What a wild ride 2020 was, am I right? It’s crazy to think that back in January and February (pre-COVID as I like to call it), we were busy packing up our home and getting ready to move a few blocks away into our newly built house.
When we first moved in, I had big dreams with long-term goals for our house. I wanted to take things slow and work on one room at a time. Live in each space and get a feel of the flow and how each space would function. We were planning on finishing our basement in 3-5 years as it would be our primary play space for the kids. I laugh at this sentence now.
Enter March. COVID hit and the kids were home all day long. Nate started working from home. I’ve worked from home for 4 years so I was already home all the time. Let’s just say all that sitting at home and nesting (I was 4-5 months pregnant at this point), I was able to plan a lot of projects that I wanted to tackle before Addison was born.
Thinking back over the past year, I didn’t realize how many projects we actually completed and spaces we updated, until I started listing them out. We were on a roll in 2020!
Our family is very fortunate to be able to build not one, but two brand new homes in the past few years. However, I will say that building a new home comes with its challenges. All those white walls and cookie cutter spaces can make a house feel stark and not like home at all. That’s how I was feeling at the beginning of 2020. I actually stated multiple times how much I missed our old home that my kids started saying it. Don’t get me wrong, I was very grateful for our new home, but looking back, it’s not the old home that I missed, but the feeling of being at home. Now I can look at our current home and see us making many memories here and it makes me so happy to feel like we’ve found our place.
Okay, on to the projects! Let’s talk about a few of our biggest projects and I’ll list a few more smaller ones at the end. Later this week (or next), I’m going to share a post about up-and-coming projects for 2021. I will also try to add all of our 2020 projects into the blog for the next year. So if you have questions, drop them below in the comments or wait until the blog post comes out (hopefully sooner rather than later).
Our biggest project to date is our pantry. Just a reminder, below is a before photo and what it looks like now. Even though we outsourced the cabinets and countertop installation, we DIY’d the backsplash and hung the open shelves ourselves. Who remembers following along as I tiled at 9 months pregnant? No easy feat with a big belly in the way. Ha! Anyways, this was one of the first spaces we completed because we needed food storage asap.
Another project that made a huge impact to our living space is our living room. Again, here’s a before photo so you can see just how far we’ve come.
A few things we accomplished in here – adding a light fixture, DIYing those built-in cabinets and bench, adding tongue and groove to the fireplace nooks, hanging a mantle and TV, tiling around the fireplace, as well as adding woven blinds and curtains. Our living room has gone through a few different rugs and furniture arrangements, but I think we’ve finally landed on the perfect combination. We’re not fully finished with this space yet and have a few surprises up my sleeve so stay tuned.
Another space we completed this past August was our office that is adjacent to our living room. For the first 6 months, this space was our playroom with no storage so we literally had toys piled in the corner. It drove me bonkers! Once Addison was born, I was ready to tackle this space, just in time for the new school year with virtual and hybrid learning. This space was relatively easy as we only needed to install the tongue and groove/chair rail, swap out the builder grade light and order new desks/chairs and that awesome gallery wall.
I know I said our basement was going to be put on hold for awhile, but with all the kids home, we quickly realized we needed that additional play space. Our last home had a living room and a family room; however, our new home only has a living room so technically we lost a space until we decided to finish our basement. This space is still a work in progress and will be one of the first spaces we finish in 2021. In September, we started contacting subcontractors to get quotes and timelines and quickly realized that we could jump on the project right away. Even though this space isn’t finished, we have put the most of our time and effort into this space so I can’t NOT mention it. We started with a wide open space and completed framing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing rough-ins, drywall, tape/texture and paint. As of right now, we are waiting on doors and carpet and then we can actually start utilizing the space. Hooray! Here’s what the space looks like today.
Our bedroom went from boring to elegant with a tongue and groove wall (my Mother’s Day gift). We also added a ceiling fan, woven shades and curtains. Small changes made a big impact in this space! We’re not done with this room so you’ll see a few more changes in 2021.
Here’s a list of a few smaller projects that we worked on:
Our bedroom closet – We added an IKEA PAX system in our closet that has been a life saver with organizing our clothes and toiletry items. Our closet isn’t quite done yet, so you’ll see more of our closet in the next year.
The boys’ room – We installed new bunk beds and painted their ceiling SW Tricorn Black.
Avery’s room – I installed wood tongue and groove as an accent wall and stained it black. We also updated Avery’s furniture and installed a woven shade, curtains and a new ceiling fan.
Addison’s room – I started with painting his closet doors BM Boothbay Gray and finished with a moulding accent wall behind his crib.
Kitchen – We swapped out the builder light bulbs above our sink and added 3 sconces (we’ve actually swapped these out a couple times because I couldn’t find lights that I was crazy for). We also changed the lights over the island and added floating shelves.
Kids’ Bathroom – This is the first space that I added any sort of paint or color. I color blocked the kids’ bathroom with a sage green about a month after we moved in.
Entryway – Our entryway didn’t take much – just a few photo frames and a console table.
Wow, that’s quite the list that we tackled in just a short 11 months while working full-time and during a pandemic. I’m so excited for what 2021 brings and can’t wait to bring my ideas to you!
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