My favourite one was when a bunch of us were invited to a Christmas party in a very straight talking GP friend's house. They'd not long moved in and had prioritised creating an open plan kitchen/diner/huge living space first which was gorgeous and where the party was being held.
To get there you had to go through the hall...bare walls and floorboards with dust sheets scattered about and cables/obstacles to climb over, no lampshades, bannister and railings under plastic.
The amount of people who, upon entering what was essentially a building site responded to,
"Ignore this mess, Richie has lost the key for the back gate - just come in this way, be careful on your way as it's a bombsite and head all the way down the hall to the kitchen!"
with an awkward...
"Oh, it's not a mess at all!!! The WALLS are such a beautiful/unusual/stunning/interesting colour/have such unusual patterns" was bizarre.
It was bare, still drying plaster, at various stages of drying hence the "patterns". And her weary responses got more blunt and exasperated as the arrival faff went on!