Successes and Failures but Happiness all Around!

First Happy Friday! It's sketchy's Friday off. It's been a while since we haven't been out of town or busy on his Friday off so i wasn't used to this having to get up and go to work while i know he's going to sleep in and do nothing all day. just want to be home! lol

Speaking of home, I was thinking about how we're very quickly approaching a year in our home! Got me thinking about all the home improvements we've gotten done, and those we've slacked on. Took a look at my "1 year plan" tab. I'd like to go through it and share our progress and lack thereof. =) 

Will write notes and edits in orange! Then will update on the actual page. 

Here's our first draft of our 1 Year Plan: 

(which I'll keep in a separate tab to keep track of our progress and successes)

January: 

- Purchase another set of furniture (living room set)

- Purchase some sort of wine cabinet/sofa table for our Nalini&Sketchy Shrine

- Purchase a mancave TV up to Sketchy's standards

- Finish fencing backyard -- fail due to snow/ice rain/horrible weather. BLAH.

- Purchase path lights for front walkway

- Blinds on all windows

- Fix-up entryway 

     - IKEA shoe cabinet

     - DIY welcome chalkboard memo frame and key/jacket hooks

January was successful in my opinion. We purchased a lot of furniture items for the house. We obviously got the mancave tv set up and honestly the mancave turned out to be the best part of the house in terms of decorations. The path lights were a bit of a fail because they were solar powered and our home doesn't get much direct sunlight on the front. Fence is an epic fail in that we haven't gotten that and looks like we won't ever actually get that before leaving our home. probably giving up on that as the ground is going to start getting hard again with cold weather. 

our mudroom/entry way is complete... and i love the space it has become with the DIY coat rack, pictures of us and DIY framed monogram. 

February:

- Purchase a dining room set

- Build pots/pans pull-out shelving units in cabinets

- Purchase bedframe and DIY headboard in master bedroom

- Build a bar for mancave

- DIY bar counter top (encased bottle caps like below but of VT logo)

- DIY chalkboard menu frame thing in Kitchen

- Purchase entertainment center for mancave

- Dryer vent/Dryer electrical outlet

- Have Superbowl/Housewarming Party

We did get our dining set which i really like for the space it's in. I got some DIY scrapbook art on the wall in the dining room and we got our headboard done which was DIY as well. The pull out shelving units are on the list with fence as never happening lol. Next house. While it didn't happen in Feb, we finally got our bar. took us a long time but i think it ended up being perfect and still had a feeling of DIY with spray painting it to match mancave furniture. Did the DIY chalkboard menu and got the wine wall completed, we finally got the dryer vent situated but then our washer went out. we still don't have a washing machine. Giant fail. 

March:

- Shelving racks in utility room/workbench/tool area 

- Shelving and organizing units above washer/dryer



- Install vent in master bath

- Nicer bathroom mirrors (ORB framed mirrors)

- All english ivy gone from backyard 

- Have all frames and art hung around the house

- Vanity [[maybe]]

The utility room in general just never happened. We were supposed to have metal racks in there but it's still pretty empty. Not sure that we're going to really work on that room either. Vent still doesn't exist. Probably something we'll do before we try to sell. Still need to hang up the nice mirror in the downstairs bathroom but needed to get paint for the walls to match. 

All english ivy gone and yard is looking better and better with time!

Vanity never happened and is probably going on that list with fence and pot shelving.

April:

- Purchase and install french doors

- Get office completely situated -- maybe some sort of Hutch for the desk
- install basement door exterior light
- motion detector for front light and side light

Doors didn't happen since we were still working on patio situation. between the rain, busy schedule and life things the patio was super slow to get done. We still need to do the basement door exterior light. Think that will be done when bathroom vent gets done before we sell. We still need to do that motion detector situation.

May: 

- Purchase and install Fireplace



- look into nest/thermostat thing 

Fireplace is still something i'd like for the living room space where the TV is but we've figured out a new spot for mantle-like decorations... the sofa table. This is still on the list but wondering how likely it is with other expenses coming up. Don't think it's happening anytime soon. might as well toss this on the fence list. 

Thermostat item we looked into. on the fence about it.

June:

- Purchase grill! =)

- Figure out a patio/firepit situation

- Bring completed cornhole boards home

I think I knew we'd be busy in the summer so made the list really short. June was completely successful. I'm sure we did other items along the way too.

July:

- Paint mancave (maroon/dark red with brown/black trim)

- Accent wall in living area

Painting is never going to happen. we've hung too much on the walls/i decided i really liked the grey/cream color throughout the home. it's also better for resale so ppl can just make it their own.

August:

- Purchase multiple TVs to be mounted in Mancave (football season!!)

- Build up barware

woot to the first one and the second! when stocking the our new bar i realized we had every kind of drink glass! Was very excited about that. 

September: 

- Extend master closet into joining room's closet to make awesome master closet!

haha, we've basically just continued to use that room as a closet-room. The extension of closet is never happening. Not going to be in the house long enough to make it worth it. tossing it on the fence list.

October:

- Purchase pumpkins from pumpkin patch for stoop!

- Create Doghouse in storage space under stairs

Purchasing pumpkins this weekend! That doghouse idea would still be really cute and easy but not good for resale we think, so took that off the list a while ago.

November: 

- Change out cabinet doors for glass cabinet doors or add peninsula/bar in kitchen (make more open)

- Change out all kitchen cabinet fixtures

- Deck

kitchen work is definitely not happening. like extending the closet, not going to be there long enough to really make much of a difference. all of the kitchen is still brand new so it should be left to be done to the taste of the new owners. 

deck = patio. patio is 1/2 way there! 

December: 

- Purchase real Christmas Tree

- Purchase Christmas lawn decorations and lights!

- Deck & Tent-y Gazebo for deck

Not here yet, but these items will for sure happen since they're just decorations/holiday items! 

My hope is that the home stuff is all done by the end of 2013. In 2014 I'd love to focus on enjoying our home and traveling as married folks! =))

So it's nice to look back on this list and see how far we've come. I like setting high goals because then even if i don't actually complete what i set out to do, i know that i've done quite a few things and accomplished something along the way. We may not have hit all the items on this list and many for good reason. Some don't even need to be done or were more long-term planning at the time. We've also done a lot to the house that probably wasn't on this list. I like my last line in this -- one of the main reasons i wanted a blog -- to see what my mindset was last year, or a week ago. to see how much has changed and how me and sketchy as people have changed. 

This year has been a pretty damn good year for us in figuring out what we want to do with our true future, where we want to be and who we want to be around to maximize our happiness and the success of our future. We've had a successful year of playing house, which should benefit us greatly in resale, we've learned a lot more about one another going through building a house and planning a wedding and we've really come around to becoming closer with family and figuring out how, when, why and what kind of family we want to have in the future. 

in the past i would be reminded of what things we failed on, vs being happy about what we've gotten completed. but life is not about being perfect and i'm glad to have those influences not in my life at this point. i'm super proud of what we've accomplished and am even more happy to know that i have grown as a person who can be happy about the positive and not the least concerned about our failures because they happen for a reason and in the end, it doesn't make or break our happiness in the house.

Food for thought. What did you set out to accomplish this year? Did you accomplish it? Does it matter to you as much as it did at the beginning of the year?