we see so many fancied up homes in magazines, blogs, etc. and i'm all for that. that's lovely. wonders a good cleaning/straightening up can do.

but the other 364 days a year, things look like this:

1- these are the black decorative things that were on our balcony when we moved in. brian had to move the bottom ones up (they were touching the floor) when he ripped up the carpet and put in hardwoods. he put in the final trim and forgot to move them back down, so now they're stuck there b/c the trim is in the way.

2- this is our closet and the circled spot is olivia's magical pee spot that we discovered about a month ago. for some reason, she peed like 80 times right there, on brian's shoes, and it got on the carpet which i just got back from getting cleaned. in the background, you'll see our bathroom. proceed to number 3.
3- since discovery of the magical pee spot, we've had to keep the door to the closet/bathroom closed to keep olivia out. since the door is shut, the room gets all damp and gross, so our towels never dry, our clothes feel wet and the room is starting to smell mildewy.4- onto the kitchen. this is trash can holder thing that is supposed to slide under the counter there. its been broken for 1 month now and sitting in the floor. 5- and finally, this is what our fancy-smancy stove looks like after you cook on it. its a bitch to clean.