Anniversary…last week
I can’t believe it. I can’t believe we have owned our house for a full year, and I can’t believe I forgot to celebrate it on the blog! Whoops! Well, last week was not only valentines day, but the following day was our one year anniversary of the house. How fun! In reality, we didn’t move into the house until April, but on February 15th last year, we signed the papers, went to Home Depot and bought paint supplies and began to make our house our home. So, let’s take a quick look back at what we accomplished in the first year of home ownership, shall we:
The very first room we tackled when we bought the house was our bedroom. We had already picked the paint color (since we had painted our old apartment bedroom this color) and figured it would be nice to have finished a room to relax in. So it was a lot of hole patching and painting to get rid of the yellow walls, but in the end, it was a huge difference.
If that awesome yellow wasn’t enough, it was in the bathroom too. So, while we didn’t do much in there, we did paint the heck out of that too.
We then took to transforming the living room/dining room area as we ripped out the old laminate floor, (hired someone) to put in new hardwood, took down a wall, added new lights, painted, built TWO tables and got all new furniture. We also had a leak that ruined our ceiling, but luckily got that fixed. Again, such a big change.
The last bit we did before actually moving into the house was the kitchen, which in retrospect, we probably should have done first. We were waiting for paint to dry the day we moved in, so it was a bit dicey at first, but here’s what we did. We ran the hardwood through to the kitchen, painted the cabinets, added recessed lighting, fixed some appliances, removed the wallpaper and the textured paint and painted the walls and ceiling. Can you see a difference?
Finally we moved in, and kept working away. We tackled the basement by adding a mantle to the fireplace, painting, building a workbench for the work room, put in some shelves and a pub table, and plopped down and watched some tv…finally.
With the help of some awesome friends, next on the list was to redo the little (disgusting) half bathroom on the first floor. This was a big undertaking for such a small room. We ripped out the vanity and mirror, tiled the floor, put in a new toilet, painted, added a pedestal sink and a new door.
Those were the MAJOR projects we did in the first year, of course I am leaving out many many details but hey, if you read the blog frequently, you already know all that. If you don’t, then do yourself a favor and go back and read some. Extra points if you find my typos, there is at least one in each post (I’m guessing). We have big plans for year two, as I’ve said numerous times on here, but we’ve already begun working on some of the other rooms. The year two summary will hopefully be more fun, and a bit more interesting. All in due time 
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the Doors
I actually worked on TWO projects this weekend. I haven’t done that in quite a while, and that’s because the lights took a lot less time than anticipated. Let’s face it, every time I do something with electrical, I realize I have no clue what I am doing and it takes far longer than anticipated. Since this time around I had a little more time, I decided to start another project. Key word…start. We have these broken, ugly and annoying closet doors for our main coat closet.
I decided to take them down and replace them with a six panel style to match the front door. I knew I wasn’t going to have the time to paint it, but I figured I would get it up. That I did, but then I realized a slight problem. The closet opening is actually two inches wider than the door. That really wasn’t my mistake, because the largest door Lowe’s had was a 36″ door, and in reality, I thought it would work. What threw me off was the little metal strip to the right of the door, which concealed that gap. So, the door isn’t finished, but I have come up with a solution. After this coming weekend, I promise I’ll have finished photos of the door…but I thought I’d give you a taste as to what we’re doing. Nothing big…yet.
Key word…YET.
Read MoreLights out
Our house is littered with brass fixtures, and I really really hate brass. Not to mention that the fixtures are also original from the house, they are rusted or peeling and they just look awful. The worst culprit of them all, these “boob” lights… hideous.
I should also mention, we have FIVE of them in our house. Ugh. Our plan is to eliminate them bit by bit, and there was no better place to start than the hallway when you first enter the house.
The first task was to turn off the power to the lights. I am paranoid about electrifying myself, so I turned off nearly half the house just to make sure. With the power off, I took down the old lights. The screws were all rusted, and the fixtures were just falling apart.
With the old fixture down, I painted the ceiling where the fixture was (and I’ll probably need to put another coat on later this week), and began to put up our new fixture which we got from Lowe’s.
With the wiring all hooked up, new screws and a few choice words because I couldn’t get the screws lined up at first (it was my mistake, I put them in the wrong slot), the new lights were up and illuminating. What a difference, no more brass, no more ugliness.
Two down, three more to go. All in due time. Next time, when I paint a ceiling, I’ll take down the lights first so I don’t have to do it later. It was an easy project, but a fun and rewarding one. I’m happy that these lights also match our chandelier, so it really brings the rooms together.
Read MoreAdd us to your home screen
I know I know, there haven’t bee many updates as of late, but I promise I am going to Lowe’s this weekend to pick up a few things for some small projects around the house. Then after that, HOPEFULLY I’ll get some new projects, and be able to keep up with the blog a bit more. I do promise that as soon as the spring rolls around, this blog will be busy with stuff again. You can hold me to that.
In the meantime, however, if you enjoy the blog and you have an ipad/ipod/ereader, you can add us to your home screen. For ipad/ipod users, goto our webpage through your browser, then select add to home screen.
Once you do that, you’ll get a fun little icon on your home screen, and with one simple touch, you can visit our blog! Exciting, I know, but if you’re like me, you like to make things easy, so I’ve made reading our blog even easier. You’re welcome!
New blog posts coming next week, with more fun home improvement, even if it’s the little things
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About Matt and MC
We just recently bought our first home, and we decided to share our story of our adventures with you. The ups and downs of home ownership, and all the fun we'll have in between. Ignore the typos and just have fun, that's what we're here for. 
