2020 in Review

I do this every year but I blogged so little this year, we shall see if I remember anything!  What a year...

1. What did you do in 2020 that you'd never done before? Lived through a global pandemic. Wore a mask everyday to do normal things like grocery shop. Lived through the worst election process ever.


2. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020? Motivation to improve, Daily scripture study/prayer, a full head of hair (these were copied directly from last year's answer). More peace and civility between people. A calm spirit.


3. What dates from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?  Ryan and Kristal got married on April 11th. Carter and Harley got married on May 14th.
4. What was your biggest achievement this year? I managed to save up enough money to remodel my master bathroom! haven't done the actual remodel yet but I can now proceed!
5. What was your biggest failure? That seems negative. Hmmm I failed to become a size 6. Again.
6. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Thank heaven I stayed healthy this year. Made it the whole year and didn't catch Covid or anything else for that matter. Been pretty healthy! (knock on wood)
7. What was the best thing you bought?  We spent tons o' money fixing up two rental houses but I didn't buy anything for myself really.
8. Where did most of your money go? Rental house renovations!!!
9. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Weddings, visiting Arizona, alone time once the pandemic thing happened, visiting Michigan for Thanksgiving!
10. What song will always remind you of 2020? None. I can't even think of a song right now...For some reason I had the song "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool" by Jimmy Osmond in my head all day yesterday and now probably for the rest of today because I wrote this.
11. Compared to this time last year, are you:                                                                                                             a) happier or sadder? hmmm a bit sadder probably                                                                                                     b) thinner or fatter? lots and lots fatter. They don't call it the Covid 19 for nothin'                                                c) richer or poorer? I feel poorer...
12. What do you wish you'd done more of? Being thankful, seeing my grandkids and kids
13. What do you wish you'd done less of? Complaining, being lazy
14. What was your favorite TV program? I should write these things down earlier! My memory just can't pull this kind of information out on demand.  Ok, hmmm, Frank and I watch something most evenings before bed.  Same answer as last year. Wow, I'm bad at this.
15. What was the best book you read? I don't think I read a single book this year!  At least not in paper. I listened to a bunch of audio books while we worked on the houses. Loved the Boboverse series. Currently rereading The Way of Kings so I can read the new one in the series.
16. What did you want and get? Good health, continued employment, home church (ha!)
17. What did you want and not get? Self control, motivation to work out.  (same as last year...)
18. What was your favorite film of the year? Covid took away all of our movies!  I missed them sooo much.
19. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I keep track. Here is last year. I turned 53 in 2020.
20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020? "Here it is: flowered shirt (from the career section), cardigan if it's cold, jeans, boots in the winter-converse in the warmer weather. I have no explanation and I don't know why 95% of my shirts have flowers on them! On my days off it's yoga pants and t-shirts or possibly jeans if I have to go in public."  That was a quote from last year and this year is no different because I still have the same job and wear the same clothes.  I didn't wear as many yoga pants on days off though because I was always working at the rentals and I hate not having pockets for my phone when I work so it was painting jeans or these ugly knee length sweat pants that I wear when working. So fashionable!
21. What kept you sane? that went downhill this year for sure.  Having projects helped us for sure because if Frank had just been stuck at home because of Covid, we would have killed each other probably.
22. Which celebrity did you fancy the most? I don't have time for celebrities.
23. What political issue stirred you the most? GAH! I hate politics. I hate how divided the country is. I hate that even the pandemic and mask wearing were politicized. GAH!
24. Who is the best new person you met? Kristal, Ryan's new wife. I know I "met" here before 2020 but I've gotten to know her a little bit more since the wedding and she is fun and talented and oh-so crafty! She makes beautiful food and her and Ryan seem happy. :-)  Oh and Also Lottie! My Dad got married in February right before the whole world shut down!  They also seem very happy and I'm glad my dad isn't so lonely.
25. Who did you miss? My distant kids and grandkids. I missed my Mom more this Christmas than last. Last year I was just happy for her to be out of misery but this year I just missed the old her.
26. Tell us a valuable lesson you learned in 2020. Chaos stresses me out. (I would sometimes have to leave the rental house because the chaos of the torn apart place made me so anxious). I would do ok with quarantine. Frank, not so much. (I probably knew this already). I tend to do what other people want and then hold a tiny grudge about it.  Should probably work on that.

Some favorite pictures from 2020:

Kaylee putting the traditional moose ornament on the tree!

(we visited Michigan!)

The girls are very excited for the grandpa's purchase of unicorn sprinkle ice cream! haha

I love when Austin and Katy send pictures of their lives

Remodeled kitchen! I did a lot of tiling this year and some of it even by myself

Reconnected with my old college friend Liahni. I have loved talking to her again. Got to celebrate the new liver and kidneys with her!

