House Goals for 2012

You may remember this post where I listed all of our to-do things for our house.  Um, it's a long freaking list.  Let's review and see what's been done.  I've added new goals (re-wrote immediate goals) in red, which I hope to finish this year:

Kitchen

• Paint
• Backsplash
• Install garbage disposal
• Under cabinet lighting
• Secure toe kick trim
• Finish restoring island
• Flip laundry room door to open into Laudry room
• Stainless fridge?
• Farm sink?

Breakfast Room

• Install bead board and trim
• Repair cracks in wall
• Paint
• Paint hutch
• Farm table
• Repair threshold
• Replace chandelier light fixture
• Paint globe light fixtures
• Repair/Replace cracked window
• Fix leak in roof.  Again.
• Replace back door?
• Add storm or screen door
• Upholstered seating on one side of table?

Living room

• Weather strip for door
• Paint vents
• Repair phone jack
• Hide cords
• Touch up crown molding
• Drop leaf table
• Find another drum table for the other side of the couch
• Reupholster chair cushions.  Or just get rid of the couch.
• Replace coffee table with ottoman or more appropriate table.
• Family tree art/project 
• Hang silver trays

Dining room

• Paint vent covers
• Install crowm molding
• Rug?
• Recover chairs
• Replace light fixture

Master Bedroom

• Paint
• Build out closet
• New bedding
• Paint wardrobe
• Artwork
• Do something with the fireplace surround.  Paint?  Strip?  Tile?
• Repair floor by window
• Replace window pane.  (Ahem, Chris. . . )

Entry/Staircase/Computer landing

• Hang mirror or artwork by front door
• Reupholster bench.  Or get rid of it.
• Bookcase under stairs
• Paint
• Replace doorbell
• Small rug for computer area
• Address chandelier. . . clean crystals, replace bulbs, clean fixture without killing myself.  Or replace with a larger fixture.
• Replace attic ladder with a metal ladder.
• Paint ceiling.

Small downstairs hall

• Paint
• Make shelving a bookcase
• Paint inside wall of bookcase
• Replace light fixture

Playroom

• Paint
• New curtains
• Organize closet
• Clean rug
• Recover loveseat (replaced it instead)
• Make/Hang chalkboard
• Add another bookcase or costume storage
• Hang art display system
• Clean out/donate books

Boys' room

• Paint
• Organize closet
• Add a dresser
• Hang photos or art
• Update photo collages
• Matching bedding
• Bedskirt for David's bed
• Rug?
• Hang wall lighting
• Replace overhead fixture?

Guest room

• Address fireplace.  Convert to gas? (We've decided to leave it as is right now - I don't think a gas fireplace and a five year old developmentally delayed child are the best combination in a bedroom.)
• Strip/paint/tile/something fireplace surround.  We cleaned this up, and I think we're leaving it as is for now.  We need to secure the screen, and call it a day.
• Hang mirror or art over fireplace
• Clean transom
• Paint
• Curtains
• New bedding?
• Rug?
• Art?
• Closet shelving and hanging system
• Lampshade for black lamp
• Cushion or pillows for window seat
• Add crown molding
• Fix loose outlets

Laundry room

• Cabinets over washer and dryer
• Add a cabinet for linen storage
• Paint
• Hanger for brooms, etc.
• Reroute pump to outside
• Install back door
• Clean/paint light fixtures

Patio

• Rug
• Figure out the light.  Make it work.
• Paint concrete?
• Rework the seating to make it more of an outdoor room
• New patio furniture
• Paint the flower stand.  Or love it the way it is.
• Paint candle holder/lantern thingy
• Add a stair?
• Add concrete planters?
• Hang flower holders
• Window box

Exterior

• Side the remainder of the house.  Yikes.
• Paint.
• Repair trim above front windows
• Replace upstairs windows
• Gutter/French drain system
• Reinsulate crawl space
• Repair loose roof panel(s)
• Pressure wash porch
• Paint porch floor, stairs, and rails
• Re-do porch columns?
• Replace front light
• Clean weeds off of front of house
• Make crawl space opening larger
• Clean/paint lattice under porch. 
• Trim out lattice
• Add back door to laundry room

Yard

• Fence back yard
• Cut down tree?
• Massive yard clean up
• Remove kennel after fencing is put up
• Weed killer on front walk  This will be an on-going project.
• Prune bushes
• Plant a garden
• Add two more bushes along the side of the porch
• Rip out three small ugly bushes near patio.
• Rip out two little trees in island area.
• Electricity to the shed?

Dream List/Far in the Future

• Build a detached garage
• Finish the attic and add another 1000+ square feet
• Add a second bathroom

Lamp Shade Re-Do

We're slowly but surely making over the guest room to be a room for Katie.  We've decided on paint and fabric, and have painted the walls.  The silver lamps we had in there were too grown up for a little girl.  And I removed one side table to make room for a small bookcase.

I didn't really want to purchase a new lamp, and we have several small lamps that we're not really using.  I may or may not have a thing for lamps. . .

I have had a small white lamp since we bought it for Jack's nursery.  I bought this shade last week when I went Goodwill Hunting.

It was the perfect size, and it was brand new.

And the perfect price, at $3.00.

And this is why it was there.

It was all dented in one spot.

Oh I can so work with that.

First, I measured the height of the shade.

Then the circumference.

Upside down, apparently.

Then I cut my handy drop cloth fabric.

Remember that?

It's the same fabric I used to make my dining room curtains, and to make the boys' monogram pillows at Christmas last year.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this drop cloth!

