We got an email last week from Houseblogs.net which suggested everyone write some New Year’s resolutions regarding their home projects. Last year, we didn’t even think about writing any – mostly because we were so concerned with just getting the last little things finished in the house so we could move in. When I think back to how far we’ve come in the last year (we’ll be living here for a year now on January 21st), it’s really hard to believe. Apparently we forgot how stressful a renovation could be though, since we started the guest house remodel in September 2007. It was a wild 3 months with lots of up and downs and we still have some work left to do in there…but thankfully it’s at least livable (pictures should be coming tomorrow I think – finally!)
This year we plan on focusing on many of the smaller projects around the house and just getting things in control around here (like our garden). One thing is certain – we will not be taking on any more huge renovation projects concerning building walls, using drywall or doing anything else along those lines. That doesn’t mean we don’t still have some crazy ideas and won’t be doing a lot or work, but somehow building our climbing wall and finishing out our wine cellar just shouldn’t be quite so stressful…plus we won’t have any set deadlines for them so we can take things as slowly or quickly as we like.
Since we had about 10 lists hanging around in various notebooks with all the “little stuff” we still have to do around here, I finally put everything into one rather long Excel spreadsheet. Yes, I’m a geek – but I know that and accept it which is the first step to overcoming it. 😉
So here’s the list…it seems massively long all written out but a lot of them are small projects that we can work on over a weekend here and there.
- Inside Main House
- Rebuild closets upstairs
- Build shelves in bath downstairs
- Finish kitchen
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- The last 6 handles
- Side panel on wall unit
- Floor boards around all kitchen cabinets
- Touch up ceiling, walls
- Sew curtains – living room and bedroom
- Mudroom
- Fill holes in walls where electrician laid cables
- Sand drywall and wall patches
- Paint ceiling & walls
- Possibly lay floor insulation and laminate or tile
- Hang kitchen cabinets
- Move coat & shoe rack from entry way (where we’ll put a new coat closet)
- Guest House Closet
- Finish drywall
- Sand
- Paint
- Lay floor
- Hang clothing rod
- Wine cellar
- Remove everything – move to barn, trash, etc
- Paint ceiling
- Lay floor with lights (this we’ll have done by contractors since this will be quick back breaking and we just don’t want to get into it)
- Install track lighting in ceiling
- Build shelving for wine storage
- Build bar, table, stools
- Plaster wall outside wine cellar where wall was built
- Have mural painted on wall outside (we’re thinking of getting an artist to do something that looks into a vineyard to give the space a more open feel – if we can find an artist that is…)
- Barn – Workshop, Pass through
- Patch hole in wall where water pours in when it rains
- Organize & declutter main pass through (where everything just gotten stacked and stashed during our other clean up missions)
- Lay bricks in back corner to cut down on dust
- Set up shelving in back corner to store our gardening & camping stuff
- Organize & declutter workshop (possibly building a new shelving and workshop area first)
- Build loft above workshop (we have really high ceilings in there and realized this would be a great place to store extra wood and other building materials we’ve assembled during our renovation project)
- Hang ladders in pass through to free up floor space
- Possibly build shelves to hold various other stuff
- Barn – Above Cellar, Hay Loft
- Organize & declutter
- Hang old farming equipment, etc which will ultimately be used for decoration here and there
- Appraise, refinish & sell furniture we don’t want
- Barn – Climbing Hall
- Declutter lower floor
- Find a home for rest of old kitchen, buffets
- Declutter above pig stalls
- Move warehouse to workshop loft
- Sanitize pig stalls
- Build climbing wall
- Declutter lower floor
- Courtyard
- Close holes in lower part of house wall
- Insulate and/or patch guest house walls
- Paint
- Clean & repair gutters
- Pressure wash
- Courtyard
- Bird zone
- Bird room under stairs
- Take down vines
- Build seating area in covered patio
- Finish laying wood tiles in covered patio
- Build new gates for front
- Garden
- Weed beds
- Turn soil in beds
- Pull down vines
- Finish compost bin
Um, yeah…wow. Plenty to keep us busy in 2008 around here. Hopefully we won’t let all of it make us crazy…slow and steady wins the race, right? But at least we know exactly what needs to be done…and I’m sure more will be added as we go along, it always is…
Hope 2008 is off to a wonderful start for all of you and that the year is full of joy, success and wonderful things for you and your loved ones!
