Decisions come in all shapes and sizes, as Neil Connor found out at the Good Homes Show ...
Yellow or Red? Red or Yellow? To the east of Birmingham yesterday there were thousands of people scratching their chins over a dilemma that could shape their futures.
Of course John Hemming and Jayne Innes might have been fighting over the marginal seat of Birmingham Yardley for the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
But over at the National Exhibition Centre things were getting really serious, as hordes of home lovers fretted over what was this season's colour for the front room, or whether opening up more space in the bathroom by axeing the shower would help increase their property's value.
Good Homes Show 2005 opened its doors at the NEC, scuppering any hopes that Tony, Michael and Charles had of ending voter apathy.
Of course, people are far from apathetic about DIY and home buying - you just had to look at the stroking of cushions and the feeling of curtains to realise that.
A string of TV house makeover shows have made home improvement one of the major pastimes of the British public.
And seven years into Good Homes Show, the crowds just keep lapping it up, as Laura Biggs, commercial director at organisers Haymarket explained.
"I think people are now more interested in making more of their homes because they are less likely to be satisfied with putting up with an environment they are not happy with," she said.
"This trend has been backed up by the number of TV programmes and magazines that can help many different people get involved with home improvement." The show is expected to attract a similar number of visitors to last year's - about 45-50,000.
"We tend to attract different people each year because many of our visitors are currently upgrading their homes," said Ms Biggs. "They want to get ideas from the show, or they want to buy things that might help them with DIY." As for DIY, there are plenty of demonstrations in practical workshops.
Tommy Walsh from the Ground Force TV programme chops and hacks his way through the How to Do It Yourself theatre. Other celebrity experts include Sarah Walker, Kristen Digby, Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer. For those visitors attempting to pick up that vase to go with the fireplace, or the fireplace to go with the vase, more than 400 exhibitors are at the show, many selling products you can walk away with.
Needless to say, standing on the bus back to the NEC's car parks can become a bit of an injury- prone exercise as brooms and vacuum cleaners take up the gangways.
Nevertheless, it was a better way to spend a couple of hours than analysing party manifestos.
And, of course, whoever wakes up this morning as MP for Yardley will think themselves lucky that Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen was not standing for election, too.
