First off, Happy New Year! I hope everyone is enjoying 2019 so far. Now let’s take a minute to see how I spent some of my final days of 2018.

MONDAY

Woke up on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a few extra moments snuggling in bed with my favorite filthy animals.

Jason and I kept up the pace with reno work and I finally finished painting the stair treads.

We had a long day but tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour so we could fit in a little extra work in the morning.

TUESDAY

Merry Christmas! We woke up early and wasted no time getting into painting.

After finishing our first coat, we spent the day with Jason’s family and then the evening at my sister’s house. My nephew and I bonded over our love of onesies.

We ended the wonderful low-key Christmas at the movies – continuing one of my favorite traditions.

WEDNESDAY

This year, I took off an extra day of work so we took full advantage of the available breakfast items.

Ellie was spoiled with tons of fun new toys on Christmas and she couldn’t be happier with her new selection.

THURSDAY

I joined Jason in renovation work after I came home for the day. He did a phenomenal job leveling out our kitchen cabinets and installing the new dishwasher.

Also, I couldn’t resist stocking our pantry with a few things. I can’t wait until we can actually open all of our kitchen stuff that’s currently stored down in the basement.

I primed and painted the stair walls as Ellie supervised from above.

Then we celebrated with my current obsession – Martinellis’ Non-Alcoholic Cider.

FRIDAY

I only managed to snap one photo from the day – a rainy shot of my new boots on an afternoon dog walk.

SATURDAY

We crammed in as much renovation work as possible during the day. Jason was able to put up a lot of door trim and I was able to finish more priming on the opposite outer stair wall.

We spent the evening at Jason’s dad and I couldn’t take my eyes off this sweet guy.

SUNDAY

Sunday was a super fun renovation day! We were working in the vestibule which I had previously primed in anticipation of the next task ahead of us…

WALLPAPER! So, I am one of those crazy people that actually sort of loves wallpaper. Do I like removing it? No. But I love the way fun patterns and prints can come together in a space and really make a statement. Jason and I toyed with the idea of adding wallpaper somewhere in the house and decided that the vestibule seemed like a safe bet. It’s a small area and if we don’t love it in the future, it wouldn’t take much effort to change. ANYWHO, we were finally ready to roll it out and start cutting!

We took our time and triple checked all of our measurements and cuts. Once we were confident we worked as a team to hang the wallpaper and delicately match the patterns. Our strategy seemed to work out great because all in all, it went on smoothly. Even without the trim or wainscoting it was looking fantastic!

I am so happy with how the project turned out and I can’t wait to see the space once all of the fancy trim work is installed.

There is a lot coming together downstairs. It’s hard to believe we are in the final stages of work in some of these rooms!

Hopefully, we can finish up most of these projects in the coming weeks: