Home Improvements: Year One

My friend Amy posts almost weekly about improvements they're making to their home. I love it! It's great to get ideas and see what she's up to. She correlates it to the William Morris Project, which is essentially to "have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".

I won't attempt to post weekly, or even monthly about my projects around the house. But I can handle once a year. :) This post is mostly for me and my family. I think it'll be interesting to see what we've done over the years. It's not my intent to come off as boastful or braggy in any way, so I hope I don't come off that way.

Here's a quick rundown of the work we've done on our place during our first year of ownership.

Back in November I painted the downstairs. For details about that project click here. At that time we also got a kitchen light and light and fan for the living room. Wiring was already installed, but we'd been living in the dark far too long. Matt has become quite the electrician around here, and I am impressed.

January

 Painted laundry room Meadowlark by Glidden with leftover paint

February

 Painted upstairs bathroom Meadowlark by Glidden. A few months later I found the shower curtain at Dollar General for ten bucks! Our previous hand-me-down curtain had seen better days, and after six plus years of marriage I didn't think it was the craziest thing in the world to buy a shower curtain. I am totally a fan of delayed gratification--even if it's over a ten dollar shower curtain! 

March

I had fun painting Kaitlyn's room and adding a few wall decorations. Details about that project can be found here. Matt also installed a light/fan in our bedroom. Wiring had been completed previously, but no light had been put in place.

 

April

Painted hallway upstairs Tawny Birch by Glidden

May

In May Matt busted out his mad skills. He built this fence--picket by picket--after work and on Saturday in essentially less than a week. He took Step Three of boards on Monday, and that night we began placing the posts. Our neighbor lent us some rock star tools, which made the job much easier. Matt amazed me with his determination to get that fence up quickly. He is my hero, and I considered this project a great Mother Day gift to me! Of course I can't let him have all the credit. I hauled all the lumber to it's appointed spot and got my groove on with the power tools.

 Don't judge our lawn, please. It's dry here.

 June

Sewed curtains downstairs all by myself. (Gushing with awe is totally acceptable right now!) ;) Despite the fact that my mom is a sewing fanatic and she taught me to sew, I hadn't really taken on any projects as an adult. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed sewing these. The material is from Joann's; Waverly Pom Pom Play Spa, and I ordered it from the warehouse when Waverly products were 50% off. I based my tab top curtains off this and this tutorial, and for the Roman shade I followed this tutorial. Thank you Pinterest!

And one last project I did this summer...

We have a Simon Dewey picture, and I love the painting but the gold frame didn't look too hot with what we've got going on in the living room. I used cheap acrylic paint (Raw Umber) and a hard bristled stencil brush to give the frame new life. I also nabbed the ugly flower sconces on clearance at Joann's. After spray painting them black, adding a bit of Raw Umber craft paint over the top, and replacing the flowers, that wall looks a little better.  I'm not over the top in love with the sconces, but it's an improvement.

Those are our home improvements from year one. I'm now trying to be really good and use our resources in other ways. So there's no projects in the near future for me. But in year two (or three) I hope (perhaps "dream" is a more appropriate word) to:

• Paint the dresser in Kaitlyn's room a fun green color
• Paint and decorate Sky's room 
• Add a few decorations to the kitchen and living room
• Paint the loft 
• Put in a door to create a closet and utilize the space under our stairs 
• Add a few plants, trees, flowers, and a small vegetable garden to our yard
• Maybe extend the patio and build a wood patio covering (A girl can dream right?!)

What projects have you been working on? Any advice for me?