I think you were a bit lucky here maybe to get an early gold that helped you buy your way out of trouble. I'll suggest a rats concept deck and I'm guessing it will have time to pay off since fairgrounds are available for extra vp (it's like having two piles of provinces).
How about starting with remodel+silver, remodeling estates into caravans. Then add a rat, trash copper with rats, and buy more caravans. Your next goal is an expand, and you may need a gold to get you to seven coins, but then you can then expand your rats into king's courts. With extra drawing from the caravans and some cycling from the rats you should get a quick turn around from rat infested rubbish into a king's court bonanza that you can finish off however you like.