This Side of the Pond

It can come as a shock to realize your thoughts on a subject have been wildly different to those of your significant other for an entire decade, though the topic is so mundane that it’s never occurred to either of you that the other might think differently. The husband and I have picked our way through dozens of cultural differences, but every so often we stumble over a new one.

The context of this disturbing revelation is that we are undergoing a renovation project. We’re moving entire rooms into a more sensible order and filling the gaps to turn a house that was originally built for a bachel...