"after abusing it for three years" vs "after having abused it for three years"

Question

I was writing a blog post about my phone this morning, and this is how I started it:

Last week, after abusing it for over three years, I retired my trusty old HTC Desire and replaced it with an HTC One.

This sentence didn't feel quite right to me, so I changed it to:

Last week, after having abused it for over three years, I retired my trusty old HTC Desire and replaced it with an HTC One.

But this doesn't feel quite right to me, either. What am I doing wrong? Which one of these sentence is correct? Why?

Answer 1

There is not very much difference in meaning between those two sentences.

Use of the past participle form (having abused) emphasizes that the first action has been completed before the second action begins.

However, the use of after makes it seem a little bit redundant. Perhaps it might sound better without after.

Having abused it for over three years, I retired my trusty old HTC Desire and replaced it last week with an HTC One.

It's really just about style: what you want to say, and how formally you want to say it.