A Look Back at 2016

Last year, my intention was to focus. To quote myself:

I’m entertaining this novel idea. It’s called “start a room, finish a room.” I know! Here’s the thing. Every single room in this house is going to be in need of at least some minor repair by the time our house has been completely rewired. But once that’s done! The house is all ours again to do whatever we want with! (I am maybe just the teensiest bit excited about the prospect. Can you tell?) Of course, we’ll have spent all of our dollars on colorful tubes of metal and plastic that hide in our walls by then, but hey.

And guess what. I did this! We finished rewiring the second and third floors (as much as we’re doing for right now). And I started and finished the den, our bedroom, our closet, the entryway, hallway, and stairs, a porch, a sandbox/fort for the kids, and a bathroom with my hand-painted tumbling blocks floor!

The Den

This total hodgepodge of a room finally got the attention it deserved. The prettiest blue walls, comfy new chairs, and 6′ long insects on the wall. Naturally.

Our Bedroom

Maybe my favorite room in the house? Until the library is completely done, at least. Then they can duke it out for the title.

Our Closet

Excuse me, it’s a “dressing room.” Much fancier sounding. It has a sink and everything. (This house has quirks.)

The Entryway

I had made changes to the entryway over time, but 2016 was the year I got all of the finishing touches in.

Hallway

Oh, wallpapered hallway. You give me all the heart eyes. This hallway has been through some major changes, you guys.

Stairs

That antelope runner on the stairs is giving the wallpaper a run for its money. 😍

A Porch

An easy update! See ya, overstuffed old furniture. Hello, sleek seating and a little bistro table. String lights make it magical at night.

A Sandbox/Fort

The kids were so into this one. A sandbox with a built-in fort and a pea gravel surround gives them tons of options for play.

The Bathroom w/Hand-Painted Floor

That floor took days to execute, but I love it. Sadly, we may have to demo the bathroom. See below (and cue the tears… and open checkbook).

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It was a good year for the house! Mostly! Looking good, old lady. Please stop with the plumbing issues though, OK?

I worked on the blog itself, too. There was a full redesign last year, and while I was upgrading my server over the past week, I was working hard behind the scenes to add new features. There will be a shop section with links for everything we’ve used here in our home, there are beautiful new large feature images, the archives are beautifully laid out, and I’m updating the house tour. The site got a few other tweaks and the logo got a new inline version, and there are lots of little things left to do, but overall the site is feeling good.

(Someone sent me a message, excited that the sledding chickens in the header were gone, but that’s only because they’ve moved to the sidebar. Sorry! I like adding in those little illustrations too much to let them go completely. Perhaps my swan lady will make a return at some point too?)

One of my favorite posts of the year was ‘A Night In.’ I don’t take photos of the house all that often at night, but it’s so cozy and warm! I’ve already made one big change to that space, too. New chairs for the library! I’ll share more next week.

So what’s next for 2017? Well, we made a nice hole in the ceiling of our second floor bathroom yesterday. We just figured, hey. It’s been a couple of months since all of our walls and ceilings were in good shape. What should we rip open!? (We are investigating the leak that we discovered in November. It’s not looking good.)

But there are two rooms in the works besides the bathroom curveball that this house sent our way. They’re going to be good! Thank you, as always, for being here. Onward, 2017!