Awesome! You had a busy year!

We remodeled the kitchen, turned out fabulous, wish I could post a photo but I haven't figured out to do so yet.

smileythecat...You're a person I can identify with. I can "do" so many things but, alas, I am a techno-peasant.

Finally did a project for myself and completely renovated my childhood home.

I'll warn you, the before photos are a bit scary: bit.ly/2gHLhtE

2016: Studded exterior walls, built interior walls, insulated, and hung drywall in the basement.

2017: Finish basement drywall, add wet bar, add a fireplace, paint, add baseboard and trim, put in drop ceiling. Build a patio in the backyard and a retaining wall with walkway In the front.

I added a shallow pantry to my 10 yr old kitchen! It cost $2,000 and is not large. But boy is it handy! I should have done it when I first installed the kitchen. Now the kitchen's complete!

We provide kitchen and bath design services to the residents of New Jersey and the surrounding areas. Homeowners, but also interior designers, builders, and contractors are very interested in quartz countertops, kitchen cabinets, and especially in granite countertops. Here is the fraction of the projects we completed this year http://aquagranite.com/projects/

Tukasa helped us remodel a guest bath and provided granite kitchen counters and in the living room bar area. They turned out wonderful!

Next year I would like to remodel the master bathroom by taking out the bathtub and putting in a large shower in its footprint. The old shower/water closet combination I would like to make a bidet/toilet closet.

We started building our new custom home in August, we're at the choosing the countertops phase...it's been fun, exciting, stressful and a lot of work! We designed everything and bought all the lights, faucets, sinks, tub, and did all thee painting. Will attach a photo when I get wifi in the new house.

When I try to add a photo from my library, it says it does not have access, that I can enable it from my "settings".... please, how do I do this?

The best decision we made in 2016 s the extension of our front porch just by a couple of feet with the addition of a railing. A safe place to enjoy our meals, the birds and the front garden.

We were busy this year.

Our walkout basement was dim and cold:

We addded electric and drywall then painted (15 gallons of paint for two coats!!) and added lights to our walkout so I now have a useable studio space. I still need to add flooring, but this will work for now. The area is huge.....about 800 sq.ft.

we also added FRP and a 13' long commercial sink so I have water, heat AND a/c for the first time in my studio space in 9 years!!

We also started building storage for paintings/canvas (nothing fancy, just enough to keep things safe) and will finish the bookshelves this weekend to hold my hundreds of art-related books.

We then built an 700 sq.ft. addition to the deck so our deck now wraps around the back of the house. The rail isn't exactly what we were looking to do, but it's what was what we could afford for now. The vertical wood railing is temporary. That area will be solid later as we'll be building an area for the grill and some bench seating. We also added a porch swing to the underside of the deck (not shown here).

Our barn needed a LOT of work too. Only a shell was put up when we built this place. There was only wide open space with no way of easily storing anything. We've started to put up walls for stalls, a chicken coop, tack room, wash room, hay storage and equipment storage. We're nowhere near done, but this is as far as we can go before we finish running electric. Once we have the first electrical inspection we'll be able to finish up the walls.

Now that my stuff is back down in the studio we were able to get the garage cleaned up. That will eventually be drywalled, but not quite yet. We did start getting some organizing done and have gotten some replacement shelves and lockers and have removed more stuff since this photo.

We also built some cubbies to put in the mud room for coats & shoes (no photos yet). They are kind of a retro modular look and I need to paint & clear coat them before we can get them up.

Still SO MUCH left to do!!

bathrooms, office, laundry and more.

I feel like a slacker when I read some of these comments! I did manage to take out 1/4th of my front lawn--where I could NOT keep grass alive anyway--and make a giant curved mulch bed, and next year I hope to make a small arbor to set under the large maple tree. I also got the ceiling of my garage insulated and sheathed, and want to make a small mudroom-type area at the kitchen door entrance into the garage, so I can finally corral my gloves, hats, and coats! I still have book cases to build next year, as well as planning a minor kitchen remodeling, as finances permit!

Did two projects this year. The big one: we had our front porch enclosed into a sunroom, which is so lovely now that it's winter!

The little one: I repainted and redecorated our upstairs bathroom last spring in an all-white spa look. (https://www.houzz.com/magazine/reader-bathroom-a-new-shower-and-a-spa-look-for-6100-in-iowa-stsetivw-vs~74189227)

No plans to do anything more next year -- nothing big anyway (you never know when the urge to repaint a room will strike...).

We replaced an extremely small walled in patio with a 33 X 18 concrete slab. I didn't think we would be patio people but we sure are. I enjoyed all the container gardening I was able to do and we purchased some new patio furniture. Looks over a beautiful golf course. Beautiful water view and we don't have to take care of it!

Finally got the soaking tub in!

we completed the hardscaping for our pool area redo, put in some ornamental grasses and variagated yucca in front of a cedar horizontal board fence screening the a/c units and pool pumps. we still have to do 'rock garden' plants along the other side of the pool and decided to not take any photos til its finished.

