At the very beginning of the year I took the challenge from the Happier podcast to think up 18 things I wanted to accomplish in 2018. I thought it might be fun to look back on my list and see what I’ve accomplished this year and what was a total fail. Spoiler alert – there will be quite a few fails, specially in regard to my goals for the home since for the majority of the year we actually had our house listed for sale. If you’re interested in hearing more about that entire fiasco you can watch my Life Updates video.
My 18 for 2018
- Fix the transition molding between the kitchen and the dining room. The molding has been wrong ever since we had it install. I get so mad at myself every time I look at it for not taking PTO the day it was installed. I left Austin and his dad in charge that day and well, lets just say that won’t be done again.
We actually did this! I refused to put our house on the market with the transition molding looking crazy as well. I made Austin and his dad get the job done. - Also related to the molding (who knew you could have multiple goals related to molding) I want to finish painting the baseboard molding. I got the living room done before we moved in. Once we moved all the furniture into the house I completely abandoned the project.
This is a project I’ve given up on. I’ve decided I simply to not care. You really can’t even tell it wasn’t painted. - Paint the stairwell and upstairs hall. This is truly just a weekend project. I know we could probably even knock it out in one day. Its just a fresh coat of white paint over already white paint, but we just keep pushing it off.
This project was a fail. We just didn’t do it. And it’s going to be a pain in the ass whenever we do. I’ll chalk this fail up to pure laziness. - Once the stairwell is freshly painted I no longer have an excuse to push off my maps project. I’ve kept maps from many of my adventures and recently decided to frame them instead of allowing them to sit in a drawer forever. The trouble lies in trying to find affordable frames of all of these oddly sized maps. I keep meaning to hit up the good will with my tape measurer and, like the previous few items, I keep pushing it off. Once I have all the maps framed I want to create a gallery wall with them up in the stairwell.
For most of the year all my frames and maps were packed away to keep the house staged for viewings so I did not get to this project. If we choose to not list the house again in spring I will resume this project. - Paint the walls in the kitchen. The kitchen is currently the worst shade of mustard yellow and as you may know, painting a kitchen is really annoying. Honestly, I wish I could just pay someone to do this but I don’t want to spend the money on it since I know we can totally do this. I just want the walls to be a clean simple white. I eventually want to have the cabinets painted gray as well but that will definitely be a project I hire someone to do because I’ve seen some cabinets turn out really poorly in other homes and it’s not a risk I want to take. That’s likely a 2019 project.
The kitchen has been painted! It’s a lovely shade a clean white. That was another pre-listing project we had to have done before we could potentially sell the house. - Purchase and apply wallpaper to the accent wall in my office. I’ve had one unfinished wall in my office for ages and I’m ready for it to be complete! I know what wallpaper I want and I have a friend willing to help apply it. I just have to pull the trigger. My hesitance with this project is the cost of the wallpaper but the price isn’t going to change any time soon so I just need to do it.
Soooo, I didnt put up wallpaper. But I did paint the wall so I’m going to consider this item finished. - Buy a bed frame. Our bed doesn’t technically sit on the floor. It’s a Sleep Number bed with a modular base so the mattress itself is raised a bit off the floor. That being said I simply don’t feel like an adult with the current set up. It feels a little straight-out-of-college and the whole room feels unfinished. For the most part, spending on the house is going to be put on the back burner until after the wedding but the bed frame and wallpaper are two things I simply cannot wait on.
This task is half complete. It took me a while to find a bedframe that I liked but now I have and I’m going to incorporate it in my budget some time in the next few months. - Be out in the garden at least three times a week. 2017 was the first year I had ever managed a large garden on my own and it was a huge adjustment. I underestimated the amount of time needed to keep the garden running successfully. While we still ended up with a bounty of fruits and veggies I want to make sure I take the time to keep the garden in better shape, weeding and harvesting regularly.
