This Ol' Dump?!

There's nothing to make you hate your house more than going to The (Seattle) Home Show! Why do we do this to ourselves every year?! Our deck? Old, a bit slimey, and in need of repair. The Home Show decks? Astro-material, lasts forever, rock-sold and wood-pretty. Our roof(which we'll soon need to replace)? Cracked, filthy, sprouting a forest. The Home Show roofs? Indestructible. Fully fireproof. Even green (as in enviro-friendly)!

And the Home Show kitchens? Oh my goodness. Just tease me...

We did buy a hot tub to replace the one we lost in the windstorm in December. It's a bit smaller and not quite as fancy, but perfectly sufficient for our needs. Because we were happy with Clearwater Spas, from whom we bought our previous hot tub, we paid them a visit at the Home Show and they showed us this tub. Looked fine to us, but being wise consumers, we wanted to shop around a bit. Vultures! They're all vultures at these exhibitions! Geeeeeeze! The second we showed any interest in a hot tub at all, salespeople would swoop down and attempt to rip into us! They'd ask us one question, barely wait for an answer, and then start into their speil, blabbing away, telling us why they're better than any other dealer at the show. In fact, more than once they'd insist that "no other hot tub can offer ________" Bull! We know for a fact that we were lied to, and in one case I even called the guy's bluff, mostly because I just happened to have a coupon from Costco that basically called him on a bunch of BS he'd just spent 10 minutes on! Long story short, we went back to Clearwater and bought the first spa we looked at.

Every year we go to the Home Show we come back wanting not only a new fancy house, but a beautiful mountain cabin, new landscaping, new furniture, and a new truck. Hell, right now I'd settle for a finished master bathroom and clean master bedroom... which should hopefully happen soon! Here's the current status: