This summer we hit a major milestone: 2 years in in our fixer upper home! So here’s a little appreciate post to our home that has endured so much. And honestly to ourselves for getting through some tough times here. Our neighbor shared more photos of what our house looked like before it went on the market. And it’s WILD to see how far it’s come, with just paint and decor.
With every project checked off our list, we breathe a little deeper and feel more at peace here in this crazy house.
Even though updates have been slower than we expected, we’re chipping away at our long list or projects to make this fixer upper our home.
The name of the game for the first year in our house was emergency fixes. Getting all our appliances in working order, fixing leaking toilets and sinks and damaged subfloor, and our repairing our cracked foundation. All repairs we did not expect and took all our planned renovation cash.
So year two we took a long break from projects. By then we were exhausted and financially needed a break from the rapid pace we were on.
Looking back, we were still able to check off some impactful updates, and one big project this year.
Renovating a home is an investment.
While quick projects can go a long way, we know we want to be here long-term and do projects the right way: high quality, timeless looks. So we’re slowing down our pace a bit in order to save and plan until we’re ready to execute.
Let’s revisit a few updates we did this year!
Big Project of the Year: A New Deck
Okay first of all, I haven’t shared about this project much yet because it’s not done. Ha. We still need to finish adding the facia boards, a railing, and our custom flower boxes.
Plus, this new fancy deck has made it even more obvious how badly we need to repaint our exterior.
This space doesn’t feel ready to share in an inspiring way, but I don’t want to hide projects from you, and we won’t paint our house until the Spring.
So I might as well show you!
No judgement, okay?
Even without those finishes yet, this new deck has absolutely changed how we utilize our space.
It feels SO open and inviting into our backyard.
Our dining room is just inside our patio door, and now feels less cluttered and cleaner too. I can’t wait to get that last 20% done and enjoy this space to the fullest!
This is definitely one of the biggest projects we’ve completed back here. Besides replacing all our grass and landscaping. In the future, we’ll add crushed rock around our fire pit area (to the right of the deck in this photo) to create an intentional hangout space that flows off the lower deck section.
New Ceiling Lighting
We gave our ceiling lights a little upgrade over the summer and it made a huge difference too. We found all of these on Wayfair and didn’t spend a fortune. I looked around for a long time and am really happy with how these lights turned out.
I wanted a big paper globe light in our living room but couldn’t find one. Maybe someday if I come across it, I’ll replace our black light again. But I like the minimalistic style and scale of this popular black light.
This little gold hallway light is one of my favorite details in our whole house now. Such a tucked-away little gem.
Our entryway light makes our house glow in the evenings, and I love the unique old-school look.
In total, I spent around $800 on lighting, and that covered our living room light, hallway light, entryway light, a small kitchen light, and an exterior porch light (not pictured because we haven’t installed it yet). Major upgrades for under $1,000!
SHOP MY HOME
And just for fun, here’s a true before and after of our living room. This before photo came from our neighbor who helped clean up our house before it was listed and bought by us. The former owner had hoarder tendencies and the house was in rough shape. We knew it would be a fixer upper. Since we haven’t replaced the floors and trim yet, I can’t look too closely at these photos or my anxiety goes through the roof. We can’t tear these out quite yet, so I choose to live in ignorance.
Girls Bunk Bed Room Upgrade
Our other big upgrade was finishing out girls’ room. We built them bunk beds the first few weeks we lived in this house but with everything else going on, we never finished them.
So I finally took the time to plan and implement a new room for them and we all love how it turned out.
It gave us a needed boost of hope and inspiration for the rest of our home, that someday it will all be finished and feel like us.
Our girls love their beds and love the little custom details like built-in shelving and lighting, and their canopies for some privacy.
I don’t know how long our kids will share a room, but they have a pretty sweet set up. I’m planning to share more details about their room soon!
Future Fixer Upper Projects
Beyond these bigger projects, I painted the girls bathroom vanity and added some old furniture and decor to bring in a little character to our home.
Little by little, we’re making this fixer upper home our own. I’m grateful to be past the emergency repairs and dipping our toes into more fun updates.
As for upcoming projects, our next big project will be finishing our basement.
We’re currently looking into a HELOC to help pay for it. Although we’d hoped to do it in cash, as our kids get older we’re recognizing the need to have a little more space for when they have friends over to play, and to make it easier to host guests in our home. We’ll see how the numbers work out if we’re able to move forward with that project, or if we need to break it into phases and be a little more patient.
Beyond that, our most pressing need in the next year will be exterior paint. Our current paint is splotchy where they tried to touch it up, and it’s chipping due to hail damage. I’m ready to wave goodbye to the 90’s mint green color and give our home a fresh, modern look.
We’d also love to remodel our fireplace, replace all our flooring, and add moulding in the entryway, hallway, and stairs.
We may do a mini kitchen refresh by replacing the countertops and painting the cabinets to buy us some time before a bigger kitchen renovation.
Really looking forward to another year in this home! When we took on this fixer upper, we had no idea what we were in for. Thanks for following our journey.
