Berryville, Year 1

One year ago yesterday (April 17, 2013) we officially moved into our Berryville house. We did a lot of moving ourselves in our cars in the days before (an hour and a half each way, multiple trips a day...glad we're not back there) but the actual moving truck came for the big furniture and the last of the things we couldn't fit in our cars. It was such a surreal day, as this big empty house actually became filled with furniture and our things. The house we'd fallen in love with suddenly looked like it was supposed to be ours, rather than just the vision of it being ours.

I've blogged about a lot of things we've done in and around the house since we moved in, but I thought it would be fun to use the anniversary of moving in to summarize and list all the projects we accomplished over the last year (generally in chronological order).

• painted the book room, kitchen/dining room, family room, laundry room/mud room, master bedroom, master bathroom, guest room, and nursery
• bought, put together, and installed two full walls of bookshelves in the book room
• switched from broom and dustpan to hard floor vacuum
• bought new couch and TV stand for the family room
• trimmed all trees on back property line
• trimmed and relandscaped the entire back property line 
• trimmed bushes in front of the house
• bought shelves, work bench, and organizers for the garage
• bought new washer and dryer 
• installed counter top on top of washer and dryer
• installed a new shower head in the master bathroom
• installed new towel bars and toilet paper holder in master bathroom
• dug a fire pit in the backyard
• reorganized the guest room/office
• bought a new grill 
• bought a glider for the nursery
• replaced sump pump
• hung pictures and paintings in the entire house
• moved Grandpa Potter's porch furniture to Berryville
• brought Grandpa Potter's dollhouse to Berryville
• finished many small craft projects like a jewelry board, chalkboard "verse of the week" kitchen sign, our "Moore" burlap photo sign, house number flower pot, new DVD storage baskets, bar stool end table, glass coffee table tray...
• painted all the wood in the laundry room/mud room, including the basement stair railing and spindles
• painted the front door baby blue
• (paid for someone to) fix both fireplaces and chimneys 
• bought a rug, crib, and pack-n-play for the nursery
• had our heat pump replaced and then fixed multiple times throughout the winter
• hung curtains in the master bedroom, family room, and book room
• switched to all homemade cleaning products
• installed water softener and filter
• installed generator and generator electrical panel
• reorganized the garage a second time, allowing space for my car
• fixed and redug the water trench in our front yard to fix its flow and prevent backup
• started small craft projects in the nursery, like the chalkboard scripture project, smaller artwork for the glider's side table, and the picture book bucket
• reorganized and emptied the dressers and closet in the nursery
• switched from Swiffer Wet to steam mop

This was a pretty productive and transformational year for the Moores here in Berryville, and that's mostly just because you can't help but be transformational when you first move in. We have an extremely detailed Excel spreadsheet with all our plans and ideas for each room of the house - to tackle gradually over many years - and we have the next couple years sketched out as far as the big projects we want to get crossed off each calendar year, but we will see. Nothing is set in stone, and I have a small feeling that this next Berryville year will be a little less productive on paper. With the hubs being out of town a lot this summer for work and, more importantly, the arrival of our first baby this fall, some of our house projects may need to get bumped. But like I said, we will see. You never know what you can accomplish with a couple of well-used Saturdays.

It's been a fantastic year here in Berryville, and we couldn't be happier with our move. Even though we really knocked out a lot of projects on the house this year, I know we only really scratched the surface on what Berryville and Winchester have to offer us and our family, and I think I'm the most excited to see what the next year brings us socially and personally.