‘AITA for painting a curse word on the wall of my friend’s new house’ has Reddit divided

‘AITA for painting a curse word on the wall of my friend’s new house’

A Reddit user named @Top_Reserve_9853 explained that their friend and his wife had bought their first home, describing the job as a “fixer-upper” which the writer has been helping them out with fixing, free of charge on their weeks off from work.

Since the writer’s father was a handyman and contractor, they have a lot of skills and experience with doing maintenance, repairs, and upgrades on a house: “I also have pretty much all the tools I need to do most of the work.”

When helping paint the dining room, the writer had everything set up the way they wanted before the friend’s wife decided to let their dogs into the room they were painting.

One of the dogs stepped on the paint roller tray and then jumped up on the painter – leaving paw prints on the decorator and mud in the paint primer.

After preparing a new tray of paint, the decorator wrote an explicit curse word in huge letters on the wall using primer.

Since primer is the coat of paint that is put down before the actual paint, the curse word stuck to the wall.

The friend’s wife soon noticed the curse word on the wall and “freaked”, claiming that the painter was “drawing profanity in her house.”

The Reddit post was uploaded on the first day of December 2023 and has currently received over 9,000 votes and nearly 2,000 responses in the comment section.

Friends become enemies after joking around while decorating house

After finishing the job and going home, the decorator then explained that he recieved a call from the friend who said: “I had really upset his wife with my childishness and that she would not let me back until I apologized.”

When asked to provide a picture of the wall, the homeowner explained it was no longer there as it had been painted over.

The writer therefore questioned what the problem was since the word wasn’t there anymore but the friend stated they “needed to apologize” and “could not come back” until they did.

Since the incident, the friend has called the decorator and asked if they are coming to finish painting. The writer explained: “I said I wasn’t ready to apologize yet and maybe I would when I got back. I probably won’t.”

The wife is now telling people that the decorator is a bad person “for leaving a job half finished.” To argue against the claim, the painter tells everyone who asks that they were “working for free” and that they told them to not return.

Since being shared on the social media discussion website, somewhat debate has sparked in the comment section.

A user named @Alternative_Two9654 argued that the writer is not in the wrong, asking: “Did they even offer to pay you for the job to begin with? If not they aren’t entitled to your time.”

The Reddit writer responded, explaining: “They didn’t need to offer to pay. I was glad to help. I have a lot of free time on my weeks off and I was glad to do it.”

Another user shared their opinion: “If they want you to come back and paint their stupid fixer upper-for free then they can suck it up and be grateful. Not act like their highnesses are doing you a favor by ‘letting’ you paint on your time off from work.”

Amongst the shocked responses, a sarcastic comment read: “Oh, thank you so much for letting you work away for free!”

@No_Lavishness_3206 also sarcastically wrote: “NTA. Ohh what a scary threat. You can’t come back and work for free on your days off unless you apologize.”

Someone else pointed out that “if they hired a professional, after the dog incident, they would have been charged extra.”

Another comment suggested that the decorator is not in the wrong, listing that they are “doing hundreds if not thousands of dollars of work for free. There seems to be no appreciation for that.”

The same comment pointed out that the homeowners let the dogs in the room to make the painter’s job harder, finalizing: “There is literally no lasting consequence to your actions. The word probably stayed on the wall less than five minutes.”

Another Reddit user suggested that the painter is “being taken advantage of in this friendship.”

A divided opinion posted by @UnequalPenguin wrote: “Everyone’s childish here.”

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