We closed on our first home in late January. When we sent in our offer we did a 60-day close. I really wish we would have done a 45-day close. We were so ready to move out of the apartment. At first, it was so amazing, but then it wasn’t anymore. I did a post about the first 6 months here. A quick recap we moved to Peoria in September and weren’t planning on looking for a house until the offseason. Our apartment was really frustrating to work with because they would always come into our apartment. We wouldn’t be notified and only knew because they left a note or turned a light on that wasn’t originally on. You can read all about the first 6 months of home ownership here. Finally, Gary had enough and told me to start looking for a house.
August
In July we did some rearranging of rooms. We brought my office upstairs to what was the master bedroom. Moved the master to the old spare bedroom. The spare bedroom is now in the old office. We are going to paint the office because right now it’s brown and white. We are going to paint it white and grey. Then I am going to add color to the accessories like a bright pink rug in the middle of the room.
We finally got our home gym complete. Our gym collection has grown over the years. It’s not 100% done because we still need to take our bike downstairs. The previous owners also left us with a bunch of old paint so that needs to get moved somewhere else or out of the house. Then we’ll use that shelving to place our workout accessories.
I start a new job in September, and after training, I can work from home. We moved rooms around last month, and now my office is upstairs. I absolutely love the color, and can’t wait to make it more into an office. Let’s hope but creating a space I love that I’ll get more work done toward my big goals. When we went to Home Depot to get the paint, we got other stuff for the house. I can’t wait to see how everything turns out.
September
September has been a month of odds-and-ends stuff around the house. The most annoying project finally got done. The previous sellers left us with so much paint. We wanted it gone when we moved in but it didn’t get done. Gary has been amazing and going down and drying out the paint. It seemed like it took forever.
We did one major project which was tearing down the half fence by the porch and adding A/C wall. This project was actually a lot harder than we thought it was going to be. Not in terms of putting it together but finding something we both liked and inexpensive. I love the way that it turned out and can’t wait to finish up our yard in the spring.
At the end of every season, I think to do a quick cleaning of the house. I deep cleaned each room in the house and either threw things away, donated items, or found them a permeant home somewhere else. It took me about a week to do because I did a room a day. Also, some rooms were designated Gary for to figure out.
October
I wasn’t expecting to get a lot done this month because we were gone a week for Vegas. And the week before we were prepping for being gone that long. I really didn’t do a lot around the house, but Gary was amazing. He took down the tree in the backyard and leveled part of the yard. He cleaned up the front of the house.
We are working on adding our own home gym downstairs, but there has been this massive table in the way. He took it apart and now it looks so much bigger downstairs. It’s crazy how different it looks now than when we purchased it. We might be able to fit a treadmill and a rower alongside the bike we already have. I can’t wait to get down there and organize it a little bit more and start putting in the work.
One project that I CAN’T wait to get started and over is the bathroom. It’s not that I hate our current bathroom, but I think it could be so much better. It is a small space so trying to make it look bigger is my goal. I also love spas and serene-type bathrooms, so I want to hurry up and finish this project. We have done little things over the months like adding fixtures we like or more up-to-date. This month we put a new light in the bathroom. It has been more of a struggle than I thought it would be due to some electrical stuff. So thankful for google and the people at Home Depot.
November
This month we didn’t really do a lot on the house but got things for the house because they were on sale. This is probably the first month that we didn’t do a lot around the house. We have lived in the house for 11 months and I am shocked by how much we have accomplished. I transferred positions within the hospital and now I get to work from home. So we made the second bedroom more of an office space. I am loving the space but need to figure out where I want everything.
December
December was probably the month we have done the least amount of work on our house. We both were doing a lot of traveling. The biggest purchase we made was the stuff for the bathroom. The most adulting thing we did was deep clean the house. I went through everything in the house to either throw it away, donate it or put it in a permanent spot. One of my goals for this month and 2023 is to get rid of 1,180 things. I got this number by diving 2023 in half than by 12 months to add December into the total number. I did this a few years ago and got rid of 2021+ things. It felt so good to get rid of things.
January
The last month of our first year of home ownership. We haven’t done a lot to the house but we have been thinking about what we want to do in the spring. The backyard is pretty much all done and the big project will be putting in a new fence. It is hard to decide on what we want to do because we want to do something unique and different, but have to think about the resell value and what will other people want. The front yard still needs some work but for the time being, we are going to just have a grass front yard. For me, I like the simplistic look of just grass in the front and back yard.
The inside of the house is probably where we are going to spend most of the time in the next year. The big thing would be seeing if we can make the attic into a livable space. I think we also need to create more storage and effective space in the house. We have an amazing closet in the front of the house but it’s not being maximized the best.
Overall
We have accomplished so much in the first year of owning a house. I didn’t think we would get as much accomplished as we have, and I didn’t think I would be as helpful as I have been. I can’t wait for the next year and see how it continues to change into my dream home. Next year I’m guessing we we won’t get as many projects done. Just sit and enjoy our place.
