2014 Projects + To Do List - In Review

It's about that time in the new year when I look back at our project list for 2014 to see how we did ticking off the projects, what we accomplished, and what's still on the list.

So how did we go with our ridiculously ambitious to do list last year? Pretty good actually we have accomplished most things that we wanted to ..... this was our 2014 to do list.

1. Laundry/Powder Room Renovation - DONE

Yippee yiy yay those ugly yellow mosaic tiles are just a distant memory now. Not to mention I have a laundry bench to sort clothes and work from and more storage than I know what to do with.

There's a basin inside the toilet so you can wash your hands and check yourself out in the mirror without having to traipse through the house to the bathroom. Oh and a toilet that actually flushes ..... three cheers for that!

2. Finish the inside of the house - ALMOST DONE

We replaced most of the internal doors and a new front door. We just need to hang 2 more and we are done. We also need to paint all the doors and install new handles. I will be doing a How To blog post on this very very very soon!

We have finished painting the entire house and have wallpapered a feature wall and door. I have another wallpaper project in mind once we decide if we'll wallpaper the living room or man cave .... decisions decisions!

3. Front of the house - Landscaping the courtyard - NOT DONE!

We will start work on the courtyard in the next few months.

We have some awesome gardening tools to try out which will hopefully turn my black thumb green and help us get this courtyard landscaped so we can actually use it and enjoy the space.

Not to mention the wood Vs metal courtyard slats debate continues ..... can you believe we still don't know what we want. We have priced up timber and it will work out not that much cheaper once you take into consideration you will need to stain the slats and continue to maintain and stain it each year. Our goal is to order more metal samples and fingers crossed we find a colour we like to match the garage door and can then get the courtyard finished.

4. Backyard - Remove Granny Flat and Patio - IN PROGRESS

5. Build a deck - IN PROGRESS

These two items are on hold until we have our subdivision approval which we should get in the next month or two (the Department of Planning has 3 months to approve/reject our request).

We have organised for someone to remove our Granny Flat for free, they will crane it over the house which is both terrifying and exciting! We have started to clear out the Granny Flat so we are ready for this.

The patio will be removed at that same time, I can't believe the rusty ole thing has lasted so long! We've had some fantastic dinner parties, BBQs, and hosted our first Christmas under here, it has served us so well over the last 5 years!

6. Render back of house  DONE

The back and sides of the house were rendered just before Christmas and it looks absolutely amazing like a different house with all the old 1960s bricks covered with render.

We painted the whole exterior of the house too - the rendered walls, facia and eaves and window frames. It was a huge job but so worth it for the impact it makes.

7. Start subdivision process - Done

We had our land surveyed and the paperwork sent off to planning to see if we can subdivide the property. Now we are waiting to get the go ahead, and once that happens we will tackle 4 and 5 above.

We will also pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate this massive achievement as first time renovators to have our property dreams come to fruition with a lot of hard work and determination!

It's reassuring to look back at all the work we did over the year and see the progress made. 

We still have a list of jobs to finish off, but sometimes it's easy to lose sight and instead of taking a moment to acknowledge what HAS been done, we worry about what HASN'T been done!

I'm reminding myself to do that often this year, not just for the wedding preparations, but life in general. To look at what we've achieved and celebrate the small things because the small things are the big things in life!

How did you go with last year's To Do List?


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[All images my own]