before

Of course, this is something of a gamble: it's predicated on an After - in, maybe, about three weeks time. In that case, it'll fall into a well known tradition of sequential photography: the pairs designed to show improvement, transformation, "civilization," in the case of, say, Native Americans before and after their late C19th boarding school experiences, or Barnado's home children when just rescued from the streets, and then after a month or so of cleanliness, tidiness, and education. Only as we all know, many of these latter pictures were total fakes (and I've always wondered what the time sequence in TV home makeover shows actually is).

This end of the attic, though, is destined to look quite, quite different (well, indeed, one hopes so). And I'm pleased to have remembered to have actually taken a picture before work starts - I was looking at our kitchen counter tops today (yes, I know, trendy black granite..) and thinking hmmmm - I can't even remember what was there four years ago...