Last year around this time I wrote about our home goals for 2018. Now that 2018 is over, I thought we should take a look and see how we did!

Here was my list for the 2018 projects that I wanted to get finished.

Mudroom

The mudroom was #1 on my list, since I felt like finishing this would go a long way in making our house more organized and functional. The good news is that we finished it, and I was right. It’s crazy functional. We are so organized now that we can leave the house without first spending 15 intense minutes searching the house for lost shoes. Life is good with a mudroom.

Mudroom before –

Mudroom after –

Laundry Room

We did not finish the laundry room last year but we did get a solid portion of it knocked out. I’d say we still have about 40% of it left to complete, but it looks good enough now that it isn’t the eyesore that it once was.

Laundry room Jan 2018

Laundry room Jan 2019 –

 

 

Guest Bathroom

I almost said that we got zilch finished in this room this year, but that isn’t exactly true. Here it is Jan 2018

And here it is today –

We only accomplished three things in here this year…adding a brick floor, adding a glass shower door, and adding more trim and cabinet doors to the shower for storage. Two steps forward, one step back. I’m going to give us a C in this room, since the things we checked off the list were the big expensive things. Now comes the sweat equity.

Kids Bedrooms

The kids bedroom are where I failed big this year. I didn’t touch either one of them AT ALL. I feel bad about that, and these two rooms are on the top of my list this year.

Here is what they look like now. This first one is my big two boys “underwater” themed room. You are going to think this looks decent, but the truth is I did all this in 2017 and didn’t touch it at all last year. I’d say it’s about 50% complete.

And here is my younger boys dinosaur room. This one is sad. It does at least have a dinosaur tapestry on the wall, but it’s not even hung straight. FAIL.

Landscaping

I did do some landscaping this year, though I never blogged about it. I’d show you a picture,  but everything is dead for the winter and looks terrible. I’m giving us an A for this though, because I finished the one area that looked the worst, plus Adam and I spent lots and LOTS of time still clearing the property of cedar and rocks.

 

Bedroom Ceiling

Is there a grade that is higher than A+? Like 3x higher? Because we went way above and beyond this year in the bedroom (stop it). All I wanted last year was to rip down the stupid blue dropcloths off the ceiling and put up wood, and instead finished the entire bedroom.

Here is the dropcloth ceiling I was so tired of looking at –

and here is the bedroom now –

 

RV Renovation

We did start an unexpected project last year, which is the RV renovation. We didn’t plan on buying an RV last year, and we definitely didn’t plan on renovating one, but here we are, currently about 80% finished.

 

Overall, we didn’t complete all our goals for last year, but I still think we did a really great job. No regrets.

 

2019 Goals

I’m feeling really good about this year.

I feel like the fog is finally clearing a bit and I’m starting to feel more like a person and not just a just a mom zombie. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a mom. It’s my biggest joy in life, and I’m extremely lucky that I get to stay home with my boys (and also make money and have a bit of purpose writing this blog). But the last 8 years haven’t been the easiest, and at times have been very lonely and isolating. The boys are now 8, 7, 3 and 2, and we are getting out of that newborn stage where no one sleeps and everything is a messy disaster all the time. I shower every day now. I wear real clothes. I see adults and have adult conversations. All four boys are all in school at the same time for 8 hours a week, and having that time (even it’s just to work, clean, and run errands) without any kids is a serious game changer. And now that they are getting older I can get people to watch all four of them at the same time (hence Costa Rica). My parents also sold my childhood home and moved about five minutes away from me and my brother, so we see them all the time, which is great and super helpful.

The biggest change in 2019 is one I am extremely excited about. For the last 4+ years, my husband (law enforcement) has worked the night shift….a long night shift. He would leave for work around 5 pm and get home around 6:30 am, go to bed, and then do it all over again. He worked different days each week and every other weekend. It was not an easy schedule, and it was completely impossible to have any sort of routine. About two weeks ago he moved from working patrol to being a detective, and with that came an 8-5, Mon-Fri schedule. Y’all. Y’all. It’s so much better. It’s amazing. If it was appropriate for me to string together every curse word I know in order to emphasize how much easier life is now, then I would.

It’s going to be a good year. As far as projects go, here are the ones we want to finish in 2019. Spoiler alert – it’s pretty much just finishing up the 2018 list, haha.

Finish the RV

 

This one shouldn’t be hard since we are almost finished. I’m a little behind on blogging about it, but I hope to be finished by the end of the month.

