May marked 10 years of living in our house. It’s the longest I’ve ever lived at one address. When we bought this house we knew it was going to be a good first house and figured we’d be here 5-7 years. I moved a lot as a kid and staying put for so long feels weird, but we made it to 10 years in the same place. Who knew it was possible? Now for a little trip back in time to see what we’ve changed and what has stayed the same

The outside has pretty much stayed the same, except we got a new roof and fenced in the backyard.

We added board and batten to the bottom 2/3 of the foyer wall, and painted the third navy blue for a few years, but recently put up Rifle Paper Co. wallpaper.

One of my favorite things we’ve done in the house is paint stripes in this long narrow hallway. We started with white and beige, but when we painted the rest of the house grey, we freshened up the stripes as well.

Oh the kitchen. When we moved I am pretty sure the cabinets and counters were original to the house (1980) and had just been painted. The cabinet doors were starting to fall apart and the dark wood look contact paper was unsightly. But we didn’t have the money to update the kitchen right away so we opted for some brighter contact paper and lived with the rest for 8 years.

In 2020 we finally decided to take the plunge and renovate the kitchen. We figured we weren’t going on trip, or out to eat, or anywhere really, so might as well spend the money on our house. It feels like a completely different kitchen and immediately made our house feel refreshed.

When we moved in to our house I knew I wanted a large buffet for our dining room. This is a Restoration Hardware knock off from Ana White. My brother worked at a woodshop at the time so he was able to get us a great price on the wood and prep it all using the big fancy woodshop tools. Then my brother and Christopher built it, and I made a drawer, and ta-da! Our beautiful, giant, dining room buffet.

In the dining room itself, we changed the paint, light fixture, curtain rod, and floors. Basically just things to brighten the space up a little.

Our living room is long and narrow and doesn’t lend it self to many design options. On this end we have always had bookshelves of some kind. I LOVED our floor to ceiling white bookshelves with tons of books and our games, but when my parents moved and the family piano became available I knew I wanted that more. I am the third (or maybe fourth) generation to have this piano, so while I really miss the look of our tall white shelves full of books, I know I made the right choice.

We have had a lot of change on this side of the living room. We have had a million couches/love seats/chairs/tables. We have had the Tv on just about every wall and even not the wall. We have painted twice, and changed the floor form carpet to woodish flooring, had 3+ rugs after we put in the woodish flooring, we’ve had tv stands, coffee tables, side tables, every size and shape of lamp. I cannot get happy with this corner. It’s the main living room space, and it’s not very large, so fitting in a comfy couch, somewhere for your feet, and the TV is a lot to ask of this space. This is what we have going on now, but I have a list of demands for any future houses and one of them is a living room big enough for human size furniture.

Having an uncovered patio in Florida is the most useless things in the world. Who on earth can withstand the hellish sun and heat and bugs without some kind of shade and preferably a screen? Anyway, this is our stupid useless patio. We have pretty much always had a table, umbrella, and grill. But a few years ago Christopher helped me build this plant stand for all the plants I buy and then kill, because yano, hellish sun and heat. Needless to say we only go outside a few days a year.

Bedrooms two and three have always been offices/shit rooms (storage)/guest spaces. They are almost always being messed around with, but they sure to serve a ton of functions.

Our room started our with purple and gold walls, not exactly our style. We painted the walls before we moved in, and the bedroom furniture we have was built by my Popsicle (grandpa). My least favorite part of our room is that the fucking window isn’t in the middle of the damn wall. Who decides this shit when designing houses, I want to slap those fools.

The last renovation we did was updating our bathroom. The double sinks were so close to each other you couldn’t really use them, so we opted to go with one sink a more counter space, and moved the shower head in the shower to have a little more room to dance in the water. It’s so much nicer to use now.

We’ve had a lot of good years in this house, but I’m always on the lookout for the next one.