Favorite House Updates of 2012!

We've been in our house ALMOST 2 years! I've loved every bit of home ownership. Not so much the shelling out money for the non-fun stuff but I know it's all part of it. In the 2 years here i've done a lot of stuff to update it and make it into something that is more our style. We will have A LOT to do but we've made a good start! Here are some of my favs:

My Number one favorite would be our deck and french doors! We only had one way out to the backyard and that was through the garage. Which we didn't like and neither did Braxi, of course! So we decided to take some windows out and put in french doors that lead out to a deck. I couldn't be happier with this.

 My next favorite would be our 400.00 craigslist find hot tub! A little paint and a lot of plants made this AWESOME and soo much cheaper than buying an expensive new one.

 This is not my favorite, but it's my husbands. He put a real putting green in our backyard (he is a golf pro at the club, he loves golf probably more than he loves me. This little piece of our backyard makes him HAPPY.

We planted trees--who has a house with no trees around here? I need some shade in the hot Texas summer.

 Our dark cave like living room. Don't get me wrong, I liked it. It was dark and cozy and I could sleep like crazy in it. But my dream house has always been a cottage-y farm house-y kind of house. Those are light and airy. This did not scream cottage house...so off to Lowes I go.

 This new mint color makes it feel about 100 times bigger and lighter!

 This is the Lady Loft makeover.

 Stripes and a gallery wall. I adore it. This is the first wall i've ever hung things without Trent's help so i'm pretty proud of it.

Working on curb appeal here. We added some shutters love love love!
 My chalkboard cabinet. This took a long time to get use to. Everytime I walked past the kitchen I thought the garage door was open. It threw me off for weeks. Now I can't imagine not having it!

This is something I can't imagine not having. This hutch is just perfect. I'm really proud of this piece of furniture. This will be one of those things I hope to keep forever.

 Another project I love is my jewelry holder from an old window my mother in law gave me.

 And after a year of begging we finally added window boxes! Oh happy day!!! Excuse the mums that weren't bloomed yet.

When we moved in there was nothing but a dirt patch right here. So we took a Saturday and added all of this. We had a landscaper come over and tell us if he would have done it he would have charged us 500 bucks WHAT!! insane.


Whew! That was a long post. This year i'd like to work on curb appeal, our front yard needs some serious flowers/plants. Did you do lots of house work in 2012? What was your favorite project?
                                                                 ♥Cortney