2012 House Goals

Who knew a new house would come with as many house projects as an older house - just different projects!!! I'll call this our "2012 goal house projects", starting the year ambitious, but the odds of us knocking all these out are probably not great!  

WINDOW TREATMENTS

I'll put this on top of the least because we have lived here for six months and most the windows are bare and many still have temporary blinds (completely worth the $5 we spent on them!).  I'm making some slow progress here.  Does anyone else hate window treatments as much as I do? They just come full of issues, I'm seriously considering having a budget blind person come to my house.  If you have a recommendation, let me know!  So a few priority windows - my bathroom!  I would really like to get something for our living room too.  It gets really bright in here during the day, generally we don't notice since we aren't home during the day, but I imagine it is aging our couch.  I almost have our bedroom windows done  - I need to have somebody hem them, then I had bought a double bar and the white sheer panels I bought didn't work out, got new ones, they sent me the wrong ones - now off to find something else.  Most of our windows need 95" panels too, so that generally results in shopping online and curtains look really different online versus in person.  

Our poor house is still looking a little bare!

I've certainly not been in a rush to decorate as I am pretty picky in this area and don't want to buy a bunch of stuff, just to replace.  It was so nice having the Christmas decorations up to add a bit more to the place!  So I would love to get more things hung on the wall and add some accessories throughout.  

I've been thinking about buying these bar stools from West Elm.  I like the ones we currently have, I bought them for our first apartment in New Jersey and got an amazing deal on them.  However, the boys keep just destroying the seat cushions.  We had the same cushions the entire time we lived in Minnesota and we are on our third set here.  I even had towels on them for a while and they still look awful.  So I like these wood ones because I could wipe them down or I have been keeping an eye out for some leather ones or leather cushions.  I'm hesitant to buy them without testing them out.  The one thing I like most about ours is they are extremely sturdy, with as wild the boys are I feel much more comfortable with them sitting on these.  So many bar stools tip really easy.  

I've also been itching to add a chair to the corner of our living room.  I have been eying this one for months now. And this one is from West Elm too - I sure wish they had one in Iowa!  I ordered color samples and there is a light brownish color that i like - I would just like to see it in person and sit in it before buying it.  Maybe one day I will be brave and just order it!!!  If they have a sale I may be sold!

OUTDOOR FUN

YEAH RIGHT - the boys won't be getting this!!!  But we do need to do a swing set for them!  There are a lot of fun parks near us, but none in our development. I wish there was one so we walk or ride bikes to it.  Keith and I heard a rumor that they are building one.  

I wanted to build one of these crooked houses this summer, I think the boys would love it!!!  Have any of you ever seen a plan online?  I looked for a while once - Keith seems to think he needs a plan to build this kind of thing:)  Maybe if I built it on my own without directions, it would turnout crooked just how I want it!

This project is on my March agenda. Since the day I saw this on Pinterest, I have wanted to build it.  We built a stone patio and fire pit at our house in Minnesota - this is a bit fancier, but I think we can do it!  I really missed our fire pit this summer (and of course our neighbors who sat around it with us!)  We already know the worst part is digging and hauling the dirt - we will be visiting Mark for a Bobcat this time!  So I think the hardest part will be getting the arch right on the bench and making sure it is built solid.  

We also want to keep working on some landscaping.  We were able to get three trees in at the end of fall - a little bit each year!!!  This year I would like to focus on getting a few shrubs under the front windows, I would also like to do a few planters. I usually enjoy planting flowers every summer and only did one pot this past summer.  

CLOSET REMODELS

Well, my closet will never look like this unless we squeeze our bed into our closet and turn our bedroom into this (tempting)!  I'm a little crazy about maximizing every inch of space in closets and right now our closets are no anywhere near 100% efficiency.  I also HATE most our closets because they are the wire racks - which isn't too bad in our bedrooms, but I hate it in our pantry and bathroom closet.  You put one can or towel onto a shelf and it dips down about three inches and it seems like everything is about ready to fall off - drives me nuts!!!  So the big thing I want to do is replace most the shelves with wood shelves and reorganize them a bit to better utilize the space.  Our bathroom closet will be an easy fix, but I've been doing a lot of looking online for plans and ideas for our pantry and our closet.  We also have a coat closet by our kitchen that I would like to add shelves to one side - still thinking about the best use of space there.  Keith is absolutely NOT excited about these closet projects.  I bet when we are done he will love all the extra crap we will be able to fit in them!  

I also have some shelving / organizing in mind for the garage - I don't think Keith likes when I get too involved in that arena.  I'm always looking in people's garages when we walk by for storage ideas. I've been looking at Craig's list for some old cabinets, I think we should build a work bench with some shelves / cabinets - I'll keep you posted on how that works out. 

AND BECAUSE...

 It's time for a....

I have a few FULL boxes in the basement ready for a garage sale!!  So sometime this summer - it is happening!!!  And if this baby is a girl, I will have  A LOT of little boy clothes for sale!  Plus a bunch of other sweet stuff, so you won't want to miss it!!  

I should probably add finish unpacking and organize the basement to this list!!

As I review this list - I'm guess we will lucky to hit 50% of these projects.  I read the list to Keith and he said, you know we are having a baby this summer!  Hopefully baby number three will be an easy one, that might make the difference.  Or we better get cranking!