I added two inches to the height and width so I'd have some extra to fold over to finish the edges.

I used hot glue and glued one end to the shade.

I wrapped tightly around the shade and folded the raw edge over to finish it.

I glued that, then had Chris hold the shade so I could pull the fabric taut so it wasn't saggy.

I glued the finished edge over where I started.

To finished the top and bottom, I just folded the fabric over the shade, put a small strip of glue, and pressed.  I quickly worked my way around the top and bottom.  To get it to be finished over the arms of the shade, I notched out the material around the arms.

I love the finished product! 

I plan to make a window seat cover using the same material with navy blue piping.

I think I will do some sort of navy trim around at least the bottom, because when it is turned on you can see the notches for the wire.  I'm thinking maybe thick navy rickrack??

This entire project took me about 15 minutes from start to finish, and cost me $3.00!

Guest Room Updates

This was our guest room when we bought our house. 

This is it now.

And it's still a guest room, but that's the temporary use.

Because (hopefully soon) it will be the cozy bedroom for this sweet girl.

We painted, after testing many paint colors.

We finally decided on Martha Stewart's sea glass green from HD.

I love this color.

In the photo of the room above it looks more electric green than it does in person.

It's a really, really pretty, soothing shade.

So now I have to decide what else to do with the room.

I want to make this. 

I have an old chunkalicious (yes, I've decided that's a word) frame with a print in it that I got at Kirkland's a while back. 

The print doesn't go with the room anymore, but the frame is fabulous. 

I'm going to paint the frame and do this over the print.

I want to make some tissue paper flowers to hang in one corner of the room.

I would like to use navy blue, pink, and orange as the accent colors in this room.

Hello.  LOVE this.

I want to do navy chevron stripe curtains similar to these.

I also want to put a wide (like, 12 inches) band of bright pink on the bottom.

I'm having trouble finding navy chevron fabric.

I'm testing this right now.

It's fabric that I bought to recover a rocking chair cushion on our porch.

I am also obsessed with this nesting doll art I found on etsy.

I really want to hang something similar above the fireplace in her room.

However, it's dolls made out of scrapbook paper and glued onto a painted canvas.

I can make that myself, instead of paying over $100 for it. 

Thankyouverymuch.

I think I'll paint the canvas an orange-y/tangerineish color.

I haven't decided on bedding yet, but that will be largely dictated by the fabric I choose for the curtains and window seat.  Right now I'm thinking a white duvet cover with her monogram in the middle.  Will I regret white bedding in a child's room??  We don't allow food, drinks, or markers (crayons, etc.) upstairs, so I don't think it will be a big issue.

Next on the Remodel List

What's up next on the remodel list?  The guest room.  This room will eventually be our new girl's room, assuming all goes as planned with our adoption.  I chose a Martha Stewart paint from Home Depot.  I love Martha, and her colors are all delicious. 

You may note this color is different from the choices I told you about here.  Oops.  I changed my mind.  And you would know that if you went into the bedroom. . . there are eight samples painted on the walls!

Guest Room Paint

I've narrowed our guest room paint choices to three:

Benjamin Moore's Dolphin's Cove 722

Benjamin Moore's Rythm and Blues 758

Valspar's Stillness 7005-2

I quickly ruled out the Benjamin Moore Rythm and Blues.  It was too . . . well, blue.  I'm trying to get more of a Tiffany's blueish-green, and the Rythm and Blues was just not what I was looking for.  The Stillness is pretty light in the samples we've painted on the wall, and I want a bit more depth to the color.  I think the Dolphin's Cove is perfect.  The baseboard is quite tall in that room, and there's a lot of white wood with the fireplace surround and mantle, as well as the beadboard on the window seat.  I will not paint the window seat, so I feel like the white will break up the color nicely and not be too overwhelming.  I'm really branching out in this house from my previous wall colors of khaki, khaki, and more khaki!

Slowly but Surely

We're slowly but surely getting things moved to the new house.  We closed on Tuesday and went down several times this week.  We spent the majority of the weekend there, getting as much done as possible.  Shall we take a tour?

In the breakfast room we've hung curtains and moved in a hutch.  I may paint this hutch down the road, but for now this is the current state and finish.

In the kitchen we've hung curtains that match the breakfast room and started unpacking and washing dishes.  A lot of dishes.  (Forgive the lighting. . . these were taken with my phone.)

It is nearly impossible for us to get things accomplished while the kids are there.  It's very difficult.  We started setting up their playroom a bit to give them something to do while we're there.

Looks nice, right?  They've started settling in nicely. . . as has Thomas.

We've hung some bamboo blinds in the living room.  And put down an area rug.  

And have placed some nice folding chairs. . . 

We hung some more blinds in our room.  And made a pile of pillows.

We've moved our buffet and a small china cabinet into the dining room and I've started unpacking some of our china.  I love china and glassware, and I've got a lot.  I love it, but hate packing, unpacking, washing, and putting it away.

We put some area rugs in the hallway. . . And some boxes.  This will be our little office space.  

The boys' room essentially has nothing in it, except headboards.

Oddly, the guest room is the most organized.  And will see the least use.  

It's going to be quite a process, but we're SO excited about it, and it's coming along nicely.  I'm going to spend a lot of time this week packing up things in our current house.  And may scrap the yard sale and just try to sell some things on craigslist instead, and give the rest to Goodwill.  I just don't have the patience for a yard sale right now.  Or the time to have one.