2018 RECAP + 2019 HOME RENOVATION PLANS

Here we are a month and a half into 2019 and we’ve yet to do a recap of last year and a look forward to 2019. Until now…it’s better late than never, right?!? So here we go…I’m going to break down all of the projects we did in 2018 with some really good before and afters. And then jump right into what we want to do in our own home for 2019.

Here was my post for 2018 with my hopes and goals for what we wanted to accomplish. First up were both of our bathrooms. We can almost check off both of these bad boys…even though the main floor bathroom project is now lingering for 4 months?. Our master bathroom was our first project we completed last year and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Next on the list was

Our kitchen and this one just didn’t make the cut this year. The main reason is because we just couldn’t land on a design layout that we loved. When tackling a big project like this I want to be 100% sure about the decisions we make. My hope was to do one side of the kitchen at a time and I still have it on the goals list for 2019. So we will see where this goes!

Our living room was also on our project list for 2018. We did make some small changes with adding layered rugs and a new layout, but I do want to give some more life to this space over the next year. I am thinking new paint and maybe opening a wall sounds like a good idea!

Curb appeal and landscaping was a big one on our list and this absolutely happened! We created custom cedar planters, painted our brick white, added outdoor lighting, rebuilt our front porch, got a new garage door, added all kinds of landscaping (thanks, Dad!) and a new driveway! Wow, that’s a whole lot of outdoor goodness. Let me show you some awesome before and afters here.

Our playground was on our 2018 list and while we did do some work on it, we did not complete the entire project. So you guessed it, we’ve added it to our project list for 2019.

One project we did tackle last year that wasn’t part of our goals was our boys bedroom! I am obsessed with how much our kids love this space and how both of their individual personalities are reflected. 

The major life change that happened to us in 2018 was the decision to go completely on our own. Both Michael and I are working for ourselves and this couldn’t feel any better or scarier all at the same time. It was something we had in the works for a very long time, and now that its our new reality its hard to think back at how it was.

So while we didn’t complete all the projects we set out to do I would still give us an A for what we accomplished overall in 2018.  As we look into 2019 we’ve started to set goals for our home and I am excited to share them with all of you!

CLARK + ALDINE HOME RENOVATION PLANS FOR 2019

Bathroom

Yep, the main floor bathroom is making our list yet again. You can check out our plans here and I promise in FEBRUARY, you will get to see the final reveal along with all kinds of posts to help you tackle a bathroom in way less time than 4 months! Because no one else needs to live 4 months without a toilet! Well, we did have a toilet upstairs, but with 4 people that gets a little tough.

Office

Since we are both working full time “from home”, having a functional office space is essential. We are both finding that our current space just isn’t working. Here we plan to add built-ins, create a new floating desk space and a brand new creative space for us to make dreams happen for us and our clients.

Mudroom

While I love our mudroom, it shares a space with our office. Which means everyday I get to look at coats. Not so bad when it’s styled pretty for pictures. But in everyday craziness that isn’t so pretty. We are planning to enclose our mudroom area a bit to help create a cleaner overall look and more functionality for the space. And now that Michael has built others for our clients, it’s time for a full re-design!

Backyard

The outdoor list is LONG. Probably because I just want to create an outdoor oasis for those amazing Michigan summer nights. In our backyard we’d like to make a sleek, functional and safe patio as ours is currently this crazy stone top filled with asphalt…straight awful! I’d love to make an outdoor fireplace, but I’d live with a cool fire pit for making s’mores! We’d like to add cedar flower boxes to our windows, add a window to our garage, finish our front porch, stain our cedar and makeover the boys playground to look similar to our house! 

OH and we have some new exterior doors and hardware coming soon…very exciting for us!

Living Room

COLOR, is what this space is looking for. I’d also love to open our staircase…you know a girl can dream! This is probably a long shot but I really want a fireplace. Hey I figure if I put it out into the universe maybe it’ll happen! And Michael already promised we’d get one so I guess its just a matter of time, right?!? I desperately want to give our tiny entryway some life! I feel like it’s so small right now that it becomes over flowing with things way too quickly. We need to add some real function to this space.

I have a long list of Dream Projects here too.  Just a big list to showcase that the renovations never stop with us.

Master Bedroom

Built-ins and add wood beams

Master Bathroom – heated floors (yeah, we have an issue electrically so we gotta fix it!)

Kitchen – either open it up or add more counter tops!

Basement – all of it

Laundry Room – actually make one

Garage – create a workshop (this one probably will happen out of necessity for our sanity)

So there you have it. Our long list for 2019. I know it seems like we’ve done everything to our house but I can promise you there are still so many things that just didn’t make the list this year…2020 for sure!

enjoy

much love –

Danielle + Michael