The house isn't just not-new; it's not ours. We're going to be renters again, after having owned two homes in the last seven years, and it's - a lot discomfiting. It's also a little embarrassing, and I am having to face down my ego, high-noon style, something I don't enjoy too awfully much.
I keep trying to make myself take some photos of the house we've rented, and while it's a cute bungalow, a very Portland house (or Berkley, if you're familiar), I just can't get past how dingy and beat-up it is. Plus the kitchen is just the most disheartening thing ever, if you're me and you've been living in two brand-new kitchens in the last several years, one of which you designed your own self and though you didn't spend TOP dollar on it, you sure spent plenty, and it was *nearly* your dream kitchen, and damn, if that isn't nearly close enough. The kitchen in our rental has no dishwasher (unless I'm standing in it). It's got some seriously banged-up counters and cupboards. The paint is this off-white mess of chips and scratches and warps and the floor is awful. The oven is old and white and ugly, and it isn't gas, it's electric, with one of those flat cook-tops my husband and I both despise, and the only other appliance (because there's not even a fan above the stove, which, by the way, is literally three feet from the bathroom door, *small shudder*) is the small, ancient refrigerator, an off-white affair that has probably seen some serious use. There's actually an ironing board intact from the initial structure inlaid in the wall that, when you pop open the cupboard, drops the iron out.
I am trying SO VERY HARD to imagine it painted (we're attacking it this weekend with masses of leftover paint from our current house + a few extra buckets that I'm spoiling myself by purchasing), clean, and established with our things inside, and desperately trying to convince myself it will be sweet and lovely and dollhouse-ish, TRYING. SO. VERY. HARD.
I'll take some photos of this crazy project-to-be so you can get the before-and-after feel, and I really pray that you'll think it's nice, and I pray equally hard that I will, too.
(It's in a fantastic neighborhood and great school district and we got it for a song -- per month -- and it is NOT an apartment and there's a yard in back and they allow pets so we were able to acquire a puppy AND a kitten because we're desperately mad, and I feel very fortunate to have this chance to reboot our financial lives, so please don't think I'm not seeing the silver lining. I am. I just want to see it with a bit of freshening on its face, and I'm having a tough time visualizing the whole thing.
Did I mention the house is less than 900 square feet? And we currently live in a 2500 square-foot house? *tears silently at hair*)













