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

Updated House Photos

We had to take several photos of our house to include in our dossier information for our adoption. 

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the progress we've made since we bought the house ten months ago.

We've managed to keep ourselves (OK, Chris) pretty busy.

Our backyard is looking pretty decent, despite the ring created by the horses we had at our birthday party in April.

We've replaced this patio set since these pictures were taken with a new (to us) rectangular table with six chairs.  The table and chairs need to be painted, and I will get new cushions.  Photos to come when that project is completed!

Nothing has changed in our breakfast room.  I am on the hunt for a small loveseat or sofa to put under the windows, and I'll remove two chairs from the table.  I was going to take the one from our office when we got a church pew to replace it, but the pew is miniature and won't be adequate seating for our clients.  I will likely just wait until we replace the couch at our office and take that, because it's the perfect size (and even material) to go in this space.

Kitchen is still the same.  I still haven't painted the island table.  And I still haven't added a backsplash.  We did change the curtains over the sink.  We took down the panels and added some bamboo shades.  I will put these on the breakfast room windows too, but there are never enough in the size I need at the store when I go looking for them.

Our master bedroom remains unchanged from pretty much the day we unpacked, with the exception of the new armoire.

My fabulous friend Kelly had a baby and couldn't use this black armoire in the baby's room.  She asked if we could use it.  If we could pick it up, we could have it.  Um, hello.  We picked it up.  It's a Pottery Barn armoire that was originally a tv cabinet.  I really wanted to be able to use it in the playroom, but it weighs approximately 1,378,385,098.4 pounds and there was no. way. that was going up the stairs.  So Chris altered it to store clothes, and it's perfect in this space.  I'm toying with the idea of painting the rest of our bedroom furniture black to match and painting our walls gray.  I would love to do gray walls with yellow and white accents in this room.  I promise it will probably be the last room to complete.

I still typically have our couch covered with the slipcover.  Thankfully it's machine washable, because it spends about 25% of it's time in the washing machine. 

We've painted the entry, and I love it.  We will use the same paint upstairs at the computer area and in the hallway.

And I'm still SO glad we've removed the stained glass panel and replaced with clear glass.

I've considereded moving the computer down to our entry and making this a sitting area.  That could still happen since I recently discovered in our computer history the googling of some inappropriate words. . . and Jack got blamed for it despite the fact that he is unable to spell.

No changes here.  I can't make up my mind.  And I feel like as soon as I decorate this room they will change their minds about what they're interested in.

No change in the laundry room either.  And I promise there won't be for a looong time.

I wasn't bold enough to go orange in the entire playroom.

I just couldn't do it.

I'm thinking either a gray or a khaki for the other three walls.  For now, we're a happy shade of cream.  And holding strong.

The curtains are a good-enough-for-now option.

Next up?  Finishing Katie Ruth's room, then probably on to some beadboard and wainscotting in the breakfast room!

Top Projects of 2010

In keeping with some other blogs I've seen, I'm going to list my top 10 projects of 2010.

1.  My bench re-do. 

 We took a cheap craigslist bench that looked like it came from a hotel lobby and made it a cute bench for our (old) kitchen. 

Now that fabric matches nothing in our new house and the bench will be recovered again!

2.  Buying our new (old) house!

This was the project to start projects for the next thirty-ish years.

And it's a good thing I don't have buckets of money at my disposal.

I'd be buying houses every day. 



 3.  The packing project.

Moving with three children, two dogs, and a full-time job is a treat.

4.  My craigslist project!  

This is an ongoing project. 

I love me some craigslist.

We've gotten a ton of great, inexpensive things this year.

Like what?

Eight dining chairs for $80.

An enormous braided rug in like new condition for $40.

The bench in project number 1 for $20.

A desk for $20.

Three matching twin bed headboards for $40.

A hoosier cabinet for $150.

I know there's more, but those are the things I can remember off the top of my head.

 5.  Unpacking. 

6.  Our Fall front porch.

 7.  The Living room.

 8.  The picture project in the stairway.

9.  The dining room re-do.

10.  The island. 

This project is still in progress, but has already added a lot to our kitchen.

I know 2011 will bring us several more projects. . . the biggest will likely be to fence our backyard!

I'm linking to Rhonda's top projects post at Southern Hospitality.

And to A Little Knick Knack's Everything But the Kitchen Sink party. 

 And to Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

And to Dittle Dattle's: Amaze Me Monday

Island Dreaming

I've been dreaming of an island.

No, not this island.

A kitchen island.

I love these from Ballard Designs. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a grand to spend on an island.

Not even close.

Hello, it's Christmas people.

And I just bought a house.

And Daddy doesn't have a job.

And spending $1,000 on an island is stoopid.

Stop laughing.

This is what we bought.

It was $40.00 on Craigslist.

I really don't need extra storage, so a table is perfect.

I have something like 45 cabinets and drawers.

Some are empty.

And I needed something large.

We're going to raise the legs.

And strip and stain the top.

And paint the rest of it. 

Probably green.

Like the one below.

I was inspired by Erin's island from It's a Wannabe Decorator's Life.

Her house is seriously cute.

Stay tuned to see my island go from not so cute to adorable!