THE CAVENDER DIARY

3 years ago today, Jamie and I got the keys to our new home.

What a fast 3 years. Seems like just yesterday that we were each packing our separate lives preparing to move to this simple house…..on Cavender street.

Only a couple of weeks before, Jamie started this blog to keep our Moms updated on the house purchase.
Neither of us ever dreamed that we’d have over 125,000 views on this site. (It was pretty boring in the beginning – please don’t look)

Jamie says that we shouldn’t think of the first 2 years of blogging,  and this past year should count as our first official blog year.

I say that we had to work our B-hinds off just to be where we are today, and every bit of work counts. Every bit.

Wanna see some of that work we did? Of course you do! Let’s see. Projects. We must have completed some pretty amazing projects this past year.

Our kitchen remodel was a huge success. After declaring 2012 to be ” The year of the Bathroom Remodel“……..we tore up our kitchen. Go figure.                             

With pretty stunning results.

From this.

To this, Cavender Kitchen Update, in just 5 weeks…..doing almost all the labor ourselves, AND on weekends.

The brilliant editors at Apartment Therapy thought that it was pretty spectacular too, and shared it with all their readers.

Here are a couple of the projects we featured in our kitchen remodel.

PVC pipe wine storage.

and an overly organized spice drawer.

Our kitchen wasn’t the only thing we tackled this year.

After removing the upper cabinets in the kitchen, they sat in the garage until we couldn’t take it anymore. But we couldn’t just hang them on the walls, first we had to float/paint the ceiling and clad the walls in cedar.

It’s easier to just show y’all…Garage Update

Yes, we still have a few more things to do in there…like hang factory pendants….but WOW! What a huge improvement.

We spend a lot of time out there, so good thing it is now one of our favorite rooms. Is it a room? We think so now.

Here are a few highlights from the garage as well,

Hacked Ikea shelving over the washer and dryer.

Hanging storage shelves over the garage door.

And a few tweaks to the old kitchen cabinets, like these shelves.

Our tool cart turned bar cart was pretty popular as well, making an appearance on a couple of sites – The Jochim’s and Japanese Trash

Our homemade Jackson Pollock pillows had pretty rave reviews too.

Christmas is our favorite time of year. SO we go a little overboard at the house. (Almost the Grizwolds, but not quite)

There were Christmas projects too. Like these pine needle sachets we made with tartan fabric scraps and all the pine needles we swept off the front porch. (Seriously, swept off the porch)

And the giant pallet wood star we fashioned together with scrap wood.

But the most popular thing we do every Christmas is the 4 foot vintage ornament wreath we assemble.

We were very lucky to have some major web exposure on some truly spectacular websites. Color Outside the Lines, kara pasley designs, and Burlap and Denim all featured our home and junky cluttered unique style.

Our biggest exposure though, was on HOUZZ.

Talk about web exposure…. here are a few blog figures that scare the hell out of us (and secretly thrill us too)…..

December 26 was our biggest volume day ever with over 3,400 site views. What a Christmas present.

On 3 days in August, we had more site traffic than our first 2 years combined.

This picture of our master bedroom had been added to almost 6,000 idea books on HOUZZ.

And this picture of our wood headboard wall in the Master bedroom has been repined over 1,100 times on Pinterest, through ONE person, the last time I checked. (Which is almost daily)

We have had visitors from every part of the globe; Russia, the U.A.E., Indonesia, India, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Argentina, Madagascar, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and 118 other countries.

Our most popular post? That’s easy.

The one with liquor in it.

Our recipe for “Adult” Root Beer Floats.

(note to self: post more drink recipes)

So that about wraps up the year in review for the Cavender house and the Cavender Blog.

Don’t worry, we have an equally busy year planned this year too.

A tool shed, barn pendants in the garage, wall paper, more can lights, closet remodels, crown moulding, a little more landscaping, a NEW FRONT DOOR?…….. a BATHROOM?…..a DECK?….

My head is spinning just typing all this…….

Stay tuned, gentle reader…..

We’ve only just begun to work on this house.