Our One Year Home Tour

This before and after home tour shows what a new build looks like after a year! You can even check out pictures of the house exterior and links to detailed posts showing each room.

As of October 19th, we’ve officially been in our home for a year!

Over the past year, we’ve worked hard to really make this home ours. Because we built it ourselves, there wasn’t a lot to change after closing day – we really worked hard to make sure we built something that we loved and could live with for a long, long time. But, of course, there is still some work to do once you move in – mainly making the things you already own and love fit into this new space.

A year after I published our Empty Home Tour, things definitely look a little different around here. This home is now very lived in and very loved – and we’ve all worked so hard to make it our own. Is it done yet? Not by a long shot. I kind of hope it’s never done! A home is supposed to be a work in progress…I think it’s supposed to reflect the people that live in it, which are works in progress too. I’m sure it will constantly be changing and evolving as we are, but for now, we are so pleased at where it is.

Let’s take a look at just how different it looks now!

Exterior

One Year Ago:

Now:

Not a ton of changes – the biggest noticeable difference is the Plantation Shutters we installed on every front window and the growth in the flower beds.

I’ll be honest – I don’t love our flower beds. They were a last minute thing when we were building and we didn’t get a say in what was planted. I’m planning on tearing all of this up in the spring – I’m envisioning lots of hydrangeas and a butterfly bush or two. We do already have a butterfly bush in the middle and I’ve absolutely loved all of the new friends it brought around this summer!

And yay for fall decorations this year! We had an insane month after we moved in last year, so fall decor definitely wasn’t a priority last year. I’ve loved pulling out all of the old decorations this time!

Entry/Hall

One Year Ago:

Now:

Again, not a lot of changes, besides our shutters – they add so much to the front windows.

We’re currently using an old table in the foyer, but we’re already planning something new for this space – stay tuned!

This is one of my favorite decor walls in the house (and I’m not sure I’ve shown it on the blog yet). I bought a set of Ikea Ribba frames and put some of our absolute favorite pictures in them – I love this wall so much!

Dining Room

One Year Ago:

Now:

This is the room that probably has the least TLC. I’ve got big plans for this room – there are just not enough hours in the day! You can see a few more pictures of this space here.

Office

One Year Ago:

Now:

This is one of my favorite spaces in the house! We’ve done a lot to make this smaller room functional, but pretty. You can see a full tour of it here.

Playroom

One Year Ago:

Now:

We’ve probably done the most work to this room! In addition to completely repurposing the items we had in our old home’s playroom, we took on a big DIY project and put in a wall of built-in cabinets. I just talked about what we’ve done to this room a couple of weeks ago in this post.

Kitchen

One Year Ago:

Now:

Decor wasn’t the big issue with the kitchen – we were really able to put the items we already had into this space well. Organization was the thing I had to work on in this area. We put in a lot of great organizational tools…I just had to figure out how to use them! I talked about how we organized this space in this post.

Living Room

One Year Ago:

Lots of beautiful space to fill, right? Those cabinets made me nervous, but…

Now:

…it ended up being no problem! This space turned out just how I envisioned it when we were building – I couldn’t love it more. See more of our living room details here.

Master Bedroom

One Year Ago:

Now:

This is another room where we were actually able to use a lot from our old home…it all fit in perfectly! You can see a full tour of this space here.

Back Porch

One Year Ago:

Now: 

We built this DIY sectional a few months ago that has been so perfect for this space. We enjoy it so much more now!

Backyard

One Year Ago:

Now:

There is no question that this is the part that has had the most work since we moved in. We knew when we moved in that this would be something that we had to tackle almost immediately – and, this past spring, we did! You can see the full makeover on this post.

And there you have it, friends! I feel like it has changed so much over the past year, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. We’ve really started to turn this into the home we’re going to be in forever (no, really). I wanted to make it ours as soon as possible, and it’s already looking (and feeling) like we’ve been here for so long. That was kind of the goal! 🙂 I know we’ll continue to change it and settle in more in the future, and I can’t wait to see (and share) what we’re doing.

You can see our full forever home archives here.

Oh, and one more thing – one of my favorite companies, Ultimate Bundles, is doing a flash sale for one of their most popular sets today! The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle (affiliate link) is a set of 129 resources for time management, organization, meal planning, cleaning, and so much more that you can get (for today only) for 98% off retail prices. It’s an amazing value…definitely check it out!

But act quickly – This deal is only good through tonight (11/6) at 11:59pm. Click here for more info!