One step forward, two steps back

In my new experiment of change I've decided that more than just me could benefit. I'm constantly going to be a work in progress, but there are things that can be changed right away. (Sounds like a Martha thing to say huh?) So instead of wallowing in self pity that we currently reside in the crappiest house inside of the worst neighborhood of our base, I thought 'What can we do to make this more like a home?' There is a severe lack of storage space, and space in general here so why not go vertical with some shelves? A shelf to be exact. So I pitch the idea to hubby and he grudgingly goes to the hardware store to pick up a piece of wood and some L brackets. While there we take a trip through the mock kitchens with their gleaming counter tops, beautiful real-wood cabinets, and my oh my, the drawers! One 7 foot section of fake kitchen is about 100 times better than the kitchen I'm looking at right now from our desk. So hubby starts feeling slighted and becomes grumpy about our current abode, and I feed off of him the whole way home. By the time we reach our dirty, tiny, mold infested house we are both completely crabby and toad green with envy about what we're missing out on.
Hubby is on his second trip to the hardware store now to get smaller screws for the new shelf, but we both know it will take more than a shelf to fix this place. It will take a bull dozer. Though I keep telling myself, and him, that this is not our 'home' and one day we won't have to live here anymore, and maybe just maybe one of these days will be able to pick out our own house somewhere, we are we are currently and need to make the best of it. The question is how. And that is where I'm stuck. In my spirit of change I feel pretty down about this place. It's definitely not much, and I'm sure there are worse, and at this moment in time it's all we have. I am fully aware that the only thing that can change about this house is my attitude, and Heaven help me I've tried. I guess we'll just have to try a little harder this time around.
And of course, stay away from fake kitchens.