*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors

It’s tough to figure out exactly when it is that there needs to be some real work done on a project. Like, when exactly should one eschew a fresh paint job for their crib and just demo then rebuild from scratch? What’s the trigger? Where’s the fuck-this-bullshit threshold?

I, for one, am all about considering a simple paintjob as a solution to an aesthetics issue. Sometimes it’s just not as bad as you think, but if you start poking around, you’ll find enough errors to justify razing the whole building. But really, it’s no worse than anything that’ll replace it, so a fresh coat of paint is just as good as any other more extreme measure, but without all the unnecessary collateral damage.

However, that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s a tabby in a canary suit. Elmer’s in the cereal instead of milk. It’s something beyond the help of aesthetics and lip service; it simply has to GO.

So how far does one push it?

When it’s time to spit your palms and truly, honestly dig in and get some real work done, sometimes a full-throttle job isn’t even really necessary. Usually because the job will likely get itself done, and will only get more complicated with the more effort you put into it. Best to simply prep and bide your time. Like, when any random girl is really mad at her ex-boyfriend for dumping her on (or within +/- four months of) Valentine’s Day, so she decides to give him a bangin’ case of post-relationship herpes to get even.

It happens.

This will totally work itself out because all she has to do is sleep with any of his roommates or his dad and statistically speaking, she’d have to be teeming with the stuff. Then she’s just got to wait for that drunken 3am text ‘wut u doin’.

The standard time-table for these things states that dude will be anonymously whispering about burning-dick pox to a clinical professional within two weeks from the moment she decides he needs to pony up the karma overdraft fee. She won’t have to work hard to get that job done (aside from also contracting the herps, but that’s the price one must pay for willingly dealing in vengeful scorn: burn-weepy genitalia).

And there’s no need to dress up the chore, either. Again, it’s a charge that pretty much handles itself. The ex always comes-a-callin’. Always.

Back to my paint-vs-demo for a building analogy:

So there’s a couple of new heads in The Hall, and I have to ask the question: the result of the elections seriously feels like little more than a new layer of paint, and is that what we need right now? With everything that's building up and out around us?

Not that I'm trying to be alarmist here, because I'm not.

Like I said before, I often times feel that some projects are over-thought, over-engineered, and eventually end up costing more in headaches and cash than are necessary. But just a paint job? I mean, is that what we really needed to have happen here? Too little? Too much?

I’m seriously asking this.