apart fabrics just to sew them right back together?  That’s soooo illogical,” he’ll tease.

When we’re DIYing together, we’ll both pick something that is REALLY important to us and get all stubborn about it.

Martin was determined to fit a dishwasher into our old kitchen in Berlin; I really wanted an open countertop that protruded from the space that I could use from both sides.

I wanted the yellow walls; Martin wanted proper venting for the fridge.

In the end, I guess everything turns out pretty well.  Let’s see if we can do it again!

How about you guys?  Does your team always agree?  What’s the biggest thing you put your foot down for?