house tour: an inside view

during my week at home sick with the dread disease (whatever it may be - the two doctors i've seen don't really agree, but it seems that some of the many meds i'm now taking are beginning to work), i've had time to give myself a little talking to about this house. i was having moments of depression and even anger about how awful it is and how little the previous owners seemed to do with it. and i was missing my beautiful kitchen on poppelvej. i won't say that i miss it any less (yes, you, my pretty red smeg), but i've talked myself around. there are things i can do to make this livable in the meantime before we build-on and create a brand new and even better kitchen. and we did, after all, choose this, so it's not like i've been forced into this situation (tho' leaving the appliances behind is something i've been forced into, but we're not going to go there. again.).

i thought i'd give you a little glimpse of the inside and what we have to put up with until the renovations can take place...

looking into the living room.
naff ceiling constructed out of rough planks normally used for making fences.
covering up some of the horrible, cheap office-style carpet with my turkish rug.

i chose to put a few books (gardening, decor and craft) and things we love on the shelf, in order to make it seem more livable.
the carpet is yucky office-style carpet and that depresses me a little bit.

the curtains were on the windows, but i dressed them up with some fabric circles.
as you can see, that's the corner where i sit and knit.
sabin's scarf in colorful mercerized egyptian cotton is going rather slowly.

the kitchen from hell.
still pepto bismol pink (i will remedy that in the near future, for reals).
this crappy linoleum floor depresses me as well (i can't even get it clean!) - i miss my oak floors!!

but at least i have my kitchen aid and my posh red kettle.
and the window above the sink is nice.
plus there are lots of cupboards, and that's good.

i despise that stove (and refrigerator for that matter).
for one, it's not gas, for another, those glass-topped stoves just seem so fake and cop-outish somehow.
and the left front burner is totally iffy - sometimes too hot, sometimes hardly heating at all.
when i stand in the kitchen and get worked up about missing my old kitchen, it's because of this stove.

our bedroom - obligatory basket of clean laundry at the foot of the bed.
i'm good at doing laundry, but rubbish at putting it away.
great light from the window - i like that.
the pictures look a bit random on the wall, because we just used existing nails that were there.
it's hard to tell, but i also dressed up the curtains with a turquoise border - they were plain cream colored.

sabin has been allowed to set her inner artist free and is painting what she wants on her walls.
circles on the left and a little jackson pollack action on the right.
the t.v. will be hung on the wall once she's finished.

the one and only little bathroom - shower only, no bathtub (don't get me started on how much i miss my bathtub).
as husband says, it's actually the best room in the house.
by which he means it's the one that's been most recently redone.

and my little desk area - looking quite a lot like it did at the old house - some things can't change too much.
the light is also nice here, tho' the window looks out on a naff little entryway with makeshift clotheslines.
the people who lived here before were apparently obsessed with clothelines - they're everywhere there possibly could be one.
note the pretty scarf on the doorknob - it's from the magnificent debra! and i love it!

the indoor spaces being what they are, i had to create a homey outdoor space.
if the sun would just reliably shine, i'd be out there all the time.

i found out that tho' this looks fetching under that tree, i've got to move it.
too much bird poo.

we've been discussing the order of our renovations quite extensively. our architect is nearly ready with some drawings for us and we're getting excited to see them. the expansion of the house is essentially going to be a separate, new building off the back of the existing house. it will be one large room that's kitchen, dining area and living room in one. it will be joined to the old house by some kind of exciting, creative, mostly glass solution (at least we hope that's what erik will come up with). so it will be possible to build it first while continuing to live in the old house. once it's built and we have a new kitchen up and running, we can tear down the old main house, which currently houses the kitchen, and do the renovations to the "left wing" of the house, where our bedrooms, bath, laundry and living room are at the moment. now, if the old house would just sell....people keep looking, but they don't seem to be buying.

happy weekend, one and all....