Home Remodeling: Year-end Review

I was hoping that I would be writing a conclusion to our remodeling/ construction saga sometime soon, but we are content keeping pace with our "slow and steady" progress theme.  The plan for 2013 still involves insulating our home from top to bottom as well as finishing up a couple of very minor weekend projects.  We have been in our home for just over a year, and we have made it all the way from this...

...to this...   

                                ...and finally this...

New Years Day 2012 was spent working on demo projects, while, ironically, New Years Day 2013 was spent putting pieces back together.  The trim we had selected for our home was on back order when we started the first round of installation.  The extra pieces we needed finally came in sometime around August.  Amazingly, we found the time to get things wrapped up roughly five months later.  We were successful in completing the installation of the baseboard, door and window trim in the final two rooms on the main floor with a little help from my husband's folks, my brother, and the nifty finish nail gun my husband got from Santa this Christmas (like a kid in a candy store).  This means that the home office that I "just had to have" is finally ready for some work to be done, with the exception that the window treatments have not been installed. As of right now, the desk is still sitting in the middle of the room amongst a jumble of paperwork that needs to make it to the accountant.

My husband has already spoken for a large majority of the space in the office, but I suppose I can share considering that it has largely served as a room to store my desk, printer, and papers that need to be filed away from the kitchen counter when they start piling up.  Let's face it, I feel too disconnected from the world when I'm actually in my home office.  My office space of preference typically rotates between the living room coffee table, couch and floor.  Lack of productivity is merely a side effect of being able to annoy...I mean, spend quality time with...my husband by complaining about how ridiculous reality TV is getting these days.:)

In the next few weeks, we have duct cleaning on the agenda as it is time to rid the house of all of the construction dust and dirt that accumulated throughout the year.  I'm hoping that we will notice a difference in the amount of particles floating through the air and settling on the furniture.  Kleinschmit Air Duct Cleaning of Wausa will be helping us with this project.  Turns out the owner is related to some friends of ours so he is able to make it a dual-purposed trip--small world!

And, as we proceed through the New Year at full-speed, I haven't set any hard and fast resolutions for myself. The real estate market has been very active all through the holidays and into the New Year which is very encouraging for both sellers and buyers.  Taking everything as it comes seems like a good plan for right now as it seems this year will be a busy one filled with many blessings yet unknown.  I did hear a short piece of advice yesterday that I will adopt as my mantra for 2013, though:

"When in crisis mode, think to yourself, 'In five years, will this really matter to anybody?'  If not, don't sweat it."

Welcome Home.