Firsts

Whew. So it's been like, forever since posting anything. But to be fair, I've been hella busy. For starters, I birthed a human being in November (I was kinda hoping it would be a kitten, but the kid turned out pretty cute, so I'm not too disappointed), and then we bought our first house. And oh, boy howdy, what a house.

First let me give a little background info. I love houses, interior design, decorating and the like. Always have. I dreamed of my first house the way some girls dream of their first wedding. I drool over magazine photos, design websites, and the home decor section at Target like nobodies business. For real. I always wanted a farmhouse, or an old turn of the century craftsman, something with character and charm. Two years ago when my husband and I moved to Kingston, we rented our first house. While it was neither a farmhouse or craftsman style, it did have one thing going for it - it was BRAND FREAKIN' NEW. Literally they finished it up 2 days before we moved in. And it was so nice and clean and fresh and pretty! I could write love songs about the kitchen in that place. Despite the fact that it was a rental, I loved it as if it were my own. Not good. When we found out that the kiddo was on the way, we realized that A. Child care is ridiculously expensive, B. my mom could watch our kid for free, C. she lived 45 minutes away, and D. this house was just a wee bit too small. Long story short, we kicked around all sorts of ideas, from moving in with my parents (and thank GOD we didn't choose that route) to building a tiny cabin on their land. And then in this total miracle/coincidence/God thing, the farm up the road from my parents was going to be forclosed on, and we could get it for cheap. It solved the big problem of child care, and also gave us 10+ acres of land with a creek, a pond, and a spring, 2 fenced in pastures, and a chicken coop to boot. Score! Downside - the house. A ten-year-old beat-down doublewide trailer with the most idiotic kitchen design I've ever seen. Total 180 from my beautiful brand spankin' new house with awesome kitchen. Let's just say that moving involved a whole lotta tears.

So now we're in this new house, and I'm trying to be grateful. And trying to figure out how to make it livable on the cheap, because we've got that new baby and all. There's so much to be done. Pretty much EVERYTHING needs to be renovated and/or repaired. And the kitchen needs to be completely redone. Case and point, the master bath:

Just check out that wallpaper! And oh yeah, that's carpet. In the BATHROOM. And please note that that's the previous owner's gold angel statue.

Also, they were hardcore smokers, as evidenced by the visible nicotine on the livingroom walls:

Again, NOT my furniture. But we've since painted the walls and shampooed the carpet, and it's looking a lot better.

So this is what I'm up against, and what is consuming all my free time, when I have any free time, which I don't. But I'm trying to turn the whole thing into an adventure, and hopefully soon I'll have some "after" photos to share. In fact, I'm hoping that by posting this on here, it will motivate me a little more. It could happen.

And now for something completely awesome:

Miss Abigail Punkin. This kid totally knows she's cute. Waaaaay cuter than a kitten.