one year!

I can't believe I've been in my house for ONE year already. It seems like I'm still always saying "I just moved in..." but that's not really true anymore. I've been here for a full year now.

I shared an update at the 6 month mark HERE. Since then I've made some more updates. 

In the front, we did rip out the juniper bushes and planted hostas along with some other plants. Both my grandmothers gave me starter plants from their yards, as well as my cousin Kim, who is downsizing her yard. I did TONS of work outside this spring/summer/fall. I planted so many things, moved and removed many more things, spread much, pulled weeds, trimmed trees. 

I was outside working every day that I possibly could. In the backyard we removed the raspberry bushes and the raised garden. I moved plants around and planted more plants. I re-did the paver blocks by the backyard entrance. We planted tons of bulbs this fall and I can't wait for those to bloom this spring! 

I did major landscaping overhauls. One of my first goals was to rip out the juniper bushes in the front of the house. I hated them. They're ugly and they collected leaves and trash that were hard to remove. I picture tons of pretty flowers out front now.

This is right after we ripped out all the bushes last spring. I actually don't have a current photo of the front of the house.

How we decorated the front this fall.

Next I shared the space the previous owner had staged as a dining room. We are using it as a second living space. Still need to order top down/bottom up blinds and fix the phone jack. This is what it currently looks like:

Front room decorated for Christmas.

Then onto the kitchen, which my mom and I painted a few months ago (haven't painted the ceiling yet!) and then I was able to hang the drapes over the patio doors. Still looking for a new ceiling fan, want to install new flooring, and want to update the counter/backsplash. 

May 2014

Sherwin Williams Passive

kitchen, currently. the light grey really brightens up the kitchen!

The downstairs is pretty much unchanged. Still looking for a new sofa and then I want to paint and decorate the half bath/laundry room.

Master bedroom is at a stand still because we're trying to decide about furniture/layout. The closets are kind of small for us so we need to figure out a solution. I am planning a trip to Ikea to hopefully get it settled. Probably will get rid of my bedroom furniture because it's just too big for the space. Probably will stay with brown colors and have an accent wall dark chocolate brown. Still need to paint everything, add art, a rug, find a new bed set/decide colors, etc.

current master bedroom

My office/scrapbook room currently looks like this:

Ikea Expedit Craig's List purchase $125

Planning to purchase a few things from Ikea for the office space as well.

The biggest change here recently has been outside. We tore down the 3' picket fence and replaced it with privacy fencing this fall. Love having more privacy!

backyard/before

backyard/after

The fence had to slope down in the front to about 4' tall because I live on a corner lot. I actually like this because it still allows us to see out (a total privacy fence may have made me feel claustrophobic!) and Bentley loves to meet and greet all the neighbors who walk by and I didn't want to take that from him. The neighbors behind me and beside me (that our backyards "meet") are the ones I wanted the most privacy from anyway. From my backyard, I looked into about five other backyards, which means they looked back at us AND could probably see in through our patio doors.

This spring I have to stain/seal it and then we'll be all set. A couple of my neighbors have already told me how much it has improved the look of the house. I am just so excited to have privacy from my next door neighbors that I can hardly contain myself!

Also, late this summer I finally had the brick repairs done to the chimney and the exterior brick on the house.

I got money back at closing to have the repairs done but then the guy who was recommended kind of blew me off. We had to contact the sellers and ask them to take their cashier's check back and give me cash so I could find someone else to do the work. By then the weather was too cold so I had to wait until spring. 

Then one day the original recommended guy called back and said they could come start the work immediately! When he and his son started working, they told me the chimney required much more than they originally thought. Every time they took a brick out, there were three others they found that needed repaired too. It took them longer than they had planned but it was still all done in less than a week and it makes a huge difference to the exterior!

I had a bad first impression of them, but they did amazing work and have built quite a resume working on buildings all over Kokomo. I saw them working on the fire station the other day.

I'd much rather spend my money on cute decorating or furniture items inside but I know other (boring!) things require my attention as well. When I look back I realize we have done a lot so far in the first year! I don't feel like we'll ever be "done" but everyone tells me when you own your own home, you never feel done anyway!

Goals for the second year are to have outlets and overhead lighting installed in the three bedrooms upstairs, paint kitchen ceiling, paint upstairs bathroom, finish guest bedroom and master bedroom, paint/decorate half bath/laundry room, and find a shed for the backyard.