2019 - How did we do?
It feels like just yesterday that I published this blog post – sharing all about our plans for 2019 and the projects we hoped to complete. I honestly feel like we just finish the fireplace project?? Where did the year go...?
It's officially the first full week of 2020 and I can’t help but look back and appreciate the projects we completed in the past year… when I originally shared our 2019 project list, I mentioned that I had zero confidence that we would finish all of these. Well, we definitely didn’t finish all of them, (shocker) but we accomplished more than I thought! Here’s what I listed as our to-do list for 2019:
Front Room
Landscaping
The Office
Window Treatments
Garage
Back Yard
1 | Front Room Fireplace
The most popular project of 2019 just happened to be the first one and the fastest one! Besides the overall design/idea behind this… I can take zero credit for this project. Nathan worked his butt off to finish this project in just over 2 weeks! TWO WEEKS. It helped that we had a crazy snowstorm during that two-week period and it allowed us to stay home a few days during the week to really push forward on the progress… but still, impressive timing on Nathan’s part. Other than my amazement on how quickly he turned this around, I’m also amazed at how much this transformed our front room. Design Secret: sometimes by adding more, it makes a space feel bigger. I know, sounds weird, but I promise it’s true.
Have questions about this project? Check out the blog posts here, here and here. Oh, and how much it cost here!
2 | Home Office – ORC
In order to renovate the office, we (aka I) decided to participate in the Spring One Room Challenge. We totally gutted the space; new trim, new carpet, created an open concept closet (one of my favorite parts of the room), new lighting and added a twelve-foot-long desktop, made by Nathan! We partnered with a lot of amazing brands on this project, which helped make the transformation possible. I am so thankful that we were given those opportunities and able to transform the room the way we did, because I hated spending time in there before. Now I love working in that room, plus Nathan surprised me on my birthday with a new iMac (which I desperately needed) and that makes working even sweeter.
3 | Backyard/Landscaping
We only partially completed these... We hired a company to add a firepit with surrounding seating to our backyard and I’m glad we did because we used that area a lot this past summer. But… we did nothing with our back patio. We ended up giving away our old patio furniture and then spent the entire summer with no outdoor furniture…. Whoops. So, spoiler alert, this is going to be on our radar for 2020 and hopefully we can finish it! As for landscaping, we added a very small amount of plants to our front plant bed, but we only had the means to clear out the giant landscaping bed that wraps around our entire house. We were unable to add plants to that bed this year, but the good thing is that I constructed a plan of what we need/want – so I hope that makes it easier for us to tackle this Spring. If you’re interested in landscaping, I’m your girl this Spring, because I have a feeling, I’ll be talking all about them.
4 | Garage Organization
This was a project that Nathan originally wanted to do first, but at the last minute, he changed his mind and decided the fireplace wall was more important. He did complete about 70% of the garage… definitely gained a lot more organization for his tools and added some built-in storage, but it still has a long way to go before he is going to put his stamp of approval on it. I have a gut feeling this will be something we are working on this summer… just a guess.
5| Window Treatments
Hah… the only window treatments we added this year were in the office… still no treatments in our bedroom or the guest bedroom…… or our Kitchen or the Laundry Room. Whoops… maybe we will add some in 2020, but I doubt it.
So, all in all, we only successfully finished two of our 2019 project goals and 50% completed the other three. Honestly, it doesn’t sound that great when put that way, but the projects we did finish bring us so much happiness, so I’m okay with it. Plus, I can tell this coming Spring will be more focused on the outside of our home and that gets me really excited because I can’t wait to have an outdoor space to relax and host! Later this week, I'll be sharing how I'm approaching this new year a little differently and my take on "goals".
P.S. – Wonder when or how we accomplished some of the other projects in our home? Check out this recap post from 2018.
Talk soon,
Kayleigh