The other day (and by that, I mean several weeks ago), I was looking through my blog and realized the last house update I did was back in May of 2019! I do believe I’ve done a few updates in my newsletter and on various social media platforms since then but not a fully fledged post in any one place.

Hence today’s post! Maybe none of this is new to you, or maybe all of it is, but I thought it would both be fun to share. And, since I tend to forget how far this house has come, a good opportunity for me to see all my projects in one place.So without extending this intro too long, here is everything that has happened in the last two years!

For Christmas in 2019, my family surprised me by starting the renovation on my kitchen while I was on vacation. They opened up sight lines by streamlining the bulky column and turning it into double-sided shelves, and they raised the ceiling and cabinets. Then I came in and did a heck of a lot of painting on the cabinets, beams, and trim! Here’s what it’s looking like right now:

There are a few more things that still need to be finished, like patching the floor where the larger column was, adding a vent hood, and (hopefully one day) getting new countertops. But this is still a FAR cry from the dark and isolated room it used to be!

As part of the kitchen/living room renovation, I also squeezed in a small project over the Christmas 2020 holiday and whitewashed the brick fireplace with my sister. The brick felt so dark and heavy, but I love the character of brick, so I felt that whitewashing would be a happy medium that would lighten the room and still let me have the character I wanted.

Earlier that fall, I ripped out the crumbling wrap-around deck and replaced it with new (properly graded) concrete on the sides and wood decking (more appropriate to the farmhouse feel) in the front (of course, by “I”, I mean “I hired a professional”). This was definitely the LARGEST – and most expensive – project I’ve done since moving in…but I suppose that’s what you get when you’re messing with concrete and structural things! Regardless, I think it was money well spent and REALLY made the house feel like the farmhouse it actually is. Bonus: I’m no longer worried the porch will cave in whenever I walk on it.

Some other smaller things that have happened have included getting all new windows (expensive, but not the biggest wow-factor improvement), having a certain boy move in with me (which is basically a lifestyle renovation), and updates to the landscaping outside…which brings me to the next portion of the update: what I’m working on now!

With the weather warming up, it’s time to turn our attention back to the yard. A few weeks ago, a large storm left significant amounts of debris in our yard, so my parents came over last weekend to help us clean it all up.  After that, I finally moved the trellis we used at my wedding out into the yard, and this week, in a fit of boredom, I grabbed a pickaxe and a shovel and started digging for a project I’ve been wanting to do since the day I moved in:

Laying a brick path with all the old brick that was left by the previous owners!

The trellis from our wedding was the perfect addition to the yard that has sealed my NEED to have this path. I have dreams of the west side of my yard being the ultimate English cottage garden, complete with an old path through a vine-covered trellis, with terraced flower beds on the other side. And it all starts with this path!

So during this past week, I found myself with an hour of free time and a desire to be outside, and so I just decided, “Enough waiting. Time to just start!” Hoki has since joined in  (which has helped the project go by MUCH quicker), and here we are two weeks later! 

And that’s about it for now! The next BIG projects on our list involve getting our cistern fixed and getting proper hose hookups for outside. Hopefully the next update will not be another two years out, and I can give you a much more timely update on that project and the brick path. Needless to say, there is never a shortage of projects at this house, but that is precisely why I love it!

And finally, in October of 2020, we were able to use money from our wedding registry (we requested donations to our home renovation fund in lieu of traditional gifts) towards getting the house painted! This was another BIG project that drastically improved the look of the house. While the old colors on the house weren’t bad, they weren’t my first choice…not to mention the paint was so worn and chipped, it was threatening the integrity of the wood siding, so it had to be redone. I’m a lover of classics, so we went with shades of gray and blue, and I looooove how it has given our house a whole new look!