Happy House-iversary!

Yep, we've officially lived here for a whole year.

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Other things that happened a year ago: the government was shut down, Obamacare was fudup, Putin was nominated for a Nobel, and apparently Disney on Ice was in Charlotte. Those things seem like they were forever ago, but my little house still feels so new. Most years in apartments, that lease term seemed like a death sentence that never drew closer. Home-ownership is an intangibly beautiful thing.

To commemorate, let's take a look at where we are on day 366. (If you need a refresher on where we started and where we've been, there are the links).

There's a lot of pictures here, so I'm breaking it up into inside and outside.

Today we'll do the outside and we'll stroll through the inside next time.

Holler for fall, y'all. Sure, autumnal decor is not official part of our year-long improvements, but I just want to look at it every chance I get.

 

That sign, from Garden Ridge At Home, was made with a little wire hanger to hang on a wall. I snipped that right off and used some floral wire to string it to our wreath to add a not-so-creepy Halloween spin.

Our plants are growing quite well, although some are growing more crooked than others. The hope remains that with mature plants we'll be able to rid ourselves of that "new construction feel" sooner rather than later.

Just like last year, our tree has turned red. However, this year, there is a fence, a grill, and some patio furniture in this picture. And a lot less mulch. We need to buy some mulch.

While these changes are a far cry from last year, it's nothing compared to the progress we've made inside over the past year. I really enjoyed digging through my old archives (specifically last October and November) to see how different everything looks. Like those 10 lbs. I didn't plan to gain, I hardly noticed the changes day-to-day, but looking back it's sooo obvious.

Addendum: I was mistaken, our move-in date was actually October 2nd, not October 3rd. Damn archives for obliging me to information accuracy. Still, happy belated birthday to my house-baby.