House Goals for 2011

 

The Nester is hosting a “2011 Home Goals”

party which I knew right away I wanted to participate in. 

I’ve been snapping pictures left and right, preparing the post in my head. For days and days I’ve been procrastinating writing this post…and for days and days the post has gotten longer and longer in my head.  Well, the dishes are being cleared, the lights are going down and the party is almost over. I don’t wanna miss the whole thing; so I gotta just jump in the shower, leave with wet hair and get on over to the PAR-TAY. 
Wait for me, I’m on my way!

Plus, if I procrastinate any longer, the list will take me into 2012 and beyond. Well, for that matter, it probably already does. 

Ok, so I could keep rambling {procrastinating} or just jump right in.

1. Install a light in the kitchen. Kinda hard to cook after 5pm. This is easier said than done, which is why it has looked like THIS for a YEAR AND A HALF:

It used to have one of those ancient oak boxes around fluorescent lights…you must know the ones I’m talking about.  If not, wait for the kitchen remodel before and after pics and I’ll show ya.  But I can’t do my kitchen remodel post until it’s really “AFTER”.  That’s one thing I’m kicking myself for loving about blogging…it holds me responsible for finishing projects 100%- something I do not have a good track record with. We even have the light purchased. We’ve owned IT for a year.  It’s this great oil rubbed bronze school house light. Love it! 

THE HOLD UP: The ceiling is peeling, not sure if you can see that in the picture.  I’m worried about lead paint. I don’t want to just go peeling or ripping out the drywall for fear of lead dust blowing all about. We’ve already had a horrible run-in with asbestos and I am not very anxious to go there again.  So we’ve been following the government recommendations: lead paint is not dangerous as long as you leave it alone…..so we’re leaving it alone.

2. Staying in the kitchen, my next big project is my Restoration Hardware inspired island. Here’s the one at Resto I drool over every time a new catalog comes out:

Unfortunately this island was made for a kitchen that is 500 sq.ft.  It’s 8 feet long by 3 1/2 feet wide.  That’s the size of my kitchen!  Ok, so my plan is to recreate it myself…making it fit perfectly in my kitchen and incorporating a marble top as well. 

THE PLAN: I have purchased 100+ year old reclaimed oak from a local salvage lumber yard…it’s sitting in my garage wondering when it’s gonna be loved again.  I have found remnants of carerra marble slab from a few stone warehouses and will make a selection in the next week.  I have drawn the plan for the base, down to the 1/8 of an inch and am ready to cut and sand boards.  The boards I purchased are “raw”.  They have not been sanded at all.  They are very ugly rough. Hard to imagine how beautiful it is going to look.  When finished it will be 5 feet long by 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall and it will go here:

We’ve been testing out an “island” with this stainless steel rack from our garage. Just wanted to be sure we liked having an island before spending all the time, effort and money on building one! And you know what, we love it!  Mostly this island is for my girls. They love to help me cook and I want to encourage them. However, our kitchen design doesn’t allow for more than one person at any one counter area at a time.  So when I have 2 girls and 2 stools (sometimes a 3rd stool and my son as well) fighting to get an elbow in the bowl, I get a little stressed out.  I can’t wait for my island to be finished get started!

UPDATE: I started it!  See it HERE.

3. Paint the fireplace and add a mantel {so I can finally participate in mantel linky parties}. Our fireplace is stacked flagstone…and while there is a place in my heart for flagstone, it just doesn’t fit the style of our home anymore {well, it never has for that matter…since we moved in 2 years ago we’ve never really loved it}

THE PLAN: I’m thinking of painting the wall portion of the stone white and the floor black. I’m open to suggestions!  I’d love to add a 100 year old reclaimed oak mantel to tie it in with my kitchen island.  Wouldn’t that be icing on the cake?

4. FINISH the master bath remodel. {That’s the bad track record I’m referring to above.} You might remember my inspiration for starting this blog?  My master bath “studs to spa in 3 weeks” posts.  And then my “The Bathroom is ALMOST finished” post about 4 months later.  And now here we are 7 months out from that 3 week deadline and we still have yet to shower in our new bathroom! 
WHAT’S LEFT: The shower door!

THAT’S IT!  I finished the final coat of paint just last week.  Ahhhh, Feather Gray, how do I loathe love thee? Let me count the ways. Post to come soon.

5. Paint my son’s room.  His poor room is the darkest cave room in the house. I suppose a 15 year old boy might find bliss in there, but for now I wish it were brighter.

I actually love the blue color that it is, but it’s just too dark in that room.  I’m thinking of a light gray/blue/greenish color.  Doesn’t Crayola make one? I have a sample of Ben Moore Stonington Gray up right now and really liking it.


DH also wants to do board and batten in his room….we’ll see if that makes the 2011 list.

6. Speaking of board and batten, another BIG project planned is doing board and batten in the entire main living area {entry, living/dining rooms, hallway}. It’s the Little Things that Makes a House a Home has one of my favorite board and batten posts of all time: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on either picture above to see It’s the Little Thing’s board and batten post.

UPDATE: It’s finished!  See it HERE.

7. Pick a paint color {and actually paint} the walls above all the board and batten.  Current colors in the running include BM Feather Gray, Marilyn’s Dress, Silver Gray, Stonington Gray, Gray Cloud {notice a theme?}  They are all beautiful blue/grays. Hopefully DH and I won’t get divorced over it can agree on a color.
UPDATE: We picked a color and are still married!  See it HERE.

8. Paint all the interior doors in the house. They are currently a really dreadful beige that look just awful next to the white trim we’ve installed.
THE PROBLEM: the doors are either peeling (back to my lead paint issue) or they are TOO SHORT! Yes, too short.  They sit like 3 1/2 inches off the floor as there used to be carpet in our house until we ripped it all up to discover virtually brand new hardwoods.  So do we waste spend the time painting doors that we ultimately would like to replace? What if we don’t replace them for 15 years? 

9. Paint the exterior of our house. Shortly after we moved in we replaced many of the old single pane aluminum windows….which means that the stucco outside each window and sliding door got all torn up and repaired.  So we have a wide variety of colors on our house, ranging from  beige to gray.

10. Paint the mail box!  It’s GOLD. Enough said.

UPDATE: It’s finished!!  See it HERE.

11. Do something about those shutters in my master bedroom that got torn to pieces by the wild animal we house. See explanation and pics HERE.

I’m gonna stop there. Eleven has a good ring to it. 
Eleven projects in 2011.
One month for each project and a month extra in case for when we go over time on any of them…uh huh!

I probably have 18 more projects with the word PAINT at the front, but we’ll just see what I get to.  In the meantime, I’m excited for tomorrow cause that’s when my belt sander shows up to start sanding my oak for the kitchen island, YAY!
 Let the projects begin!