Happy Anniversary, House

Last year when I posted a 'Happy Anniversary, House' entry, it was complete with all the things we had done in our first year. This year, I'm too tired to list. It feels like we've done more in year 2, but it could just be that we're both working lots and squeezing house stuff in where we can. I can promise you that we're not slowing down, we're just juggling more.

When we first started this project, I thought to myself, "I'm totally up for this challenge". In general I am, but there are days when I just want to come home to a pretty little home wrapped up in a bow with no gaping walls with visible insulation and wiring, no cob-webby basement, no ripped up yard, no plastic bathroom tile, no giant water sucking toilet, no missing quarter round and...(well, you get the picture). But then I realize how much I love this house in spite of how hard it seems on those days.

This might sound weird, but I feel like our home is so much more than a place where we eat and sleep. It's where we're building our life and where our friends and family come to eat, hang out, and occasionally sleep. It's where we had our first garden, our first Christmas tree, and our first basement flood. It's where we've fostered pets and where we'll eventually have our children and chickens!

We knew walking into this place that it would be a 'blood, sweat, and tears' sort of project - but you can never predict how much you'll get attached.

In spite of documenting the first two years of this remodel project, I feel like it's all a blur. I can barely remember how bad the walls looked when we first moved in or how grimy the kitchen and bathrooms were. Sometimes I still get a faint whiff of old house smell and I live with the constant reminder of what the bathroom looked like. (there are plans in the works - more to come on that). It could all feel like a blur because I started writing this post in May and it's almost August (and the last 3 months have been nuts). But I just took a look back at the calendar to see what we were doing to help celebrate the anniversary of living here - and I'm happy to report that we had friends over to celebrate a birthday - with a cake from the bakery down the street (wink, wink), I did a day's worth of yard weeding, and we planned a date night. Not bad for a weekend's work. I wish they were all that easy.