I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family! We had such a sweet Christmas celebrating with our little girl!
Here she is about to open presents on Christmas morning…
And on Christmas evening playing with a present from her cousins – her very own Little People Nativity set. So thankful for the gift of God’s son given many years ago and the gift of this precious little to our family this past year.
So I love to recap 2016 and all the projects and favorite posts of the year in one last post before the new year begins. 2016 was such a different year for us filled with so many changes but it was such a good year! I didn’t do as many home or DIY projects or post as much but moving and new baby were pretty BIG projects that happened. But there was still things going on in making my former house and current house more efficient, beautiful, and make it more like home.
I shared how I added some much needed organization to our entryway at our old house with these simple hooks. This was such an easy and inexpensive project but helped add so much storage for bookbags, coats and more.
I also painted a navy blue dresser to add to my nephews room.
And picked up this $8 end table and sanded and restained the top.
We got ready to put our house on the market and I staged it to sell by just doing a simple sort of spring mantel.
In the midst of home showings and looking for a new home, I planned, shopped, and dreamed lots of our little girl who was on the way. I came up with a mood board and decorating plan for a gray and white rustic glam nursery at our new home – I will be doing some finishing projects and sharing all of that with you soon!
We were finally under contract in late spring! I recapped lots of before/afters from our old home starting with pictures from when we first bought it to the day we moved out – a culmination of the last 12 years of turning the foreclosure we bought into our home on a limited budget. You can see a complete before/after post here.
This was the exterior – before
and exterior after.
Here’s just a few of the before/afters of our first home.
Living room before
Living room after
Our kitchen underwent a major transformation in the past 2 years. Here’s how it looked when we moved in.
And here’s how it looked when we listed for sale.
Before
After
I shared never before seen pictures of our powder room…
And how we added lots of character on a small budget.
And this was the eat in kitchen before
And after. I loved the light in this room from those bay windows.
We finally found a new home and closed in mid May and I shared lots of before pictures.
And 3 weeks later our sweet little girl was born...
The very first thing I did was to give our mailbox a makeover – jumpstarting some desperately needing curb appeal.
Then we began to tackle the jungle of our front yard. Trimming bushes and finding that removing them was going to be the only option.
We got the beds cleared, added the first little bit of landscaping, and added some pretty mulch. Lots more to work on out there this spring.
The house also needed some work since it had lots of chipping paint. So a new color and freshly painted exterior happened in late fall.
I found 4 rocking chairs at different yard sales and added a porch swing and my front porch was starting to come together.
I was also busy inside… the first room to get a paint makeover was the living room. That mustard yellow was gone…
And replaced with a taupey neutral color (Wheat Bread by Behr). We also got new floors installed.
Then it was time to decorate for Christmas and I had a lot fun with my Christmas front porch.
I shared a small Christmas home tour…
And my Christmas living room and mantel.
So even though this was an unusual and busy year apart from blogging, I guess I did manage to get a few things done 😉 I am really excited about what I am planning for 2017 and my approach to tackle my home and then blog about that I am doing and I’ll share more of that with you next week.
I would love to know what was your favorite project or home makeover you did this year!
Happy New Year!
I am in the midst of redecorating my kids’ shared bathroom, they are 17 and 20 (girl and boy) and it hasn’t been changed in probably 10 years. One room houses the linen cabinet and vanity with double sinks and plain mirrors. The 3 lime green walls and one striped wall (turquoise, lime, orange, yellow and pink) ) have been repainted a lighter and less garish celery green, and the shiny brass vanity light replaced with a chrome one. I also hung a white medicine cabinet above the white storage chest already there to create a small hutch look and add much needed storage (teenage girl, need I say more!). The other room with the toilet and tub had two shades of turquoise with a wave design between to mimic sky and water. I repainted it all the lighter color, changed the small window trim from orange to dark blue and added a dark blue shower curtain. The decor is “sea shore” themed. I still need to recaulk around the sinks, add silver drawer pulls to vanity, and replace the carpet in the sink room with gray tile and put down blue rugs. It already looks so much more grown up.
You have a darling baby. Great job on the new house.
It was great seeing the recap of your projects from the past year! I am looking forward to your projects and great ideas for 2017….and anxious to see how you change, update & decorate your home. The pictures of your little girl are precious – I know you and your hubby enjoyed her this Christmas! Love the Little People nativity, too! 🙂 Happy New Year!