I cannot believe that we have been in this house for an entire year! It has been a great year full of adjustments, DIY projects, and acclimating to living in such a large, older home. We moved from a two bedroom, 1 bath, 1100 square foot home to a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath, approximately 3500 square foot (we don’t know the exact sq. footage due to changes that have been made), 106 year old home. We had lofty goals for this year and honestly the hardest part has been deciding what projects to tackle and what ones to put off for later.
Here is the list of our ultimate goals for this house
Update outdoor areas, add back porch, fix up front porch
Here’s what we have accomplished
So what have we learned this year? Well for one, keeping this house clean is tough. We have four floors and I feel like as soon as I get one cleaned up, another one is a disaster. Organization and getting rid of stuff that we don’t need is key. I really need to work on decluttering and reorganizing this year.
I am also coming to terms with the fact that every house project does not need to be done RIGHT NOW! I am not a patient person and have such high expectations but I need to bring myself down to reality. One project at a time is the way to go, or else you can easily feel overwhelmed. I currently am finishing up the bathroom remodel, halfway done removing staples and tack strips from carpet I ripped out last week, have about 4 painting projects going on, and a couple furniture refinishes going. This is way.too.many. projects. Prioritizing and finishing one thing up before you start another really makes things easier. Clearly I am currently not listening to my own advice, but if I was, I would be a much saner person right now.
Old houses are old (shocking I know!) Floors are going to be uneven, walls aren’t straight, pipes are old, and something always needs to be fixed. Perhaps for some people, this wouldn’t be worth it, but I think in our house, the charm we have with our old house definitely pays off. We have beautiful original woodwork and hard wood floors, skeleton key door knobs, pocket doors, big chunky trimmed out doors and windows, solid wood paneled doors, a leaded glass front door, and many other original details that could never be replicated in a new home. So I think the biggest lesson learned this year is that our big old house is going to need constant upkeep. Again, prioritizing is key, and making sure you always have some sort of contingency fund in case a pipe suddenly breaks or something.
So here’s to another year of making our Old House a New Home! Thank you for reading and I hope you continue following as I keep on cooking, DIYing, and generally driving myself crazy in the process.
Congrats on your House-a-versary!! We are currently packing up our 3000 sq ft house and are downsizing to a one floor ranch with 1800 square feet – I too, have no patience, and can’t wait to get in there and get going…Today I made a list of all the “projects” I want to complete – it’s 3 pages long…whew – the thought of all that work gets my heart pumping with excitement and makes me want to go back to bed and never get up!! – all at the same time!!
I’m enjoying watching what you are doing – and can’t wait to see what’s next!
Thank you!! I am so excited for you! The best part of moving into a new house is stating all those projects and getting to decorate from scratch! I know what you mean though about excitement and hiding from it at the same time! I feel like that almost everyday! Thank you for reading!
Hey Amanda – thanks for the email – I tried to reply – but you show up as a “no-reply blogger”