PERENNIAL PAINTERS

In the Spring of 1992, Larry of Perennial Painters received a call from a couple who lived in, arguably, the largest house in a neighborhood known for its large houses. On its third floor,this wood-framed behemoth housed two large bedrooms, a full bath, and a billiard room with a table that [as local legend reputes] was lowered into place through an opened roof by a crane. Larry figured that the carriage house, which sat near the alley, was actually larger than his own house.

As you're driving home after having dinner at Judy and Frank's house, your wife asks you, while staring out the window, "Do you think that we could wallpaper our dining room, too?" Frank and Judy had recently hung this very attractive red paper on their dining room walls. It was artfully emblazoned with black fleur-de-lis that created a sort of mesmerizing 3-D effect. Even as you savored your grilled salmon, your eyes couldn't help but return to the walls that surrounded you.

Larry Wahler, the house-painter, is sitting on the deck in the back of his customer, Dave's house. It is a very pleasant, late morning in June in Rockford IL; and Larry soaks up the sun that reflects off the Rock River which flows by peacefully some thirty yards in front of him. As Larry gazes through the hickory leaves above him, the family's wire-haired terrier, Izzy, suddenly bounds off the deck in pursuit of another squirrel. Larry now reflects back to four years earlier

As you are walking down the street to your friend Ed's, you are anxious to see how the painting is going on the outside of his house. He had marveled last summer over the stunning job that those guys from Perennial Painters had done on your house; so you gave him one of their cards and sang their praises as you and he quaffed down a couple cold ones in your back yard. But Ed had subsequently called you complaining of the Perennial's price tag; he decided to go with a cheaper