August 16th of this year will mark ten years since Matt and I bought our house. Ten years! I’ve said that many times in different conversation with different people. I’ve mentioned it in at least a couple of blog posts already. And yet, it still seems hard to believe that it’s almost been 10 years. And as I’ve mentioned already, my goal is to have all of the interior rooms of our house finished by that 10-year anniversary of us owning this house. If I counted correctly, that means I have 4.5 months to get my studio completely finished.
So just to appreciate the last 10 years, I took a look back at what projects I was doing in this month (March) of each of the last 10 years. It was a fun exercise, not only to remember all of the different projects, but to see how far things have come. Here’s a quick look back…
This Month Ten Years Ago (2013)
In March 2013, Matt and I were still living in our little condo close to Baylor University campus, and I was finishing up a 20-day makeover that I did on the little hallway bathroom. Here’s what it looked like before I started the makeover…
And here’s what it looked like after the makeover…
I was still a pretty new DIYer back then, but I figured out how to make a wood countertop and new cabinet doors for the vanity. I also painted the bathtub and tub surround, installed new vinyl tile flooring, and so much more. If you weren’t around back then, you can click here for a little trip back in time to see this makeover.
This Month Nine Years Ago (2014)
In March of 2014, Matt and I had been living in the house for just a few month (I think it was October 2013 when we finally moved in), and I had just finished a Phase 1 of decorating the living room. There was no remodeling that went into this. The room still had the old drywall, old polystyrene ceiling tiles, old windows, and window unit air conditioner. This was a “lipstick on a pig” type of project.
It still amazes me to look back at that living room. Who the heck was I decorating for? That room just doesn’t seem like me at all. I did love that ottoman, though! I built and upholstered that myself, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. And who remembers my painted sofa? ? It started out a very loud blue and white floral, and I painted it white. It was incredibly durable and felt a bit like vinyl.
Also in March of 2014, I was just starting the kitchen remodel. I had no idea what I was doing, but with sheer determination, I started removing the original cabinets and shoving them over into the big room next to the kitchen (i.e., the room that was originally divided to become our pantry and breakfast room).
If you missed the original kitchen remodel with the green and gold cabinets, you can see that here.
This Month Eight Years Ago (2015)
In March of 2015, I was more than halfway through with the hallway bathroom remodel. After finishing up the kitchen remodel, I was feeling pretty confident in my DIY abilities and the new skills I had learned during that remodel, so without much planning and zero budgeting at all, I jumped right into a bathroom remodel.
This room looked like this when we bought the house…
All of the original bathroom had been torn down to the studs, floor joists, and ceiling joists, and I started over completely. So by the end of March 2015, I had the paneling on the walls installed, and I was just finishing up the paneled skirting that I added to the side of the standard bathtub…
And I was also just finishing up the vanity mirror with the sconces incorporated into the frame.
But as you can see in the reflection in the mirror, I still had trim to install in the room, and loads of finishing touches before the room was actually finished. If you missed the original bathroom remodel, you can see it here.
This Month Seven Years Ago (2016)
March of 2016 is when I was in the middle of my very wayward attempt to turn our living room into a dining room. That will, forever and always, be remembered in my mind as my dumbest idea in this house, and it swallowed up months of my time as I tried to turn the room into something that it clearly wasn’t intended to be.
That ridiculous idea included lots and lots of picture frame molding on the walls. Why in the world would I choose to put picture frame molding on the walls of a room that had five windows, a fireplace, a door, and two cased openings?!
I’d love to know what the heck was going on in our lives during that time, because it seems like I was probably dealing with some sort of mental/emotional issues that manifested themselves in my crazy, nonsensical decisions with our home.
I struggled and struggled with that room, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and finally gave up in wrote a post on March 25th titled “Know When To Walk Away“. I’m so glad I walked away from that plan! We get so much use out of our cozy little living room these days. I can’t even imagine how useless that room would have been to us had I somehow managed to turn it into a dining room.
The very end of March 2016 is also when I started the hand drawn birds and butterflies mural on the entryway wall.
I didn’t finish the mural until April 2016. Of all of my projects I’ve done in this house, and that didn’t make the final cut, this is the one that is mentioned the most often in comments by readers as the project y’all miss the most.
This Month Six Years Ago (2017)
In March of 2017, I was spending my time focused on a few different things. I hadn’t yet started on the pantry makeover, but I was installing the doors on the pantry. I used bifold closet doors, and took them apart to install them as French doors on the pantry.
Today, that pantry doesn’t have any doors on it, and those are the doors that I used to build the cabinet that is now in the water closet area of our master bathroom.
In March of 2017, I was also in the middle of repainting the kitchen after deciding that a green kitchen just wasn’t exactly right for me. In the picture above, you can see the kitchen cabinet doors lined up against the empty pantry walls. Looking back at these old posts, I was reminded that I had tried out several other colors before landing on the teal that they are now. I had actually tried a navy blue for the lower cabinets, and a very light gray for the upper cabinets. That was awful in my kitchen, so then I tried out several other colors, finally leaning into my love for teals.
March of 2017 was obviously a busy month, because that’s also when I refinished the concrete countertops in the kitchen.
This Month Five Years Ago (2018)
In March of 2018, I was focused on several front porch projects. I finished up the wood porch that I built to float over the original concrete porch, and I had also installed new posts and wrapped them to look like thicker columns. But I hadn’t yet tackled the new steps and railing.
Also that month, I built the little portico over the side studio door.
This Month Four Years Ago (2019)
March of 2019 was all about the studio. At the beginning of the month, the room got new drywall.
And by the end of the month, I was hard at work getting that back entry in the studio painted.
And now, I’m about to redo all of that. ?
This Month Three Years Ago (2020)
In March of 2020, I actually took a long break from project in our house in order to work on a remodel in my mom’s kitchen. That was a very fun and rewarding project. When we started that project, her kitchen looked like this…
By the end of March, it wasn’t quite finished, but we had built new cabinet doors, and were in the process of getting the cabinets painted and the doors installed.
At that time, it would still be just over a month before her kitchen was finished.
If you missed the before and after of my mom’s kitchen makeover, you can see that here.
This Month Two Years Ago (2021)
March of 2021 was kind of a slow month as far as house projects go because Matt spent a week in the hospital. But one thing that caught my eye when looking over posts that I wrote that month was my post about inspiration for our home gym. I had determined that I wanted colorful striped walls in that room, but I was still trying to figure out exactly what I wanted. Here’s one of the mock ups I did. ?
That’s not too far from what I ended up doing (with different colors, thank goodness), but check out this mock up I did…
I mean…YOWZA! ? Let’s just say that I’m glad I stopped with what I have. Striped walls are just right. A striped ceiling like that? That’s a bit much.
This Month One Year Ago (2022)
In March of last year, I seemed to be struggling a bit with staying focused, probably because I was in the midst of a bathroom remodel and having to do big projects (like tiling the bathroom floor) that I really didn’t want to do and dreading having to do. Not only was I working in the master bathroom, but I was working on installing trim in the home gym. And then, in them midst of all of that, I took some time to do a little organizing project in the kitchen.
This Month, 2023
And this month, March 2023, my big triumph was finishing our home gym.
So there’s a glimpse at what was going on this month over the last ten years. It was fun for me to look back and see just how far this house has come, and to relive just a little bit of the journey.
And now I’m done to one room, and four-and-a-half months before we mark our 10-year anniversary in this house. I hope I can get it done!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
