Guys, it’s our one year home anniversary and OMG, HOW is that even possible?! I feel like I blinked and it’s magically been ONE YEAR since the day we bought this house. But then again, I think about what life looked like when we bought the house.

Celebrating our One Year Home Anniversary

We were without Ben and all I had was a tiny baby bump and a big ass to-do list. That “life” seems like 5+ years ago. Well, minus the big ass to-do list because I always seem to have one of those!

What We’ve Accomplished This Year… In This Order

• Demo-ed all of the trim, doors, and casing
• Moved into our basement and lived down there for 5+ months
• Added all new trim and new doors to our first floor
• Painted the entire interior Benjamin Moore’s Silver Satin
• Painted the mudroom and added new flooring
• Got the floors sanded down and re-stained
• Shiplapped an accent wall in the basement
• Covered up the old, ugly bricks on our fireplace
• Got new Built-ins
• Installed a new hallway light and a swag light in the dining room
• Got new, motorized blinds in the living room and dining room  (these ones!)
• Installed budget-friendly bamboo blinds in the bedrooms
• Chose rugs for the living room (my fave!), dining room, nursery, and bedroom
• Painted the interior of our front door, added new hardware
• Painted the exterior of our front door, along with the garage door, mailbox, and DIY porch railing
• Decorated the nursery and built these DIY book ledges
• Finished the nursery one weekend before Baby Ben arrived, brought him home to live in the basement because we didn’t have furniture anywhere else on the first floor except for in his room.
• Finally chose furniture for the living room, including this couch, this couch, and this table
• Moved upstairs… finally!
• DIY-ed this picture ledge
• Chose furniture for our bedroom, DIY-ed new sconces for under $40
• Organized our linen closet
• Did a full overhaul of our landscaping, including adding a new patio
• DIY-ed a new address plate
• Added shutters, outdoor lights, and a whole lot more curb appeal
• Ordered everything for the upcoming kitchen and half bathroom renovation

Time To Reflect

Here we are 365 days later, and I NEED to force myself to stop and celebrate all of the progress we’ve made so far. I’m guilty of being so focused on what’s next on my to-do list that I often don’t stop, reflect, and celebrate the things I’ve already accomplished. And boy, have we accomplished A LOT this past year – and yes, I mean WE!

“Doing it ALL”

I don’t want anyone to have the false assumption that I can “do it all”. Sometimes it may appear that I’m juggling all the projects, the blog work, my full-time job as a teacher, little Ben, and everything else life has to offer. Spoiler alert: I’M NOT!

ALL of the progress we made in this house is a total team effort, with the MVP award going to my AMAZING Mom and Dad. Where would I be without them?

The answer to that? Not very far! We wouldn’t have made a dent in our to-do list without the time they’ve spent here helping Matt and me. Early mornings, late nights, long weekends… they are here, rolling up their sleeves, ready to dive in (with a smile).

Looking Back & Smiling

When I look back at the first few months of living here, all I can do is smile. Transforming this house over the past year has been hard, time-consuming, expensive, exhausting, and overwhelming. But it’s also been a lot of fun and very rewarding.

I look back to the days I would leave my job on Friday afternoon, head home and work late Friday night, get up super early Saturday and work into the late night, do the same thing on Sunday and arrive at work exhausted on Monday mornings. Those weekends were tough, but they were some of my all-time favorites.

We ate pizzas on a tiny card table in the middle of the dining room. We sat on the steps of our front porch for a snack break. We had a rotation of a few, paint-stained tees we wore on repeat. We slept in the basement because we had no furniture upstairs. Life was insane, but learning from all of the projects and watching our house slowly transform into our home was extremely rewarding.

Ready For The Kitchen!

As we dive into our kitchen renovation in a few short weeks, I can’t help but channel this same attitude. I’m gearing up for the same insanity. The late nights, the early mornings, the weekends that are jampacked with DIY projects, the mess, and all the stress that comes with a project like this.

But above all, I’m looking forward to the quality time that I get to spend with my favorite people doing what I absolutely love — DIYing.

We bought this house with the intention that it could be our forever house. We had a plan to make it into our own so we could live here until we are old and gray. We spent the year working our asses off to do just that and guess what? Along the way, we realized that we may actually like that process a lot more than we ever could have anticipated. So much so, that we’re already more open to doing it again someday.

Home Sweet Home

Don’t get me wrong, we love our house and have ZERO plans of moving any time soon. But over the past year, this house has taught us so much. And for that, we are forever grateful.

We are exactly where we need to be and can’t wait for what’s to come in this house we’ve worked so hard on over the past year. And even though we have been very busy, we still have A LOT left on our to-do list. The kitchen, the basement, the closets, the guest room, the garage, finishing the mudroom, the dining room, 3 bathrooms, the back of the house (which you haven’t even seen yet!)… there’s still SO much to do.

Our house is far from perfect, but it’s absolutely perfect for us… and that’s all that matters, right?

Cheers to our one year home anniversary, to many more projects, and to even more memories here! We couldn’t have asked for a better start to this new adventure (big ass to-do list and all).

Bridget