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Around the House: Looking Ahead

By Dawn Sailors In Around the House, General Home Things

The start of a new year is a great time to start planning for the yet ahead. I can’t say that I ever really stop planning (just ask the hub how often the words ‘I have an idea!’ get used around here) but a new year is a good time to actually lay out all our house update dreams and see which ones we can check off and when.

So here is my list of things I’d like to accomplish around the house in 2012:

1) Major repairs- We’ve already started on this biggie! Yay! And ouch. We’re in the process of getting estimates for a major exterior face lift (i.e. some new windows, exterior rot repair and paint or siding), and we’ll be doing some DIY attic insulating very soon, but lets just say that none of these are cheap. And for cheap-o’s like us it’s a hard pill to swallow. So we’re looking at how we can work the budget, but this beast might determine how much of the rest of this list actually gets tackled this year.

2) New carpet- I’ve bared it all in a few carpet posts before (like this one– gross). So it may not shock you that I’ve been dreaming of all new carpeting for a while now. Every carpeted room in this house is in bad shape. They’re either stained or smelly or both, so I’m really hoping we can swing this one sometime in the near future. But I fear it will depend on the outcome of numero uno.

3) Baseboards- Long on my list of tasks to complete, these STILL aren’t done. Sigh. Maybe the third year’s a charm? While we’re at it lets just include the rest of the items on that old list that have yet to be completed. Which would mostly be finishing random half-started paint projects…

4) Basement entertainment area- We have a good start on the basement, but we got a little burnt out when we accidentally put a giant hole in the wall, and never finished painting. There are lots of things I’d like to finish down here to make it an awesome entertaining space. (like adding storage, finishing paint, patching holes, new carpet.. Oh that’s number 2… Hopefully we can get a few of them crossed off our list.

5) Laundry room update- Our laundry room (ok closet) is certainly much improved from when we moved in (see this post), but I’d like a little more style and some added function (think pretty storage and a table top for folding). We’ll definitely be doing this on the cheap, which hopefully translates to very soon!

6) Start on bathroom upgrades- The one room we have not touched at all since moving in is our master bathroom. I think of it as a sort of time-capsule of floral wallpaper and magenta laminate. I’d love to get started in there this year and make some progress on the guest bath too (which isn’t much better).

7) Home office/studio- This one is a little tricky, because it involves some future family planning for us. That is to say that I don’t want to turn a bedroom closet into a desk area only to find out that we need that room to be a nursery next year. (No this isn’t any kind of announcement!! Just trying to think ahead a little before we spend time/money on any big projects.) So first I need to figure out which room will be my permanent office/studio space and then I can get around to making it perfect.

8) Kitchen lighting- Namely getting rid of the bulky fluorescent lights in favor of something a bit more stylish. I don’t want to ruin the surprise… But this one is already in progress and I am sooo excited to share it with you guys! Look for that post coming in the next few weeks! Spoiler alert: it looks awesome.

9) Trim painting- Always. On. The. List.

10) Other random projects- Ten seems like a better list than nine. Plus I have to throw this one in here in case Brett tries to hold me to only the things on this list. Heaven knows I’m going to come up with approximately one million other small and big projects to tackle and I need a buffer. In fact I already have few on my list… Heck, I have a few already started. So stay tuned!

So that’s the main list. We’ll see where we are this time next year. (Assuming there is a next year… dun dun dun….) Do you have big plans for your home this year?

-Dawn