Cutting corners

I think I've referred in earlier posts to the fact that the previous owners of our home cut corners here and there.  Here are some examples.

This is the floor in the basement.  It looks like an area rug on top of stick-on tiles.

But when you lift up the rug, you can see that they only put the tiles down in the area that wouldn't be covered by the rug.  Which I guess saved a couple bucks an an afternoon's work, so, to each his own.  The surface under the rug are the original tiles (made of asbestos, sweet!).

Here's a kitchen countertop with a special trick.

Ta-da!  

Luckily, as of yesterday, it has been more properly secured.  Another fun trick, unable to be captured in photographs, is the way the microwave, which is located above the stove, isn't really attached to the wall either.  That's another item on the fix-it list.