You know you're a redneck if your flatscreen is bigger than your trailer

The house is kind of a work zone right now with baseboards, paint buckets, tarps and boxes of laminate flooring piling in different spots. James has been busy all week stripping Lil Bro's old room and preparing it for baby River. You'd be amazed how fast the smell of teenage boy disappears when you rip up the carpet! God only knows what that room has seen over the last 3 years, but it's starting to get its innocence back!

All this remodeling has made me want to do all kinds of things to other parts of the house. Over time we will do some things, like laminate floors throughout, more paint. But i'm also a realist. This is our first house, we won't live here forever, and there's only so much you can (and should) do in a 1,100 square feet.

But not everyone feels that way. I'm not naming names (maybe it's because they are related to me), but some folks have a champagne decorating style in a beer house! We all know that person who is decking out there starter home in granite, wood floors, marble tiles, gawdy fountain. Yeah yeah, it all sounds good in theory, but seriously, if your neighbors might be cooking meth, there's no reason for you to have granite counter tops!

Ain't nothing funnier that pulling up to a trailer and walking into a mansion. I love the folks who have champagne taste on inside, but beer decor on the outside. I'm talking old cars (and car parts) strung across the yard along with broken garden gnomes, but inside new flooring, stainless steal appliances and furniture from Martha Stewart Living.

Grown-ups who do this make me wonder if when they were in their early 20s if they were the kinda folks who had nothing in their living room but a huge TV. Remember going over to a homie's house and he had wack furniture (like old school lawn furniture), plastic cups and plates (that he reused), but he had a slammin' TV and sound system!

I'm not gonna lie, the Brown House (that was my college apartment. a black girl and two mexicans) had some ghetto flavor going on. We had lawn furniture in the spare room -- but it was the nice kind. And a mattress in the living room (we have real furniture too) that came in handy for last-minute overnight guests. But i'm happy to say that my 2 roommates and I did not carry that decorating style over to adulthood!