My family and I bought a 30+year old home as we love the neighborhood. we are remodeling by phases and on a tight budget. We have managed to remodel the kitchen without doing a total gut job. We hired a general contractor who was willing to work with our ideas and budget.

ripped out old kitchen and created a combo 13 x 21 laundry/kitchen room in the basement with these cabinets. Installed a new kitchen upstairs - from cabinets to granite to cork flooring - both rooms look so great! Also new roof and added a couple of sun tunnels.

Renovated our master bathroom to suit the style of our adobe home. As always, there were a few unexpected surprises that added to our timeline and budget, but we're so happy with the result - I have that ahhhhh moment every time I walk into the room. American Clay on the walls; Jason Scott piece modified for our vanity.

I put in a picture window in my kitchen so I can watch the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks gather for breakfast;)

Very inexpensively changed the look of our kitchen.

Before
After - different perspective

We remodeled our kitchen - down to the studs. There was a basement stair well to the left that I tore out allowing us to increase the kitchen by ~4 feet. Made a huge difference. Also allowed us to bring the 38 year old kitchen up to modern standards.

We finally remodeled our kitchen. Changed the layout and cabinets but luckily kept the tile to keep cost manageable. It functions so much better. We have a huge island and tons of storage now. The island is big enough to cut fabric and layout a science fair board! We wired in lots of outlets and even a charging drawer for all the electronics. The cabinets are high enough above the counter for the mixer to lift and remove the bowl and to be able to remove a knife knife holder, we also had no light so we put in in cabinet and under cabinet lights as well as a commercial light that's daylight toned which was so helpful during the hurricanes when we were boarded up for a couple days.

After island

Before peninsula

After moved fridge and sink and added pantry.

Well I am not done with this one yet, but I am in the process of adding a detached two car garage so I have a place to part the cars on snowy days and to avoid the Spring/Summer hail storms.

We did a garage rehab as well since our roof was caving in. Still way easier than the year before when we did a retro renovation of our 1946 kitchen with original steel cabinets and sink,new water lines in cellar (always had low pressure), hot water tank, boiler, carpeting, and our cellar flooded one night after a storm because our sewer collapsed. Whole street was closed down for that. Real nightmare. Since we first got the keys 15 yrs. ago and found a freezing waterfall coming from the upstairs bathroom and kitchen downstairs it's been constant construction but we love our money pit

We had our house professionally painted and landscaped in April for the
first time. When we moved into our house last year, the only thing I did
not like about it is the exterior and interior were all painted a flat
white, which is quite boring to me. I have been slowly painting the
interior of the house but since we have 5 stories in this house, we had
the exterior professionally painted. I also wanted larger and more
extensive flower beds since the previous owners only had a couple of
small flower beds. Here are some before and after photos:

Before:

After:

The house was painted with Behr Marquee paints. The main color is Taupe Tease, the trim is Superior Blue, and the doors are Firecracker Red. I now love the exterior of my house!

Painted dining room metallic silver.
Took out lawn and had first garden!
Built galvanized and wood shelf!

Darn spell check! Built galvanized fence.

Restore the entire house post flood from a plumbing issue, 2 bathrooms one kitchen, lighting, electrical plumbing, living, study, laundry. Never again!

Where to start? First we installed a partial fence on one side with an arbor. Then, on the same side, added an exterior French door to the living room and an extra window to a spare bedroom. Then had the area landscaped. Pics below.

Ran out of time (and money!!) to tackle the paver patio with a pergola off the dining room which will require changing out the double window for French doors. I hope to be able to do that in 2017, along with creating a pathway from lower yard between trees that form a sort of avenue to the upper field.

Smaller projects in the meantime include currently getting quotes for a kitchen backsplash and under cabinet lighting.

DIY projects: Would like to change out the pedestal sink in the powder room for a vanity and add cabinets to my laundry room. Extensive trim work and wainscoting in most rooms. Would like to put reclaimed barn beams on the living room ceiling.

Lastly, if I still have any money left, would be to convert the deck to a screened porch with a fireplace, put in a small plunge pool and put a veggie garden and a shed/workshop in the upper field.

I wouldn't say anything so far has gone terribly wrong. I will say that contractors don't really expect you to pay extra to do a real cleanup, do they??? Shouldn't that be part of the deal?? I mean should a homeowner expect to pay another contractor to fix the dings in her hardwood floors left by the previous contractor even though the homeowner took the time to put down heavy duty drop cloths?? Just saying......

New Fence:

New window and door:

New door:

One of my projects for 2016. ;-) [Blah to Beachy Half Bath[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/reader-bathroom-a-splash-of-nautical-style-for-330-in-kentucky-stsetivw-vs~74829755)

We installed some solar panels , finished out my patio so that it wraps around the back and side of my home. Now we are starting to build a two story garage. Some of you all put us to shame though. Next year we hope to do some landscaping.

WHY HAVE I STOPPED GETTING HOUZZ UPDATES THAT I LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING SO MUCH EVERY FEW DAYS?

WHY HAVE I STOPPED GETTING HOUZZ UPDATES THAT I LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING SO MUCH EVERY FEW DAYS?