Finish the Laundry Room

We lost momentum on this room and neither one of us is feeling that excited itch to get it finished. I want to check it off the list though, because dang does it feel good to have a room be 100% complete. Here is what is left to do –

• baseboards
• large wall shelf above washer and dryer
• countertop over washer and dryer
• finish cabinets
• refinish countertop (somehow)
• replace sink (already own the new one)

Guest Bathroom

It’s on the list again, same as last year. Here is what is left to do –

• baseboards
• repaint
• make hidden door/shelf for access below the stairs

Kids Bedrooms

This year I’m making the boy’s rooms a priority. Kids rooms are fun, and I know that once I get into gear it will be easy and fun…I just have to get started.

Here is what I have already finished in the big boy’s underwater room

• beds and bedding
• paint walls
• octopus fabric on the wall above beds
• pipe shelf between beds (well, most of it)

Here is what is left to do

• built-in aquarium/bookshelf (bought them a 55-gallon aquarium for Christmas, have some cool plans for it)
• Decor
• Flooring (not sure when this will happen, probably not this year)
• rug
• trim windows
• woven wood roman shades
• finish shelf
• Netting on the ceiling
• floor to ceiling seaweed (no idea how I’m going to do this, but it should be fun!)
• closet system (eventually)

I’m actually really excited to do the little boys dinosaur room, for two reasons. 1) It’s mostly just decorating and not a lot of DIY, and 2) They are SO OBSESSED with dinosaurs that I can’t wait to see how excited they get for their room to be filled with dinosaur goodness. I have done a tiny bit of shopping for their room, just snatching things up when I find ridiculously good deals on things that would work well enough. SO far I have curtains, some art, and curtain rods, plus the giant wall mural.

Here is the to-do list for the dinosaur room

• paint walls
• curtains and decor
• mount and frame wall mural
• 2nd twin bed and bedding for both beds
• accent wall behind beds
• add shelves to wall nook
• growth charts
• rug and flooring
• trim windows
• closet system (eventually)
• wood flooring (one day)

 

Here is the list of stuff we would like to do/might start this year

Finish the Kitchen

The cabinets are still not finished, which you know because the doors are sitting in my mudroom shower. I’d like to button it all up, but I’m not putting that on the official list since that is 100% an Adam project.

DIY Backyard Hot Tub

We have always wanted a hot tub, and Adam has this plan to make one out of a stock tank and an instant hot propane water heater. I’m not sure if it will happen or if a hot tub will happen another way, but he is excited about this project, which means we might have a redneck hot tub before we have kitchen cabinets. I’m oddly okay with that.

Attic Game Room

The attic in this house is absolutely huge, probably close to 500 sq ft. We left it unfinished when we built the house to save money, and planned to turn it into something, someday. Now looks like we will turn it into a bunkroom/game room/future teen hangout room. My Mother-in-Law got us a very nice, very huge ping-pong table for Christmas, and the attic is the perfect place for it. However, the attic is just studs and insulation right now, and it’s full of crap that I have to go through and purge. We might only clean out the attic and add a ping pong table this year, but a plan for the space is forming.

Living Room Entertainment Center

Our off-center fireplace looks extremely off center without something to balance it out on the left side. Adding a large built-in cabinet would not only look better, but the extra living room storage would be nice. Only time will tell if this project gets checked off the list in 2019.

 

And just because I like lists and looking back, here are the Domestic Imperfection top ten  (calculated by number of page views)

Top 10 Posts from 2018

1. How to Paint Shiplap (I could not be more surprised that this is number one. I almost didn’t write it because it seemed unnecessary, but it is my number one from last year by a huge margin.) 
2. Article Furniture Review 
3. Modsy Review 
4. Article Furniture Review, Part II (evidently y’all really like reviews)
5. Buying a Travel Trailer
6. Master Bedroom Reveal
7. Brick Paver Floor
8. Mudroom Reveal
9. Simple Farmhouse Window Trim
10. Our NBI Drainboard Sink – Two Years Later

 

Most Viewed Posts in 2018

1. How to Refinish Outdated Tile (yes, I painted my shower)
2. My Painted Shower – One Year Later
3. Our Butcher Block Countertop – Two Years Later
4. DIY Concrete Countertop, Part I
5. My DIY Paper Bag Floor – One Year Later
6. Paper Bag Floor Tutorial
7. DIY Concrete Countertop, Part II
8. My Painted Kitchen Cabinets – Five Years Later
9. Ten Ways to Decorate Above Your Bed
10. How to Raise Your Cabinets to the Ceiling