New House

So, I haven't written a blog in so long - we've been terribly busy with buying a new house and everything else, but I am excited to be able to show off all of the hard work that I will be doing once we close on the house!  Here are some sneak peeks at what the house looks like now:

Here's the kitchen - I was relieved to see the floor is already laminate, because that's what we would have put in, anyways, but I just can't figure out the red striped wallpaper with light blue countertop, and if you open the cupboards, it's red gingham.  I'm guessing the previous owner was going for a "Red White and Blue" theme, but these colors just do not work.

This is something that I'm very, very excited about.  It's not much now, but there's a pond in the backyard!  I've always wanted to build a pond in my backyard and now I don't even need to build it - it's already there!  I can't wait til late Spring when I can get a start on making it beautiful!

This is the area that I have named "The Classroom" - I hope to do a lot of our learning and activities down in this room.  I love how the bookshelves are already built into the wall - I don't really have any ideas for this area, yet.  I'm trying to figure out the best thing to place here - a long folding table?  build a "bar"-like table that comes out of the wall and have chairs for the kids to sit on? Just leave it open?  Anyone care to share their input?

In all of this house hunting experience, I cannot believe the conditions that people allow themselves to live in.  All of the carpeting we've encountered has been disgusting.  I'm not talking about paths worn in where people walk a lot, a stain here or there - those things are completely understandable.  I'm talking about HUGE blood stains in every room of the house (from dogs we think?), gray carpeting that has turned black from it never being cleaned, we leave footprints when we leave the house from all of the dirt on our shoes.  Above every register in this house, there's a big black area from all of the dirt that the furnace has blown onto the wall and carpeting - I don't think this owner realized that you need to change your filter.  One house had chewed up gum stuck to the walls in the master bedroom... I just can't understand it!