12 Home Project Goals for 2012

Happy New Year Everyone!  I know we’re a bit late but the last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  We squeezed in two week long trips in December (Philadelphia and Santa Barbara), fit in Christmas and all the fun that comes with it, and both of us had a lot going on with work.  We got home from Santa Barbara on the 31st and I left for Zambia on the 2nd.  There was more going than that but just thinking about it all makes me tired.

This year feels like it will be just as busy.  We have a lot of travel planned as usual, but I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.  Today I’m focusing on the house projects we want to complete including the the never ending master bathroom project. 

As usual, we’re going with goals this year instead of resolutions.  We did pretty well with the resolutions last year except everything thing that has to do with the house.  Actually, a couple of our house projects did get finished/started last year like the hanging some wall art (here and here), put together an emergency kit (actually only halfway done), and finishing the guest rooms (almost).  Some of our goals for this year are carried over from last year, some of them are new.  Hopefully all will get done!

12 house projects in 2012

1. FINISH the master bathroom.  See the caps?  We’re serious about this.  The concrete work is done and we’ve recently decided to go with heated floors.  If you are wondering, we did indeed start working on the bathroom in November.

2. FINISH the entry.  Caps again because this was on last year’s list too.  We started but then never finished.  This includes doing something about the closet.  Maybe one of our goals should be to finish a project straight through.

3. Sort out lighting in the house.  We have a lot of lamps in the house that need some attention like a paint job, new lamp shades.  I also want to change out a few fixtures in the house without spending a ton of money.

4.  Clean up and decorate the decks.  The decks are nice but the main one is very cluttered and the top one has nothing going on. 

5.  Create a pretty laundry area.  I’d love to organize it and make it look pretty as well.  Nothing fancy, just something put together.

6.  Reorganize the garage.  We’ve purchased a lot of things to organize the garage but somehow didn’t set them up right.  There isn’t room to work when the car is in the garage.  Also, we have a lot of supplies from building the house that needs labeling.

7.  Grow something new.  Maybe garlic?  Actually, I want to come up with schedule for the garden so we can have food growing year round.

8.  Finish the windows.  I know that sounds weird but there are a lot of little things to do around the windows.  A few need window treatments, some of the window sills need painting and they are need to be cleaned both on the inside and out. 

9.  The slope.  Yes, the pesky slope.  We had the wall built this year which was a big deal but we need to get stuff growing on that slope.  I think part of that project is trimming the tree that shades it.

10.  Finishing the doors.  Like the windows, we have a lot of door work to do.  Some of our doors have been primed but never painted.  The front door needs frosting, the deck doors need some maintenance and the back door needs a major scrub down.  

11.  Updating the master bedroom.  We like it and I don’t think we need to do any construction work to it, but I think the layout and art could use a few changes.  Maybe actually putting stuff on our night stand is a good start.

12.  Creating a home shopping list.  We have a lot of things we need to replace this year like sheets, bath towels and Tupperware.  We also have things we’ve never had but need to buy like an emergency ladder, quality shower curtain for the guest bath, a set of quality screwdrivers or a rug for one of the guest rooms.  I think putting together a list that we can both access (maybe on the blog) will help us prioritize purchases and allow us to take advantage of good deals when we see them.

We have some ongoing goals (ones with no end dates) we’re working on like the purging.  We’ve been really good about getting rid of stuff.  We’ve both gone through our closets several times and got rid of stuff.  I spent a week going through our kitchen getting rid of things we didn’t need like the mini food processor (we have a 3 in 1 hand blender that does the same thing), Tupperware with no lids and pantry items we haven’t touched in years.  We’ve also been cleaning out the fridge and pantry pretty regularly.  I can’t tell you how good it felt to get out mug/cup collection down to 8 from 25.  We got rid of ones we didn’t like and put the ones we did but can’t use right now in storage.  Why do 2 people need 25 mugs at once?  We actually have empty shelves on our bookcases because of all the books we got rid of.  Micah is working on his music collection and I’ve been going through the crafting supplies I haven’t touched in years.  I also want to sell some of the building supplies we have and didn’t use. 

We’re really excited about (some) of our projects.  I think getting these done, particularly the master bathroom, will make us feel like we’re making progress on the house.  We’re trying to help ourselves get organized by prioritizing goals, making detailed to do lists and creating inspirations boards (via pinterest) to help us get everything done. 

What are you home project goals for 2011?