2 years ago today, we got the keys to our new home.

To say that this past year has been a blur is an understatement. I honestly don’t know where it’s gone. I looked back at our project list from exactly 1 year ago, and ya know what? I don’t feel like we slacked off one bit. No Sir-E. We honestly got some crap accomplished.

Now that doesn’t mean we don’t still have a long way to go….

For the sake of patting our own proud, proud backs; and of course sharing our accomplishments with all of you kind folks: here’s some highlights from the Cavender Diary this past year…..

We painted every inch of the inside that wasn’t painted the first year. The office, the guest bedroom, the guest bath even got a coat of paint when I painted the inside of brown cabinets sparkling white and it made the rest of the room dingy…… So ceiling and walls got an unexpected coat of super-white ceiling paint.

Painted the outside of the house as well. We matched the garage to the house, and painted all the “Puke” Green a lovely, soothing chocolate brown. Never you mind that this project started in April, and was completed last week…….and by an outside contractor even……..Never you mind. It’s completed, It’s over……and we shall never speak of it again.

We also installed a few outside light fixtures. A Barn light over the garage, an industrial can under the eaves, and a second Pottery Barn light on the back patio.

We covered the porch ceiling and posts in cedar. Love, Love, Love this detail. Did I mention that we LOVE this detail? Less “puke-green” on the outside of our house is a great thing.

We built a great little shelf in the master bedroom that inspired us to finish painting all the trim white. I have a plan for crown moulding in here…something a little unusual. Stay tuned for that.

Installing the sprinkler system in August was something we wanted from the very begining . So glad we didn’t do it by ourselves, we WISELY hired someone…SSSSSSSOooo glad that we did. Not sure that was something we would have wanted to tackle by ourselves in the Hot, Hot, Texas, August Sun. (I can feel all that heat just looking at this picture)

We made the perfect wreath for our newly painted juicy orange front door…this was so simple and cheap.

I’m so proud of our plumbing pipe firewood holder. I know that it is very trendy for the hipsters to use plumbing pipe to make household things now. I even have had walls of shelves made from pipes in my last house. But this project really cooks my chili. I just think it is so “Cool” and “Modern-Industrial”. I’m working on a console for the Living Room that is also made of pipes……just don’t want to start a “Plumbing Pipe Theme” around here.

We couldn’t possibly make a list of the past years accomplishments without including decorating our place for Christmas.

Our favorite project by a LANDSLIDE..is the wood wall headboard we built in our master bedroom. We just wanted to mount our swing arm lamps on something more substantial than just the wall. This was a homerun all around. It just looks fantastic. We think it feels like we are sleeping in a posh boutique hotel, ya know the kind that used to be Y.M.C.A. or some foolishness like that.

That’s about it for the year in review.

Next year, we will add “updated the kitchen” to the list of acomplishments.

Speaking of updating our kitchen………I think I have some Ikea cabinets to exchange right about now.