2012 is going to be the year of little things

When I was looking for a house to buy my friends were knee deep in renovating their entire house. I was taking a tour of their kitchen remodel and my friend showed me how, three months later, they still hadn't glued on the countertop backsplash. He told me, "This would take me an hour tops but it's these little things that never get done when you own a fixer."

I swore I'd be different.

And yet, here I am, two years after I patched that mystery hole in the ceiling of my kitchen and I still haven't textured that spot or repainted the kitchen ceiling. My hallway vestibules still haven't been painted, even though it would probably take an hour to complete. My kitchen window sits unpainted, with forty different test colors ringing it. There a small hole in the baseboard of the bedroom that needs to be filled.

So this year I'm going to focus on the little things. I'm going to hang curtains. I'm going to look into toe boards (we have none in the house). I'm going to finally paint the kitchen door and the kitchen window and that spot above the door that never got painted for reasons I no longer remember.

And we have a couple of big things coming down the pike: we're going to replace the front picture window that is rotting and get the house painted. And I'm going to start landscaping the front yard, including another rain garden. I'm really excited.

Happy new year!

The list

In January I made a list of new years resolutions for the house. Let's take a look at how I'm doing.

1.  Sew new curtains for the bedroom.

Okay, I just bought some from Ikea. Path of least resistance. We're gonna call that a CHECK!

2.  Finally paint the living room.

CHECK!

3.  Replace the mortise box on the front door so we could actually use it. 

Greg and I actually tried to take the mortise box apart, only to find out that we're going to need to have someone pick the lock to even get the stupid thing removed.

4.  Replace the back porch steps.

That's gonna happen this summer.

5.  Replace the side fence.

CHECK!

6.  Paint the patio slab.

We're gonna call this a CHECK! We didn't paint it so much as eliminate it.

7.  Draw up a master plan for landscaping the front yard.

I'm working on this. Or I'm going to be working on this.

8.  Remove the rhododendrons and azalea from the front yard.

I removed one! Er . . . I chopped down one.

9.  Paint the exterior of the house.  Quit laughing.

Okay, so this isn't going to happen. I'm hoping to be able to afford to have it done professionally next summer.


10.  Put in baseboard and window trim in the basement.

This is a good fall/winter project, yes?

Taking housepainting off the list makes me feel like the rest of this is doable. Though we may end up building a deck in the backyard which makes me think I could remove something else from the list and still feel good about the year. And then my goal for 2012 will be to chill the hell out on home improvement so Greg doesn't move out in protest.

New year house resolutions

1.  Sew new curtains for the bedroom, using this fabric:

2.  Finally paint the living room.

3.  Replace the mortise box on the front door so we could actually use it.  Did I ever mention that we have to go in and out the kitchen door because no keys came with the front door and the locksmith declared it super expensive to fix?

4.  Replace the back porch steps.

5.  Replace the side fence.

6.  Paint the patio slab.

7.  Draw up a master plan for landscaping the front yard.
8.  Remove the rhododendrons and azalea from the front yard.

9.  Paint the exterior of the house.  Quit laughing.
10.  Put in baseboard and window trim in the basement.