Before: After

Because everybody likes "Before" and "After" pics, right?

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BEFORE:
Plastic coppery counter tops and back splash. Non-matching white fake tile back splash next to oven. Stick on linoleum flooring. Repair to yellow wall. Cheesy runner along top of wall. Ubiquitous wood paneling for wainscot ting. Brown sink. Brown double oven. (Yep: three ovens, in all.)

AFTER:

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BEFORE:

White and blue faux marble sink and counter tops. Vinyl floors, blue walls. Extra walls, just to paint them blue. Dropped ceiling, to make more walls to paint blue. White and blue tile shower surround. Claustrophobic "privacy wall" that does nothing.

AFTER:

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BEFORE: Nice clam shell sink and goldenrod flocked wallpaper, which you can see we enjoyed ripping down. Check out how the silver mirroring is flaking from the backside of the mirror. Stay classy.

AFTER:(Not finished yet. Still needs back splash added.)

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BEFORE:

Nice view of the enclosed back porch, above.

Every time my wife saw that dated '70's style divider thingy on the right, she would exclaim, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!!!" She ripped it out with glee. Dig the coppery counter tops.

AFTER:

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BEFORE:

We pulled up the ugly carpet first thing. Note paneling, dirty fireplace, and mystery person redacted because she's shy. Ooh, and note the nasty Sauder particle board bookshelves installed by a "handy" prior owner.

AFTER:

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BEFORE:

Back porch with self-adhesive tiles and poor windows.

AFTER:

On the other hand...

Bad: I woke up earlier than I had planned to this morning, because of someone banging on my door and ringing my doorbell.

Good: When I got to the door, I found the Big Brown Truck of Goodness driving away, having just left a Package of Happiness for me.

Bad: I was up, and would never get back to sleep.

Good: Now that I was up, I got to open my Package of Happiness.

Bad: This would lead to me making a mess, and getting involved in a minor project. It also feeds my addiction.

Good: But, yay! Feed my addiction!

Bad: This crap is costly.

Good: But, yay! I paid for it last week. Source is here.

Bad: That box looked awfully damned small for the $30 I spent having it sent to me.

Good: Did I mention that the Stuff. Is. Here?!?

Bad: Well, they over-taped it and over-sealed it and I'll be lucky if I don't cut a finger off getting to the...

Good: ...pound of Guatamalan Vista Hermosa Peaberry, pound of Mexican Malinal Washed, pound of Costa Rican BCT Dota Select, and pound of Hawaiian Kauai-Reserve green coffee beans.

Bad: Now I had to decide which to try first.

Good: This is a problem? Every coffee drinker should have such a dilemma.

Bad: After roasting, grinding, filtering, boiling, pouring, stirring, steeping, and pressing, it took me 26 minutes to finally have a cup of Guatamalan Vista Hermosa Peaberry coffee.

Good: But what a cuppa.


Bad: While moving the supposedly ziplocked bag of Guatamalan Vista Hermosa, I slung about a quarter lb of the hard little beans all over my hardwood kitchen floor. Which really needed to be swept. Wow. Look at how far those hard little beans will bounce. To the living room, even. Huh. I wouldn't have guessed.

Good: I could pick it all up, right?

Bad: The floor needs to be swept BADLY. And mopped. I'm not consuming this.

Good: The Black and Decker 7.2 V DustBuster is the first example of the DustBuster that I've ever seen that was worth a crap. And we just got one for Christmas. This thing is mighty powerful, and is a wet/dry vac, too. Impressive. The battery life is surprisingly long, as well.

Bad: Should I recycle the beans out of the dust chamber? Should I? No, of course not.

Good: I made the right decision. Into the trash they went.

Bad: There goes about $3.00 US and a good pot of coffee or two.

Good: I've got more.