Hello from Mr. and Mrs. Douglass!!!! Yes, we are now married, and we noticed that it’s about that time for another yearly update. It seems that we’ve neglected the blog again, but I guess we were just a little busy planning our wedding!

It’s been 4 years since we moved into our first home, and it sure doesn’t feel like it! From the lack of blog posts the last year, I’m sure you can guess that we didn’t get too many house projects accomplished. This time last year our list of planned updates included:

• Refinance the house now that we’ve added so much value
• Crown moulding upstairs
• Renovate master bath
• Clean up back yard
• Get married!!!!!

Well, we clearly checked one item off the list – we got married! It was the most wonderful day. I wish I could relive it again and again!

Photo Credit: Amber Hatley

We refinanced our house in December of last year, so that’s another check off the list. Since we had paid down some of the balance in addition to renovating most of the house, the amount of our loan was less than 78% of the value of the house. Because of that, by refinancing the house, we were able to get rid of our mortgage insurance premiums, and lower our rate by a little in the process. The process was fairly easy, and now we’re saving a few hundred dollars each month!

Now that wedding planning has ended, our focus is back on the house, and I *think* we’re ready to take on the master bathroom! After our honeymoon and a few weekends of relaxation, it’s time for a project. We’re in the planning stages now, but it’s likely we’ll finish the bathroom before the end of summer.

We also didn’t end up getting to the upstairs crown moulding last year, but maybe once the bathroom is finished, we’ll finish that up as well.

I honestly have no idea what “clean up back yard” was referring to, but I can tell you that we didn’t do it! We did have some trees removed, though. After a pretty scary thunderstorm, one of the pine trees that lined our driveway had fallen over onto our neighbor’s fence. Luckily, no one was hurt and there was very minimal damage. We had already had issues with those few pine trees making a sappy mess on our cars, so we weren’t too upset when it had fallen. It motivated us to remove all the pine trees in that area. There were six total. The tree removal company had to bring out a crane in order to remove the trees, which was definitely an interesting sight to see – trees being hung over your house is a bit scary!

Tree over our house.

We definitely didn’t accomplish too many house-related projects last year, but again, we had a WEDDING to plan and pay for! Now that we’re married and no longer planning a wedding, it’s time to finish up those last few projects.

Our goals/projects for next year:

• Renovate master bathroom
• Crown moulding upstairs
• Get a new roof
• Have some additional trees removed
• Find land

I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned this on the blog, but our dream is to buy a large plot of land and build our forever home, along with a barn, which we plan to use as a wedding and event venue. I would love to own and operate a rustic wedding and events venue, similar to the one we used for our wedding. In fact, our wedding venue was what inspired us!

Let’s see what this year has in store for us as newlyweds! <3