Now that we’re just past the halfway point of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on all the home projects I had planned for this year and see where I am. I purposely set myself up for success at the start of the year by only listing two project goals for 2018, which means I’m actually not failing (unlike last year). Those two projects were making over the entryway and turning our office into a more full-on library and office. I wrote about all my plans for this year here. I also recently wrote about the minor updates I wanted to make to the garden areas and the backyard patio and garage. I’m giving myself a B so far and here’s why.

Entryway, Status: Complete

I wanted to take our entryway from not bad but boring to something just a little more vibrant. Well, I did it! I completed this project in April and May as part of the One Room Challenge. You may have followed along but, in case not, you can catch up here. It was a total DIY job, including installing beadboard, painting, hacking Ikea rugs to make a stair runner, and designing and hanging wallpaper on the interior side of the front door.

Office Library, Status: Not Started

I’m not mad about this status yet as I was planning on doing this in the fall. Essentially, I’d like to DIY shelving wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling on one wall, get or build a new desk to look like it’s part of the shelving, and then update some of the decor.

Garden Updates, Status: Almost Done

I talked about wanting to make the backyard more lush, adding in a few plants to fill in holes. I added the wisteria plant I had been wanting since last summer, as well as a rhododendron and a brandywine plant. The only tree left to plant is a Japanese maple, which I hope to do by the fall. I also removed all of the rotting wood that was used as a garden border and removed all of the cheap rubber and mesh sheets that were used to create pathways in the middle of the main back garden. I replaced the wood with black plastic garden border and filled in the exterior border with gray stone. I recreated the pathways with black plastic garden border, filled it in with black mulch, and then added rectangular gray pavers to walk on.

Backyard Patio Updates: Almost Done

I talked about making some simple tweaks to the backyard patio area. Here’s what we’ve done so far: gotten new rugs, stained the patio flooring, power washed the garage doors, got a new outdoor dining table and second umbrella, and created a curtain rod out of copper piping and doubled up on the existing curtains to give the curtain situation more impact. The one other thing I want to do is add more string lights and string them from the back of the house to the garage rather than having a single string hung framing the garage door as it is now.

Garage Project: Not Started

I haven’t even gotten started on this and summer is when I had planned to do this. Yikes. This project is in two parts. I want to completely reorganize what we have and make it more of a functional working environment and storage solution. But the major project there is to build a temporary wall to separate Boss Bar from the ugliness. I have no faith in my DIY abilities, especially when it comes to drilling into concrete so not sure how building a wall will work out. I had asked people for ideas about what to do, building a wall or otherwise, and I received a couple of good solutions, including curtains and a wall of crates.

I’m always thinking that I’m not doing enough or moving fast enough on home projects and, while I definitely feel that way now (especially about the garage), in writing this list, I realize that I’m not doing too poorly this year. Go me!