Home Project List – 2018

Our friend Courtney, from Always Rooney, recently shared her Home Project List for 2018 and I loved the idea and was inspired to make my own list. It’s a good way to keep track of some of the projects around the house I hope to get done this year, as well as give you a glimpse of some of the things you might see popping up as posts this year! 🙂 Plus it’s always good motivation for me to have my goals out there and hopefully some inspiration for you!

I think one of the best and worst things about owning your own house is the never ending project list. There’s always going to be things to fix, update or replace. And then you add in changing styles, and with a family, the ever-changing phases and how that plays into what your home looks like, and you’re basically forever working on your home. Fun because I love dreaming about what our space could become, and seeing those things happen; but not always fun because the work is just never done. Or sometimes you’d like the work to be done, but there’s not time or the budget for that to happen anytime soon.

So here’s what I hope to be working on/getting done in our home this year:

1. The boys room – currently this is shared space between Lincoln & Malacai; however Linc has been saying he might want his own room now, so we could be swapping occupants. This room is just about finished. I’ve got a couple more things to add, but I could basically do a room tour at this point because it’s just that close. (And I probably will before it’s completely finished). We need to add another set of shelves (already built, just need to go up), change up the wall space above the desk (I have another DIY in the works for there), and add some wall hooks and wall art.
2. Our bedroom – Mike & I will be switching our bedroom to the extra room upstairs. This is a really big deal because I’ll be giving up a big room with an attached bath for a smaller room with a shared hallway bath. 😧 The reasoning behind this is because I really want extra family space downstairs. Our current family space is just the kitchen and living room. And while those are both large rooms – I’d love to be able to have another space to kick the boys to – ha! The winter months are tough here; we spend sooo much more time indoors, for months on end (we do get outside pretty much everyday, it’s just not the same as being able to be out for hours on end like we do in the summer months), and so having this extra space to spread out into will be really nice. To move our room upstairs will mean painting – walls and floor (currently happening), new bed (because we desperately need a new mattress and I want a new frame), furniture swaps/updates, and lots & lots of stuff to get rid of. I’m hoping to do the room swap this month, but won’t have it ready/the way I’d like it for a few more months.

3. Family room – I actually have no idea what to call this space. It’s the room that was our bedroom and will function as family hang out space, an office (my desk is in this room), and guest room when needed. This room will need a daybed (working on building something to function as a couch/bed when needed), rug, and probably some other misc. furniture/decor items. Plus rearranging/reorganizing a lot of things.
4. Levi’s room – Levi’s had his own room for a while, mostly because he’s not the best sleeper, and we didn’t want him waking up the other two. But Lincoln’s been asking if he can take this room, so this might end up being “Lincoln’s room”. Either way, it won’t effect most of what needs to happen in here. We need to build a bed, get a rug, and add a few more smaller elements to the space. I’d like to re-finish the dresser in this room, or I might just pop it in the closet because that room has a decent size closet.

5. Downstairs full bath – the bathroom that’s attached to the soon-to-be family room needs a serious overhaul. The fixtures in there have issues and need to be replaced; it needs a new sink, toilet and shower. And so with those bigger things needing to be changed out, we might as well put in a new floor. And most recently Mike was saying that he thinks we should just gut the whole bathroom 😳 (it’s pretty bad, and not just in a dated way). I wasn’t quite ready to tackle a whole new bathroom this year (I mean design-wise, yes!; but budget/time-wise, no!); but it’s got to be done because of the issues. Plus it will be getting a lot more use now (this is the bathroom the boys will use most, and now also guests occasionally), sooo it got added to the list.

6. Studio – we’re dreaming up possibilities and plans to make an official blog studio space happen! Extremely excited to see this come about this year – we’ll share a little more in the future once things start happening…

So those are the major things happening (hopefully) this year. We also have smaller projects (always) that aren’t quite as exciting, but that I’m adding to our 2018 list. This list will keep growing and be added to constantly, Mike’s so happy about that – ha!

– insulate: we live in a very old house (1832) and it’s cold & drafty. Mike said this is the year we’re going to figure out where we need to add more insulation and do it.
– new windows: we’ve been slowly replacing the windows in the house. I love, love old windows, they make my heart happy. However you can stand next to them and feel a breeze blowing in, glass is cracked on some, and some of the frames are starting to rot, so it’s just not practical to keep them. Hoping to change out 3-4 windows this year.
– paint house exterior: this one is super exciting for me, but I don’t really show pictures of the outside of our house, so not super exciting for readers 😉
– remove shower: our half bath downstairs used to be a 3/4 bath (shower only, no tub), but we disconnected the shower when we put in the full bath upstairs. However we still have yet to actually remove the shower from the bathroom!! So I’m making this happen this year. Or else. We plan to add shelves and use the space the shower was in for storage/closet-like space. (Our old house is short on closets).
– paint hallway floor: we used the wrong kind of paint on the upstairs floors (it’s just kind of tacky and weird), so we’ve been slowly re-doing those. All the rest have been done/are getting done with the bedroom re-do’s, so then it’ll just be the hallway left.
– update mudroom: I have a few small changes I’d like to do in here – swapping out the bench (I want it in a different room), and making better use of the space and how it functions. Really the whole space could use an overhaul, but I’m not ready to dive into that, so I’m just making minor changes.
– keep de-cluttering: something I will forever be working on. But I like to always keep it listed as one of my goals to keep reminding myself to keep up with it.

Now that I have them actually written down, and they’re not just ideas floating around in my head, this seems quite ambitious – ha! And just for fun, here’s the projects that I dream about happening, but because of budget, they might not happen for quite some time (if ever); but they’re still immensely fun to think about/hope for/dream about:

– new kitchen: this would include bumping out the space to our front porch to use as a dining room, so it’d include massive amounts of work (which = massive amounts of money)
– laundry room: this small room always feels like a train wreck (it’s also our coat room/throw anything & everything into here room) and needs some help, but it’s just not a high priority)
– patio: I’d love to have a stone or brick patio right outside my kitchen for eating outdoors during the summer, entertaining, filling with pretty things like twinkle lights, cozy seating and lots of plants..but since it’s not needed at all, it’ll probably stay on this list for quite some time.
– refinish the floors downstairs: we’re so lucky to have original hardwood floors, however they really need to be refinished. But just the thought of the amount of work that this would involve (having to move every single thing and the amount of dust involved in sanding the floors) is enough to put this very low on the maybe someday list, ha!

How about you? Do you make lists of the projects you’d like to get done around your space? Would making a list actually help you feel like you could get it done??! Fingers crossed this list helps to keep us motivated for getting these things done in a timely fashion!

And thanks Courtney for the inspiration for my home project list!

-Manda