Happy New Year from The House on the Isthmus!

My rather large, rather quirky family celebrates Christmas. Several of the "branches" of my dad's side generally gather in Florida with Grandma to enjoy Italian food as only she can prepare.

What that means for Isthmus House is that I'm not there and The Roommates are holding down the fort. Although this isn't entirely uncommon (see the beginning of this recent post for specifics on just how common it is), I joined the family from a business trip and haven't done anything around Isthmus House for about 2 weeks. Hard to believe.

I knew this was going to be the case for about the last month and took a while to consider if I just wanted to write a post in advance and plop it up here or come up with something better. Since it's the time of year for people I haven't seen in a while to ask me "what's up with the house?" and the New Year is in just a couple of days, it seemed most appropriate to do a quick year in review - but, not to disappoint, also let y'all know what's coming up.

Here's my top 10 favorite moments of 2013:

10. Closing on Isthmus House!

I got about 20 keys at closing - almost all of which were defunct the second I completed our new lock installation.

9. Putting a pry bar to the paneling the wood-paneled shower less than 48 hours after closing...

I just kind of kept going...

8. Finally getting the sub floor level in the downstairs bathroom...

After rather a lot of self-leveling concrete.
 

7. Building a wall from scratch for the first time!

I had a little (okay, a lot of) help from my dad...

6. Refinishing a clawfoot tub from start to finish was pretty awesome...

Repeatedly scrubbing a tub down in July without air conditioning isn't easy - but it is super worth it.

5. Pulling up carpet to find that there was nothing wrong with the floors underneath...

 

And not a tack holding the carpet to 'em!

4. The back yard becoming a yard...

As opposed to a jungle... nine hours later...

3. Finding old papers behind walls, baseboards and the living room paneling...

I wonder what else I'll find...

2. Ending the Saga...

I kind of love this bathroom...

And last but certainly not least:

1. Hanging my bedroom door!

Because there's nothing like a little peace after some work around Isthmus House!

Needless to say, it was an eventful year here at The House on the Isthmus and we have a lot to be thankful for beyond this list. Here are a couple of the things that are planned for early next year!

1. Finish exposing the brick in the upstairs foyer (the top's not even close to done).

2. Redo the kitchen!
3. And the upstairs bath - I'm only opening that ceiling once!
4. Remove the kitchen upstairs to make it a master bedroom.
5. Move The Roommate upstairs and restore her current bedroom to a den.

Of course, there are plenty of other things (the foyer, refinishing almost every wall and a lot of floors, etc.) to work on too. Can't wait to see where we are this time next year - better get started!

Happy New Year!