Living in a rented home......

Since the fall of 2006 we pretty much have lived in a home that we didn't own.  It doesn't mean we didn't own a home, it just means we didn't live where that home was!  After 4 years of owning and renting we were able to finally sell our house - thank you Lord!  The first year we lived in a "cabin" type rental that was furnished with the "bear bones" of what we would need.  We knew we wouldn't be living there year round, as the owner was going to be renting it by the week during the summer. But we still loaded a U-Haul and took what we wanted to make it feel like our own!  We needed the boys to feel comfortable and like it was their home - and rugs to warm up the tile floors!  I have spent some time digging but the laptop that has all of the pictures on from that time fried up....I am not even sure I have copies of pictures for our personal use? But never fear....we are still living in a rental house and I would like to share with you some easy fixes to make a house feel like your home....even if you don't own! 

This Cute yellow house....was our "view" for almost 3 years when we lived in a house across the street

Here is the Living Room when the previous renter lived here

This was the living room this fall - after we had lived here for roughly 5 months, the walls in all of the main living areas are painted the same taupe/khaki color - warming up the dark rooms (when there are leaves on the trees the living room is very dark) even though they were painted an off white before it just gave it a more welcoming feeling to freshen the paint!  Note my first attempt at slipcovers, the chair has been covered with a painters drop cloth!  It does the trick for only $14 and several hours of my time!

This is the kitchen before.....my least favorite part of the house to say the least!  it was all one color - shiny creamy color the walls and the cabinets!  Take note of that lovely florescent ring light fixture in the ceiling!  Knowing we didn't want to spend a lot of money and that any fixes need to be minor we knew paint would have to do the trick! Along with accessories! 

Here is the kitchen shortly after we moved in - even just painting the walls a shade a couple darker than the rest of the house and the cabinets a fresh white made a huge difference!  Not only did it clean things up it kind of made them feel new again!

Here is part of the kitchen at Christmas!  We added shelving to the empty wall for my numerous collections of "stuff" family heirlooms and antiques that have been handed down! The cabinet you see actually was in my husbands family - after washing it down to remove the dust and years of grime it now houses all the kids school lunch supplies, after school snacks, sports bottles, bread and breakfast food!  And gives some texture and architecture to the kitchen!

The same view but in the fall and we still had one shelf to hang above the stove!  Actually my original thought had been to put 3 shelves where there are 2 but it didn't space out enough to put multiple items on the shelves and have it work visually - so I had to think about where to put the 3rd shelf! 

 There is more before and after  - I just need to take some more "after" pictures!  You will be amazed!  Stay tuned!