Girl’s First Blogiversary (Part 2 of 2)

To follow up on this morning’s post, I’m continuing the 1st blogiversary’s party train with a second post to highlight a few more cool things (woot, woot).

My first-ever home improvement to-do list:

I found this in a box last month. It’s a to-do list I drafted (probably) at work in May 2009, (probably) the same day that bought my house (it does start with changing the locks, after all). I was making good progress (before I cleaned it up and started a new list, I’m all about consolidated lists).

I carried it with me everywhere, I was obsessed with my house (and still am). And I’m mostly happy to see that almost all of those things have been taken care of over the course of the last 2.5 years. Everything except cleaning out that damn basement trench; I’d be more worried if I was having flooding issues.

Reminds me of a few things that used to exist in the house; faux-stained glass shutters over the kitchen and dining room windows, a florescent light and outdoor carpeting in the sunroom, inefficient gaps around the upstairs windows that made me feel like I was sleeping outside… it’s fun to reflect back on this now that the house finally feels like home.

Did you know I had another blog before Merrypad?

It was a simple Tumblr account that I maintained to keep the family informed on what I was doing, what I was painting, and making sure they knew I hadn’t cut my arm off with a circular saw. It was mostly pictures, very few words, but even now completely blows my mind. It’s been months since I looked at it last, and I’m tripping as I reflect on what this house used to look like when I get as far back as pages 10, 11, 12. You can even see some of the “befores” I needed to tackle in the above to-do lists. Browse the site in entirety here:

A construction memento:

I can’t remember if I’ve shown this before. It’s a scrap piece of 2×10 that we used to think through some details of the deck construction. That deck was one of mine + Pete’s first projects (only made possible because Pete, who I was just starting to date, lent me a bazillion tools). He also likes to remind couples that it’s easier to do heavy construction when you’re trying to woo a girl, not when you’re already committed to her. Could we ever build a deck together again? We’ll see.

I digress.

I brought it in from the garage scrap pile last week; a temporary addition to the living room until I find a better place for it. Maybe framed over the workbench.

And some bloggy stats, just for fun…

… because people like grandma always ask me how often I do projects and when I’m going to put a new illustration in the header. Just a little snapshot of what my blog stats are (based on reporting directly from Google Analytics and WordPress Stats):

• 292 Total Posts (not including today’s double-header, which averages out to be just over 5 posts/week)
• Most impressions in a single day: 1,729
• Most trafficked post: An IKEA drawer fix
• 10,433 total organic searches leading to merrypad
• 38 Categories
• Header versions: 3 (we’re making it a priority to keep this perky, so put December 1st on your calendar.)

Cheers to many more. Thanks for your support.