Today marks the one year anniversary since we bought our house. I'm going to be all cliché and say that there's been good times and bad, but at the end of the day we love our house and are so, so glad to live where we do.
So today we're going to do a bit of time travel, from September 30th, 2010 to now.
Closing Time Day.
Here we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed on our very first day of home ownership. I am going to be completely honest and tell you that currently the outside of the house looks worse than this - there are building materials EVERYWHERE.
You're outta here!
One of the very first things we did was rip out this sheet of vinyl flooring. We were beyond thrilled to uncover the amazing hardwood underneath (we're 95% sure it's maple). The high of a good find quickly dissapated when we realized there were hundreds of tiny little nails poking up everywhere, and every single one of them needed to be removed before we could refinish the floor.
The floor is still not refinished.
A little paint here, a little paint there.
That green paint in the kitchen had to go. We both tend to really like blue, so this is what we ended up with...
There have been some changes since these pictures were taken. The recycling bins are now out of sight hung up on the wall by the stairs to the basement. The table is now in the middle of the room, that mess of a whiteboard/corkboard was taken off the wall, and where the table was is now a beautiful buffet given to us from Mike's aunt.
That pretty much concludes what we've done in the kitchen. It's probably my favourite room in the house. It's bright and incredibly spacious (15ft x 19ft). The layout of counter space and appliances isn't perfect, but definitely something we can live with for a long time until we're done with the rest of the house.
Parlor. Front Room. Family Room. Living Room.
Whatever the proper name for this room is, it was white and boring, but with it's french doors, big windows looking over the front yard, and rich faux bois'd woodwork, this was a close runner up for favourite room in the house. All we've done in here is paint and add furniture.
I hate the colour, and furniture has since been moved around. After the shed is finished, and after the bathroom is redone, this room is next on the list. Especially since there is a very real possibility of a pet falling through the floor in one corner.
I'm a huge fan of the corner blocks in this room. The rest of the trim throughout the house is very plain, but I can just imagine the wife of the first owner insisting on some sort of bling...
Who doesn't like surprises?
Our staircase is walled in and narrow. No grand open stair cases for this simple farmhouse!
Over time, I felt like the stair case was getting bouncier, that the treads weren't necessarily resting on the risers like they should. And then one day...
Thankfully, I have some handy men in my life and the stairs were fixed quickly (the bottom 6 stairs are new, the remaining stairs are original), and then Mike and I got to work on refinishing them.
They're still not finished. We need to add trim, which we're making ourselves with a router.
Winter Blues.
Like other parts of the world, the winter of 2010 was crazy with snowfall. In the first few weeks of December, the carport you see above collapsed on my car, we had a frozen pipe burst (outside, thankfully), and the
shack collapsed. Those were my least favourite days. The dog seemed to enjoy all the snow, though.
And then it was Christmas - and there are few things more lovely than a lit up Christmas tree in an old Victorian home.
Spring is in the air.
Spring in the Minesing Swamp brings floods. The right of the picture above is now a pasture full of beef cattle, and the left has soybeans waiting to be combined sometime in October.
Spring also brought our first overnight visitors. I needed the room they were staying in to look somewhat decent, so I spent some time turning this...
Into this...
Besides the kitchen, this is the most finished room in the house. I actually kind of like the floor in it's current state.
Summer time, and the livin' is easy.
It has walls now, though!
Behind the scenes.
We've also done a couple things totally not picture worthy. Like replacing the oil tank and jacking up the floor to make things a little bit more level. I've also refinished a bunch of door hardware, and it's all packed away nicely waiting to be put back on once their respective doors are refinished.
That pretty much sums up our year of home ownership. We aren't anywhere near where I thought we would be after one year. But I'm learning that that's okay. We'll get there some day - there's honestly no rush.
So, happy housiversary to me and Mike. And happy fall!
