Please delete this post, reposted with pics. Sorry.

@snoonyb You are very judgmental and snobby. I came to this forum for help, if you cannot do so then I do not need your snarky attitude. Did you think yourself smart and humorous?The "social assessment" came from facts which I have encountered these past few years. Had you bothered to read my post, the house has obviously become condemned recently, up until then it has been rented out for years. People go thru ups and downs at times, especially the elderly find themselves in a "when it rains it pours" situation and one straw is enough to break the camels back. Who the hell do you think you are judging me? What does having a condemned property to do with stating that many people seem to be on welfare? My parents even thru the toughest times have never taken welfare or what they think of as charity- if you are implying anything by that. You have to be pretty dumb to sit there and make snarky comments like, 'did they use a sledgehammer' when you do not know the full story. Obviously in such a forum posters keep it short. Knowing such should you really have made smarta@@ comments? Not so smart are you? I never said we have no budget to repair it, I said it is difficult putting down money upfront after being cheated once. My parents are "ekeing by", I did say, but I also asked for advice or ideas on how to proceed, again obviously we will be spending money. No I am not aware about housing agencies that would help alleviate my problems. If I were would I have come to this forum to ask for ideas or knowledge? Obviously, you do not want to share any knowledge you do have, or you would have skipped the smarta@@ behavior and written to tell me more about these magical agencies that help private homeowners. Thanks, for your worthless commentary to someone who was asking for advice, there are many harsh words I'd like to give you but I'm letting it go.

I’m late on this but as a person who has rented, I get what Tori is saying, and I also agree with the majority of the people on this thread. Here’s my 2 cents and I may have missed something because I didn’t read every single reply. 1) wondering if the landlord would let you paint the cabinets? 2) if that is a no, it looks like your counter tops are black, and your appliance, do the kitchen walls in a nice crisp white, maybe get a large rung that has some black and white in it and do all your kitchen decor items in black and white. Maybe a fun graphic rug, check Overstock. Do black and white wall art. Utilize those white shelves above for more decor, books etc. 3) in the bathroom, same idea but maybe have more fun and maybe do a temp wall paper that embraced the color...maybe do palm leaves. Check the Tempaper website and also Amazon and Target sell that brand, It works beautifully and no damage when it comes off. Cover the floor with a rug if you can. 4) Don’t paint the walls in the rest of the house white it makes all the wood more pronounced. Check Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, it makes the wood not so glaring. See if you can paint the chair rail and molding if possible :-). 5) Put sisal rugs everywhere you can to cover the carpet, check Overstock again. Do a beige border. 6) Get rid of those window treatments and do some nice grommet drapery from Target. Put it up as high as you can and have it just graze the floor. Don’t have it inches above the floor. I hope some of that helps since you are already moved in :-).

I think the current color combo is nice (aqua with a red-orange door). I like the mock-up above with a lighter shade of the house color for the trim. Some basic landscaping would help: a nice shrub in front of the utility box and some perennials around the deck. Not sure what zone you are, but something with red foliage would be a nice contrast to the house. And some additional shrubs along the side of the house - maybe even a small tree in that large space between window 2 and 3. In my area there is a facebook group that exchanges plants and sometimes people are just giving away things they have too much of, like perennials that need to be divided (host, Lillies, etc). Check marketplace and craiglists for people giving away leftover mulch or rock from their garden project.