World's Worst Home Tour

DISCLAIMER:
So, as I was transferring these pictures from the camera to the computer, I thought to myself "Kayla...really?  Do you really want to do this?"  Because, you see, these are not pictures of the classy, inspiring, decorated home.  These are pictures of the home that has been almost completely neglected for about 2 weeks.  You see, I've had a bunch of weeknight classes for my job so I've been getting home late, and what with all this homebuying business (it's c-r-a-z-y!), our little house has been merely the place we come to at the end of the day to sleep in.  Laundry's barely gotten done (and certainly not put away), dishes forgotten, clutter ignored.

But maybe a little brazen honesty is a good thing?  I'll admit our house has never been what I wanted it to be, because a) it's a rental, and b) this has been a nutty year anyway.  All our furniture is mismatched, I haven't hung curtains anywhere, and we're still trying to figure out how we want everything anyway.  However, our place usually does look better than it does in these photos.  Alright, not much.  At least try and picture it cleaner, okay?

So here goes.  My mom would kill me if she saw this.

As you pull into our tiny cul-de-sac of duplexes and walk to our front door, this is what you see.

Ah, another dreary rainy day in Salt Lake City, Utah.  This next shot is just because I like my car so much.

The front door opens into our living room, so this setup is the first thing you see.

See what I mean about mismatched furniture?  Does this scream college dorm to anyone else?  Couch, entertainment center: thrifted.  Coffee table: free.  I guess this is what being a poor newlywed's all about.  Maya is wondering what the heck I'm doing.

Turning left, you see this:

Clutter, clutter, clutter.  That half wall which my pride and joy (piano) is sitting against is probably my favorite thing about this house, and I'm sad to leave it.  On the left wall is my computer desk, where I'm sitting right now.

You can barely see it, right?  I know.  Excuse the flash in the picture.  If you turn around from here, you see our little reading nook, encumbered by boxes and a gigantic teddy bear.

The chair we found on Craigslist for $25.  And I know you can't really see it in this picture, but it's not awful and it's friggin comfy.

Alright, let's move on to the kitchen.  Left-face and you see our very spacious, very 70s kitchen, complete with yellow laminate flooring and dark, dark, depressing cabinets.

It's bigger than this picture makes it look.  I had plans to soften it up with a nice big rug, but rugs are expensive, yo.  There's last night's penne pasta dinner still on the stove.  Stay classy, Wades!

This little movable counter thingy we got for free as an extra when we bought our kitchen table (Craigslist.)  That's where we put our garbage can.  You can see one of the many examples of our random poster collection: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, from the thrift store.  You can also see the bowl of cereal milk I accidentally dipped my hair in this morning.  Moving on.

This is the view from the kitchen back towards the living room, and our kitchen table which mostly doubles as a place-to-put-everything.

To the left is the washing machine (the bi-fold doors are open) and the sliding doors on the right house the water heater and such other necessities.  Here's another view back into the living room.

If you turn right from here, you enter a mini-hallway, and directly across from the kitchen is our bathroom.  I am so in love with our shower curtain.

I know this bathroom doesn't look like much, but guys, you will see the bathroom we are inheriting and then you'll think this one looks like a palace.

If you turn left in the mini-hallway, you come to our  bedroom.  This is the room we spend the least amount of time in, and thusly have spent the least amount of effort on.  Also, there's clothes on the floor.

Notice how Maya's bed on the floor is kindof almost as big as ours?  Yeah.

Our bed and dresser are a matching (!) set from Ikea.  Bringing them home and then putting them together just after we got married is a happy memory. 

This room is so bare it's painful.  Can you believe I didn't even make the bed before taking this picture?  Honesty, folks!  And more random wall posters.  (Not pictured: Star Wars poster in the hallway.)

Okay, and if you had turned right in the hall rather than left, you would have entered the craft/extra room.

(This picture was taken a while ago, hence the pretty green outside instead of cold, grey rain.)  But it still looks the same.  In fact, I've had the same half-finished painting on my easel for months.

And that's the whole house.  Here's the yard to round things out.

And in case you, like me, can't get past the sad, end-of-winter state of things, you can go back to this post of when we put in the chain link fence to remember what grass is supposed to look like.


Wow.  Was that too much real life for you?  It kind of was for me.  Now at least I have motivation to really put in the effort to making our new house polished and put together so I can prove to you we're not actually a bunch of slobs with no sense of interior design.  I have a bazillion ideas floating around in my head, and I guess bazillion is a real word because spell check didn't underline it.

We haven't closed on the new house yet, but it's pretty much a sure thing.  I'll photograph the whole house before we move in while it's still empty and untouched by us, and then I plan to keep you updated on all our changes.  We're very excited, and I at least am insanely intimidated.  Homeowners?  That's, like, what adults are called.