House pictures, motherly excitement, and a freebie!

Ok, so I'm going to start this post with a great freebie that I got an email about today.  It's for a nursing cover.  So if you need one or if you're going to be going to any baby showers in the next little while and think a nursing cover would make a great gift, check this out!  You go to www.uddercovers.com.  Pick whichever cover you want (or a gift set for $5 more).  Once you add what you want to your shopping bag, add the promo code CUTE and you'll get it for the price of shipping - $9.95.  So technically it's not free, but $10 for a nursing cover that's usually $32.  I'd say that's pretty good.  AND, you can buy as many as you want for this price.  You just need to open a new window and put in separate orders, thus paying $9.95 per cover.  Take it or leave it.  I took it and am looking forward to receiving my nursing cover in the mail in a couple weeks!

A few of you have asked which cover I ordered...I went with the gender-neutral "Porter"

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Next order of business...sorry, also baby related, AND also free stuff related.  I got my first free promotional can of infant formula today!  And a package of rice cereal.  I was so excited when I got that box in the mail today.  I just like free things a little too much.  Oh well.  According to Heinz, I can "Rest easy - my Heinz Nutrition Kit has arrived!"

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And, last but not least, I have "before" pictures of our new place!  I especially would like to draw your attention to the picture of the living room wrapped in its luxurious wood paneling.  A few of you commented that you'd like to see pictures of it so that you could be inspired and thus help me out in the decorating realm.  Well, I've provided pictures.  Now I need (very inexpensive) suggestions!

This is the kitchen.  

I was quite impressed, actually, when I saw this picture.  But don't be fooled.  Yes, it is a cute place, but my amazing photography skills are to thank for the amazing cleanliness and the quality look that this kitchen has. 

Next, we have the entrance/laundry area.

This photo also impressed me, for the same reasons as the kitchen.  If only cleaning was as easy as taking a picture all the time!  That, my wonderful blogger friends, is a brand new washer/dryer set.  Bethany provides only the best for their renters ; )  I might add that the fridge and stove in the kitchen are also quite new...  I look forward to many a day washing diapers in this room.

Bathroom.

By far, the worst room in the house.  If you ever need to use the commode in our new place, you'll have the luxury of deciding whether you want to use the right half, or the left half, or BOTH halves of the polished wooden toilet seat.  Making this decision possible is a lovely crack down the front of the seat.  I can only imagine the pain that might ensue after a late night bathroom trek when one is half asleep and not taking time to choose left, right or both.  Ouch!  The tub is also lovely and, to show off it's loveliness, we decided to go with a clear tub mat instead of a white one.  (oops)  Enough of the bathroom...moving on.
Oh yeah, one more thing about this room.  For the second rental place in a row, I can get a lovely view of my forehead (and nothing else) in the bathroom mirror.  So if my mascara is running and my lipstick is smeared up to my nose, yet my eyebrows are meticulously plucked to perfection, you, my friends, will have the inside scoop.

Doesn't that just look like a staircase to the great dark depths of the unknown?

I hope to keep this door closed and spend as little time down there as possible.  It's dark.  It's damp.  It's dirty.  I don't want to know what's living down there, but we should probably be charging rent.

"Master" bedroom.  

Really this is only a secondary bedroom, but the true master bedroom in this house has no heat vent in it so in the dead of a Saskatchewan winter, it basically becomes a cold storage room.  If we need to (read: if our bed doesn't fit into this room and allow all doors and closets to function) we will use the larger bedroom.  But if we can get away with it, we will just use this smaller bedroom and block off the other bedroom and try not to pay an arm and a leg to heat it. This room will probably get some paint before we move in.

My favourite room in the house.

This is probably the room that's in the best shape, likely because it is the smallest room in the house and therefore the least-used.  This will be the nursery.  It has a south window so, next to the kitchen it will get the most light (and hopefully heat) through the winter months.  It will also fit our nursery furniture perfectly.  All I can say is it's good thing we found some small-scale furniture.  I doubt a "regular-sized" crib would fit very well in here along with everything else that normally goes into a nursery.  This room may or may not get paint...we'll see.

The infamous wood paneled living room.

Suggestions?

Dining room.
We've never actually had one of these since we've been married.  The doorway to the right is the bedroom with no heat that we will close off.  The bright doorway to the left is the kitchen and entrance on the south side of the house.  Nice and bright, just the way I like it!  Our new dining room table and chairs will replace these mismatched beauties.  Sad, I know, but hey.  You do what you need to do...

Hmm...I was both horrified and relieved at the number of mouse traps we have found in this house.  Horrified because, well, I'm sure you can guess why.  But relieved because each and every one of them so far has been empty.  Whew.  Now lets just hope that these traps were a precautionary measure.  In case you didn't already know, mice for me are far worse than any spiders, bees, or ants that could be living in my house.  The latter are annoying, yes, but they don't scare me the same way that mice do.  I believe "heebie-jeebies" is the term I'm looking for.  Ew.

And that is our new place!  We're so excited to move in.  We've been finding every excuse to run over in the last couple days and, if we're going by the place anyway, why not take a load of stuff, right?  Friday is officially our move-in day.  But who knows how much will actually be left to take over by then.  My prediction?  Whatever doesn't fit in (or on) our car this week.

*I feel that I must mention that we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to rent this house.  I joke about its run-down condition and how "terrible" it is, but in all seriousness, it is exactly what we need now and we are very blessed to have found an affordable place to live this year with enough space for us and dog and baby.  Thank you, Bethany!