Remodeling life

My newest snack food addiction

Frank and I actually got out in nature a couple of times. I look skinnier than I really am in this picture, thus explaining why I chose it.

This cute family!

Got brave and did a new wall treatment in the guest room

My peony plant ALWAYS makes me happy

Awe, they're cute.

Date night in the car in a local parking lot eating take out because of Covid. Good times

Cute couple!  And the pretty decorations made by Kristal!

Dad and Lottie's wedding

My family. Love these kids

Doneen always willing to help out

Before and After of the "big" house

 I realize now, looking back that I never did any updates on the little house which we finished back in May-ish. I'll have to do that. 

In July, our renters in the bigger of the two houses, decided to move back east to be with their son. We had hoped they would stay until at least January 2021 so it was a bit of a blow. It meant that after only a month or so of rest, we had to start another renovation. We really weren't very into it when we started. It felt like too much. But, as with all projects, once we got going we got back in the groove.

It's now the end of November and we just finished it yesterday! It feels good!  I'm so ready to have some time to put my feet up and/or clean and organize my own house. We literally let our house fall apart during this renovation. We did laundry and dishes on Sunday out of desperation, unless we ran out of bowls earlier (from eating cereal for most meals).  It has really been pathetic over here!

Here is the before and after of the house, room by room:

We'll start with a couple of outside shots

After:

I painted that stupid carport. By hand. It was a lot of painting. Looks so much better!

Entryway

After:

Sorry, different angle. I'm standing at the front door in the after.  Standing by the Master bedroom door in the before.

Master Bedroom

Main changes in this room were removing carpeting and adding a new light fixture. 

Also paint of course.

After:

Hmmm can't find one!  Just picture this same room but with new paint and vinyl wood floors

Weird. I'll get that later.

Master Bathroom

This is the tiniest bathroom ever. In the previous layout, you had to stand in the shower to open the vanity drawers. And no one with normal sized legs could sit on that toilet without their knees hitting the shower wall. Plus, those plastic tiles and pink toilet...

During:

We had hoped to push the room out into the second bedroom closet area to make it larger but it turned out to be a previous exterior wall and was concrete with exterior siding. That was more than we wanted to tackle so we just rearranged in the same footprint.

After:

We took out the stand up shower and rearranged to put a tub and smaller vanity. 

Somehow I can't find a single picture of this bathroom so here are a couple of screenshots from a video. haha

Living Room

I couldn't find a picture of it empty so here it is with the renter's furniture in it.

Drop ceiling, carpet and wallpaper.

Here it is from a different view during the time when the floors were being sanded and I was still working on wallpaper removal.

There was originally a doorway from this living room to the room I will call the second bedroom. 

We closed that door off but in this picture, that's where I'm standing.

Another angle after removing the dropped ceiling.

There used to be a cute arch in this room to the right but it was taken out sometime in the past.

After:

Now it has original hardwood floors, 10' ceilings and repaired plaster walls.

Kitchen

After:

We changed the layout a bit and took out the window on the south side of the room so that we could move the stove there. We put the refrigerator where the stove used to be (approx) and made the walkway to the basement more open.

We also moved the washer out of the kitchen and removed the weird plumbing that meant that the washer emptied into the yard! What?

Second Bedroom:

Cute but trashed built in. Dropped ceiling. Carpet.

This bedroom had two doorways: one into the living room and one into the master. We removed both and put a doorway into the hall.

After:

Original hardwoods, 10 ft ceilings, built-in refinished, closet removed when we removed the dropped ceiling so we purchased a nice armoire for this room but it's not pictured.

Main bathroom:

Tiny again. Bathtub, 24" vanity. No storage

After:

larger vanity, medicine cabinet, bathtub

Laundry room:

We took part of this space for the main bathroom. 

We made the plumbing normal and took out the weird platform.

After:

Attic bedroom:

After:

Honestly just a lot of sanding, painting and a new light fixture in here. 

Oh and original hardwoods were restored.

Basement

We put new stair treads on the basement stairs. Those were the ones that originally had carpet, then underneath that some really cute but, sadly, trashed linoleum. Not much choice but to replace them.

Before:

After:

Bedroom 4 (basement):

dropped ceiling, gross plywood floors, creepy as heck

After:

Lifted the ceiling, can lights, normal floors, white paint

No longer creepy!

Bedroom 5 (basement):

dropped ceiling, linoleum floors, creepy as heck

After:

Basement half bath:

step up into bathroom, short ceiling, visible pipes and vents, no storage

After:

And there you have it!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour. If you know someone looking for a nice rental home, give me a shout!