3 Years of Home Ownership

Over the weekend, we hit our three year house-anniversary. I can't believe it's already been 3 years since we signed a million papers, handed over the biggest check of our lives, and got the keys to our first home. Since then we've personalized every room in the house. Some twice. We've made some big changes. We became parents. A lot has happened in 3 years. There’s soooooo much more we want to do, but today I thought it would be fun to reminisce about our biggest house projects.

First “completed” room:
The main bathroom

Last "completed" room:
The half bathroom

Most “finished” room in the house:
The nursery

Our favorite room:
The nursery

Our favorite place to be:
Outside in the backyard

Most embarrassing room:
Definitely the basement (so messy!). We can't seem to keep it organized.

Though it used to be the half bath before we redid it...

The most daunting and time consuming room to redo:
The kitchen

The project we almost gave up on:
The kitchen - we hit so many unexpected bumps, but we persevered!

Most laborious and intense project:
The patio, during a massive heat wave, before leaving on vacation...

Project we are the proudest of:
Me: The patio

Mike: The baby’s bookshelf and the radiator covers, there’s nothing like building furniture with your own two hands.

Project we hated doing the most:
Pulling up the pink carpet and melted sticky carpet pad. We still have nightmares.

Weirdest (and frustrating) surprise:
Me: The wood floor stain pattern upstairs where just the outer ring of the room is dark. (WHY?!)

Mike: The 5” nails used everywhere throughout the house, especially the one that cracked the pipe.

Glad we called in the pros:
A tie between the deck...

...And the master bedroom doorway-closet swap

Most unexpected snafu:
The washing machine not fitting through the basement door

Number of major “weather-related events” our house has survived since we moved in:
6 - In 2011 - An F0-F1 tornado, Hurricane Irene, a bad tropical storm, an earthquake, the 2011 October snowstorm and in 2012 - Superstorm Sandy

Favorite learning experience:
Me: Learning how to pour cement

Mike: Plumbing our kitchen sink (skills later used to do the half bath)

So there you have it! It's been a great 3 years. Can anyone think of any other categories I missed?