One Year Later: Recap 1

I need to stop making posting-commitments I can't keep! Yeesh.

Well, so here we are. One year and a few weeks later. It's funny to think back to this time last year and recall just how different things looked and felt and seemed. The place looked like a step back in time, it felt very overwhelming, and it seemed like we'd taken on a big unknown/undo-able project. One year later... and a lot of that's changed. Some unexpected stumbling blocks have come up, but all in all, we've really made some progress and a make-over has truly been accomplished already. There's still much to be done, but here's what we've tackled so far:

Wallpaper
You may recall that we inherited The Museum of Old Ugly Wallpaper Samples. So far, these two are completely gone:

(kitchen)

(front hall)

and this one is mostly gone:

(second bathroom)

Bringing down the wallpaper in the kitchen was only the first step... We also went from this:

to this:

(we updated/painted the new cabinet, too, thanks to our amazing friend Zak Rose)

Also included in the kitchen update was Dave's truly impressive backsplash tiling, a hood installation, a pot rack installation, complete appliance replacement, and some counter-top updates, not to mention painting!


We have painted three major areas of the home, as well as those kitchen cabinets and the insides of both the front door and the kitchen-to-hallway door. Here is a quick summary of our paint jobs to date:

(front hall, hall, dining room accent wall)

(living room walls - both the grey-blue and the white stripe "faux moulding")

(kitchen)

We replaced two big ugly light fixtures (one of which may be switched out again, but is at least better than what was there before!):

(kitchen)

(dining room)

We bought some new furniture/accessory items:

(kitchen cart)

(mirror)

(dining room table/chairs)

(rug)

Oh yeah, and we replaced some flooring...TWICE!

(attempt #1)

(2nd time's the charm!)

Bonus: we got to re-carpet both bedrooms on go-around #2:

Other updates include:

• replacing the sliding glass doors in the living room
• some plumbing fixes in both bathrooms (these need not be rehashed)
• balcony furniture
• and some more I can't quite think of just now...

Other experiences in this past year include:

• travel: Guatemala, San Francisco/Tahoe, Israel, Rhode Island, Cape Cod, Las Vegas
• getting to know our neighborhood: Color Project
• documenting our first year month by month
• spending time and celebrating holidays and birthdays and other good times with family and friends
• getting to live "on vacation" all summer
• celebrating our second wedding anniversary
• welcoming several new babies into our extended friend-family
• and more, and more, and more.

Like I said before, there's still lots to do. But it's really incredible, and a little bit mind-blowing, to look back and see how much has happened in just one year!


Still-to-do-projects in the next post...

Looking Back... One Year Ago...

In addition to the party-time atmosphere surrounding Dave's birthday yesterday, we also celebrated another milestone this weekend: OUR FIRST YEAR IN OUR FIRST HOME!

I've been thinking about this post for a while now, and I think it may take a few posts to get it all out there. I'm envisioning summing up what's been done and what's still on our to-do list as a self-assessment of sorts.

But first, a flashback...

Forgive the grainy photos, but this is what the place looked like in the listing that had us at "Hello!" -- you couldn't have turned this place down if you tried!

(our building, Thorndale Beach North - fictional home of Bob and Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show)

(The living room)

(Living & Dining Room)

(Ye Olde Kitchen)

(2nd Bedroom)

(2nd Bathroom)

(Master Bedroom)

(Master Bathroom)

(Balcony, complete with astroturf)

The view, which you can glimpse in that balcony shot, was always amazing, of course, and as I referenced in our first post and several times since then, it's the constant reminder of why this was a good idea.

More tonight with a look back at projects (planned or not) already completed.