Crystal Clear Coding – Theme Overhaul Phase Three

When something is that damned good, it’s worth spreading the word to others.

One of our biggest projects for 2008 is a full blog design overhaul. Our first phase of the project was searching high and low for themes that we liked and functionalities that we wanted on our blog. In phase two, we booked Brian Gardner to customize everything to our tastes and needs.

Phase three was installing the template files. I felt like we were celebrating Christmas a week early. I was so excited that I spent 11 hours playing with the blog. One minute, the sun was coming up and I was installing the files. The next minute, I looked up from the computer and the world had gone to bed. My roommate was snoring from down the hall, the cats were sacked out, and I couldn’t remember having eaten all day.

Brian Gardner’s blog themes are the best I’ve ever seen. His coding is pristine, easy to read and straight to the point. He has some excellent Flash tutorials on his site that walk you through the home page management and setup. Brian’s voice-over takes you through the process step by step.

How’s that for quality? It’s like driving a beater for 10 years and suddenly having someone hand you the keys to a flashy new Goldwing or Mercedes.

One of the plug-ins we installed did conflict with the functionality of post excerpts. When all else fails, delete and reinstall. I took everything down and started over fresh. After that, the blog’s functionality worked like a charm. When we figure out which plug-in caused the problem, we’ll let you know (we probably didn’t need it anyways.)

Brian is a true professional, too. I had emailed him in a panic, thinking I’d screwed everything up permanently. He quickly replied and patiently answered my questions to get me back on track. How’s that for service?

We highly recommend Brian’s blog themes for anyone looking for a change.

We’re still working on our customization and building our wish list for Brian to work on. I think everyone here is going to like the new look – coming up in January!

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