Mi Casa en el Medio de la Calle

In all of these two years, I've kept my house off of this blog. For a while I was going to put photos of it up, and then people attacked my house, so that deterred me some. But now that I'm out of the house, there's no reason to not show off all of my hard work/how a PCV in Cameroon lives. When I moved in, all of the walls were either gray concrete or whitewashed. Those of you who know me know I couldn't live like that, so I painted everything (everything) with my bare hands. I couldn't find a roller in Cameroon, so I had to use a brush. It took four months, but the end result was a house I loved and a home I'm sad to leave.

Outside my house.
Colin stands guard, and that flimsy tree branch in the front yard is what held up my power line, which was a composite of several other power lines knotted together. But it worked, so ça va.

Parlor before.
(Yes, the house came with plastic lawn chairs. Those are a hot home accessory here!)

Parlor after.

My big beautiful burgundy couch.

I wanted a brown couch, but on the day that I ordered it, I was wearing a burgundy tank top. I told the carpenter to buy upholstery fabric that was "plain brown, plain like this!" and I pointed to my shirt, meaning I didn't want ugly flower print, but he interpreted it as brown like this red. Hence, burgundy velvet couch.

Parlor again.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after.

Those hanging baskets are the baskets that the mamis in the market use to sort groundnuts. I hung them up with dog chains. Aren't I creative? And that fridge never worked.

Crazy MTN-yellow kitchen.

I got this line out of a Twista song, not out of the Bible. Seriously. But I did this mofo freehand. Holla.

That big blue thing is my Peace Corps water filter.

Pretty foyer.

That scarf on the mirror is from China. (Thanks, Emhead!)

...not a destination.

Hallway. And my dartboard with no darts.

My bedroom before.

And after.

I love words.

My comfy bed with two foam mattresses.

Katie made me that Cameroon flag pillowcase!

Guest bedroom #1.

With doves, because, come on... PEACE Corps.

Bathroom before.

Blue after I was through with it.

I keep that chair in the bathroom because sometimes I like to sit when I take my hot bucket baths.

My little hobbit doors that were only 5'8" high.

Okay for me, bad for boy visitors.

Guest bedroom #2.

The carpenters had a really hard time making that dresser.

Ça n'existe pas ici.

...And some of my way fun artwork that will be hanging in my house in America.

So there it is. My beloved abode. Aren't you sad you didn't come visit?!