Home is...where your magazines get delivered!

Did anyone else get their Better Homes and Gardens magazine in the mail this week? I always look forward to a new magazine in the mail! Great ideas and inspiration...but when I opened to this...

I felt a little bummed out.  Not because its been a dark, wet, loonnng winter...but because we moved last summer from a house with a beautiful yard and alot of flowers, blueberries, AND a white picket fence and gazebo with a swing.  I loved the summer days curled up in the swing with a magazine or book.  It was a bright, cheerful and fun house to decorate and we often entertained there.

Getting ready for our daughter "princess fresh"'s graduation party

Front porch swing just like my grandma and grampa's 

Side yard with blueberries, hydrangeas and Rhodies

Gorgeous early spring Day on Whidbey Island

Mr. Fresh is in the Navy, and so for nearly 2 years we lived 2 states apart so that our kids could graduate with their friends. For a Navy family, we were very lucky to be in the same town for 8 years!  Last Spring, we moved to a new, but familiar town just 1.5 hours and a ferry ride away.  This is familiar territory because we had moved to Kitsap County in 1992 and stayed until 2002. ya, ya, ya...move on.....

Mr. Fresh and I decided to buy another house and rent out our Whidbey Island house. I always wanted an OLD house with soul. (Another name for a LOT of maintenance!) And with Mr. Fresh living 2 states away ...I proudly picked this....all by myself.....

ummmm, come on now, it has POTENTIAL!

I surely did not buy this house for its curb appeal!  Maybe it was the fact that I had been raising 3 teens alone and lost my brain cells...or maybe because I needed a project...or maybe, just maybe it was this....

wood floors, stunning molding and dark stairs! Be blind to the UGLY kitchen!

The adorable built ins with a view of the water

I was too distracted by the FANTASTIC china cabinets to realize our table would barely fit!

And my favorite room...we turned into a (small!) family room. This room has the best view in the house!

ok, ok, right, the magazine picture...
 
This is a city house, with neighbors very close, and a gravel alley (I use that word lightly..pot hole alley is more accurate) When we moved in, the back yard was only a shed and a couple dirt patches, huge "bee bushes" and a old cracked patio.  I was desperate for change, delusional from lack of, ahem, "freshness" and t.m.t.d. (too much teen drama)....   I do believe the word "Potential" is over rated.  Look for yourself!

Clearly, I'd lost my mind....Frightening! Isnt it?

The shed has since come down and we layed some sod last fall. Mr. Fresh and the Jr. freshies (our 2 son's) put in a brick walkway that leads to the DIRT driveway which leads to the OLD garage doors of the SINGLE car garage (hence the painting my projects on the kitchen counters!)...get the picture???  

So... WHY do I love it here? That's easy....

Home is where your sweetie is, and together, we can build a picket fence, plant blueberries, and flowers to
our hearts content! 

However...
 when I close my eyes each night, 

I hope and pray the house fairy will come....

...and I will wake up to this!

Just as I pictured it could be all along.

Source unknown