where you'll find me

So we live in this little tiny house.

It's not that tiny, really. It's perfect for the two of us plus the dog/cat combo. We bought our little bungalow about four years ago and it might sound strange, but this is the first place I've ever truly felt comfortable living in. Granted, I've never owned a home before and every other place I've lived in aside from my parents' house was rented, and especially since the apartment I shared with Randi was insanely haunted, it might not seem like a huge shocker to you when I say that I hadn't been comfy in any other setting. Anyway, I love this little house and can see myself being here for a long, long time.

We have some serious renovations in our future. Soon we'll be taking a wall down to make our teeny living room almost twice its size and in turn I'll be losing my office. And hopefully someday soon we'll be taking the ceiling down in our front living room and finishing the attic off to make a kick-ass loft. Someday. Carpentry and construction are things I'm really interested in. I can't wait to get my hands on some power tools or a sledge hammer and go to town. I was a sculpture major in college and I think a part of me longs to play with chainsaws and blowtorches again and spend lots of time in potentially hazardous spaces. So many great memories.

Anyway, back to the house. I'm trying to do as much as I can on my own to update the place with a very small budget. When we moved into the house everything was painted white. I have nothing against white. I drool over those gorgeous Country Home magazine cottages all painted up white with lots of amazing white-on-white details and touches, and gauzy curtains that give the place an ethereal feel. But let's get real. I'm never home so my house doesn't get the daily cleaning it would need to keep that white up, and we have pets. Enough said. I need color on my walls, and when we moved in I wanted dark, rich colors. I painted our front living room an olivey green that I'm still in love with to this day. The living room we're looking to expand is painted a very dark teal...it looks navy, really. Our bedroom is a deep chocolate brown. The hallway was painted an eggplant color and the kitchen was a dark dusty green. These colors have been up for four years now and either I've changed or I've grown sick of them. I'm going lighter now and I think I'm freaking people out. Here are some "before" pictures of the kitchen, followed by the "after" shots:

**before**

**after**

For some reason the paint color looks different in each photo. It's actually a pale robin's egg blue, only a tiny bit dustier with a little less green.

we removed the dishwasher that we never used. the garbage can and recycle bin is down there now. Please ignore the wrinkly curtain...I took the iron to the shop and keep forgetting to bring it back home.

Since the kitchen was finished (there's much more that I'd like to do with it but we just can't afford it right now) I've moved on to the hallway and bathroom. I'll take more shots of them for another post. Hopefully we can get the construction done in the living room before Christmas...I have the itch!