Our Icky Little House

A little more than a year ago we purchased a 960 square foot ranch in Central Maine. We call it the "fixer FIXER upper" because it hadn't been touched since the 80's. It was ugly, it was dirty, it was smelly, it's just all-around icky but it was cheap and solidly built without any major issues so we made it ours. Naturally, when we purchased the house we were laboring under the delusion that it would be fairly quick and easy to fix. Oh, silly us, here we are fifteen months into the renovation and we still have TONS to do. We haven't even completed an entire room yet (although we are close on our bedroom).

Honestly, I am mortified by the appearance of our house. So much so that I didn't want to post a picture, but I think it's important to "keep it real" so here it is in its current state. Yeah, awful, I know.

The icky house in all of its glory.

Worse still, I'm a Graphic Designer by trade and I love interior design as well, I'm very attuned to aesthetics so this is driving me crazy! I spend a lot of time apologizing for the state of the house, especially to our long-suffering neighbors "I'm sorry, we're working on it." seems to be my mantra.

The goal is to make this icky house cute and welcoming without spending a gazillion dollars. So far we are (slowly) accomplishing our goal and in the process we're learning all kinds of new skills. I know that there are so many people out there in the same boat: trying to do a lot, with a little, all by themselves, so this is my attempt to share our journey in hopes that it will be encouraging, either because you like our progress or because you're comparatively so much better at it, either works for me.