FAIL. Complete fail. Total fail. The definition of fail. Since the house was up for sale we didn’t even plant a garden this year. Even so, I wasn’t attending to the plants that return every year all that responsibly either. - Read at least 1 book a month. I genuinely have aspirations to be a reader but I don’t carve out the time to do it so the simple fix is to make tie for reading. I spend so much time in front the TV watching reruns of shows I’ve seen dozens of times. It’s really a waste of time and a complete energy drain so instead I’ll be getting cozy with a book instead.
While I didn’t read a full 12 books, I’ve definitely read more than I have years past and for that I am hopeful that slowly I’m setting myself up to have better reading habits. - Burn through my candle stash. There’s no logical reason for me to have bought and stashed away so many damn candles. But since I did, I am dedicated to finally using them all up this year.
All used up? Not quite. Used up quite a few. Indeed. - Post at least one Youtube video a week. I used to post a video every single day so I know I can absolutely manage posting a video once a week and I have no excuse not to.
Fail. No good excuse. Just got caught up in life and didn’t make time for filming. - Start writing down recipes, and sharing them! I make a lot of delicious food and never write down a single thing I do. On one hand its fabulous that I’m comfortable enough to just throw things in a pot and know it will work. On the other hand I have no idea how to recreate a meal when I want it again, nor can I share it with others. This will be the year I actually start to write it all down.
I’m going to give myself a pass on this one even though its in essence a fail because my culinary creativity really took a hit when I got busy with wedding planning and attempting to sell the house. - Go on a honeymoon. I’m definitely getting married so I don’t think I need to write that down as a goal. I’m not sure if we will be able to swing a honeymoon right after the wedding though. I’m hoping we can get our finances in good enough shape to knock out the wedding and a trip, but admittedly this is the item on the list I’m the least confident in my ability to accomplish. Whenever we do take our honeymoon I don’t want it to feel like we are stretched thin. If that means waiting a while after the wedding that’s fine but I would love to be able to honeymoon right after the wedding. We shall see how that one goes.
The honeymoon didn’t end up happening but we are contemplating a big trip for our first anniversary. On top of that we have quite a bit of travel already scheduled for the first half of 2019. - Do yoga. I actually really enjoy yoga, but I don’t enjoy sweating. In fact I think my biggest aversion to working out in general is sweating.
I was actually pretty good about doing yoga a few times a week in the first half of the year but much like other items on the list, when the home selling and wedding planning stress hit I fell out of the habit. - Listen to the backlog of the Happier Podcast and the Rich Roll Podcast. I enjoy these and want to here all there is to be heard.
I may not have actually completed this goal but I converted it into a new habit. I was listening to these podcasts in the car on the way to work every morning and while I don’t still listen to them on an everyday basis, I now make sure that whatever I’m listening to is substantive in some way. I’m enjoying using that time to consume something enriching rather than a mindless morning show. - Stick to a budget. I’ve been using EveryDollar since November and so far so good. In the past I’ve abandoned it after a month or two but I need to be on a budget to in order to pull the wedding off and still have everything else in order. I’d really like to engrain budgeting in me as a permanent habit.
100% success! I’ve budgeted faithfully all year. Not only did we pull of cash-flowing the wedding but I’ve also managed to pay off a good bit of debt as well. If all goes according to plan (it never does, but I digress) I should be debt free by the end of 2019 and able to start saving up to buy a car with cash (if the Volvo doesn’t poop out before then). - I know I said that I was only going to buy wallpaper and a bed frame, but I just remembered that I really a rug for under our dining room table. The chairs are beating up the floor and Austin is having a heart attack over it.
I found a great deal on a beautiful orange & cream rug on Amazon. It’s fabulous! - Host a monthly game night. I love entertaining and I love game nights. Just makes sense.
Fail, but we have been playing games more in general just the two of us so that counts a little bit.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how I did. I didn’t hit every line item, but with all the pressure I had on myself this year I can’t be mad about letting some of these little things slide.
