A Year In Review

First, I wanted to thank you for all your
encouraging comments and say welcome
to my new followers. 
I treasure you all! Your support
has kept me going over this past year.
Wow, what a year it's been....

In the past year....

December 2010

January 2011

 In January we purchased The Cottage...

We spent the next month taking the interior

from this

to

from this...

and

from this

to

this

and from

this

to

to this!

By mid January we decided

to to put an offer in

on what would become our new home

The Provision.

January - February

Once our offer was accepted we

spent January and February

getting the big house ready for market.

Everything was staged to sell!

The Family Room

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

The Guest Room

By the end of February we had

closed on The Provision.

March

March was spent

raking...

removing carpeting...

and demoing a basement rec room!

April

In April we landscaped the cottage.

Began gutting the Provision.

And filled up the first of many dumpsters to come!

May

 In May demo continued inside the Provision.

Our big house went under contract!

And we hired two contractors to

repair termite damage,

add and subtract walls

and flip the stairs.

June

While we continued demo inside

our contractors installed our new windows.

We also closed on the big house and moved

the family- two adults

two teens and two big dogs

into a two bedroom apartment.

July

July meant the start of trade work.

The house was upgraded from an oil furnace

to gas.  Since all the walls were removed

we also had all new ducts and returns installed.

All the existing plumping was pulled

from the house, so new plumbing

was also added this month.

New wiring was started this month too!

While we outsourced the trade work,

Wayne and I assumed the position

of general contractor for the remodel.

During these months we spent looking

for deals on cabinets, plumbing fixtures,

flooring, doors...etc!

August

The minute we passed inspection...

Our Insulation specialist was

there installing insulation.

Then a team of drywallers came in and drywalled

the whole house in a day and 1/2!

The drywall finisher came next and

spent 3+ weeks finishing it out!

September

Wayne and I started tiling!

Kitchen/ great room floor was installed.

Kitchen was installed. (we outsourced this)

And trim around the doors and windows were installed.

My job was to Spackle, caulk and paint

EVERYTHING!

October

October brought more tiling projects.

The Kitchen Back Splash

The Mudroom Back Splash

and

Master Bathroom (both floor and shower)

Kids Bathroom (both floor and shower)

The upstairs was finished and carpeted.

Wayne built the stair railing and window bench.

The original hardwood floors were sanded

and poly ed.

And the new treads on the stairs were

stained and poly ed.

November

In November, we finally got to move from

the apartment to our new home!

We had wanted to have all our projects done before

the move, however once the last set of

inspections were passed.... it was time.

Wayne and I finished the mudroom cabinets

after we moved in!

December

Having a minute to breath,

I made some JOY ornaments

to pass out with cookies to my

new neighbors!

Since it has been such a long year,

we were just too tired to

drag out all our Christmas decorations,

but the few I did,

 added just the right festive touch!

It has been a big year, one I hope not to

repeat this coming year!  Doing 10 years

worth of DYI projects in

a year is crazy tiring!

But the result has been a true blessing!

God has been Good!

Oh, we still have a list of projects to do...

the landscaping,

window boxes,

boxes to unpack,

a basement room to build,

a basement and

storage barn to organize,

a storage barn to paint

The Cottage exterior to paint,

etc.....!

Must rest up...

Hoping your New Year is

 full of your own Blessings!

Happy New Year!

I am linking up to

Feathered Next Friday

over at French Country Cottage

and to Metamorphosis Monday

at Between Naps on the Porch.