It's 2012, and before the End of Days starts, let's look back at the previous year while we still can. You know...before we are all killed by the locust.
The first of the big projects this year was the corner storage bench. Dani asked for it as a birthday present, which is in late January. It wasn't put into the room until July. So I came in a little late, there.
We've got a lot of use out of it this year. We've since moved the dining room table to sit in front of it, and we’ve sat around it for many dinners when we have guests. Read these posts for the whole story:
- Corner Storage Bench: Designing
- Corner Storage Bench: Building
- Corner Storage Bench: Still Building
- Corner Storage Bench: In Place
The second big project of 2011 was the installation of the new flooring in most of the first level of the house. This had been in the top 5 of our wish list since the day we moved in, but it has always been cost prohibitive. After frequently checking flooring supply centers, I finally located exactly the right amount of flooring for our project in a wood that was high enough on the Janka hardness scale to withstand the traipsing of our Dane's oft-neglected nails. 
There was a problem, though. It was an "odd lot" from Lumber Liquidators. I bought a bundle and brought it home, and easily 10% of it was damaged (cracked, warped, etc) and there were only 2 pieces at or longer than 48 inches. The entire process was not without injury, anger, or disappointment, but the end result made it all worth while, and for an incredible value. Check out that series of posts below.
- New Flooring Part I: Demo
- New Flooring Part II: More Demo
- New Flooring Part III: Fixing Subfloor
- New Flooring Part IV: Installation
- New Flooring Part V: Finishing
- New Flooring Part VI: The Reveal
- New Flooring Part VII: The Costs (coming soon)
And there are, of course, a fair number of less spectacular things accomplished that are worth reviewing.. check out the archives for those.
We'd like to thank our readers for support over the last year. The occasional prodding for content is a work light shining at unfinished projects, prompting me to get more things done, and sometimes we need that. There's also the desire to have something good to tell you guys, and having that looming overhead is another strong motivator to get up and get to work.
Here's to a fun, productive 2012!
