To-Dos

As last weeks house tour showed, we got a lot of the big things done.  All rooms are painted and basically furnished.  Those project were pretty easy, partly because they were sexy projects.  You know the kinds that get you all hot and bothered just thinking about them?  Well maybe that's just me. 

Last fall, Seth and I took a little walk around the house and yard and made a list of everything we think still needs to be done to the house.

• add more insulation to the attic  DONE!  We completed this on a nice, chilly day in January. 
• new windows- we plan on replacing these 1 or 2 at a time as we have the funds to do so
• new storm doors- one door was replaced late last month when Oliver went crashing through the door... but that's another story
• light in the hallway  DONE!  We added a floor lamp and solved our problems without needed an electrician!
• hardwood floors in the living room- we're pretty tired of cleaning red clay out of white carpet...
• tile floors in the kitchen- Oliver has ripped up some linoleum, plus linoleum is kinda gross...
• gut the guest bathroom- ideally, I would like new tile, a more comfortable bathtub and a pedestal sink, sigh...
• restore the sideboard  DONE!  Seth lovingly put her back together and we gave her a good rub down with linseed oil and she's happily residing in our house
• paint the dresser in the guest bedroom- because lime green was more fun when I was a kid
• fix and repaint the white table in the living room- because its a super cute table, but it needs some love
• dress up the fabric ottoman in the TV room- because I didn't know what I was doing the first time I tried to upholster it...
• add pictures to the hallway, living room, guest bedroom  Almost done!  Just need to order one more picture and we'll get these bad boys up!
• upgrade the bed situation in our bedroom- we built our frame 4 years ago, and it getting a little shaky and we figure a king size bed will be needed at some point
• add a door to the garage- currently you have to walk through a fence to get through the big garage door.  We figure we can add a normal door to the back of the garage, so that we can have easier access.  Plus if we close the big garage door, the dogs can always go in the garage if it starts to rain
• make the garage more functional- We primarily use the garage as tool storage and I would love it to function more like a little shop
• cut down the pine trees  DONE!
• add stepping stones and path around house- So that our guests dont have to worry so much about stepping in dog poop
• add furniture to the pergola- because it would be nice to eat outside
• add chairs to the firepit- because the quad chairs just aren't doing it for me
• new mailbox- we have the nastiest, cheapest looking, unstable mail box.  Poor thing is rusted and has been driven into at least once.  And it irritates my mom- can't tell you how many times she offered to buy us a new one, but that right there is just a reason to keep it for a while long. 
• add rainbarrels- Because its good for the planet and Greensboro tends to have major droughts in the summer
• fancy up the mantelpiece in the TV room- so its pretty and because I like to watch the cat knock things over
• add a headboard or something to the guest bedroom- its pretty bare up there...
• build stone planter things around oak trees- because we cant seem to grow grass in those areas...
• fill in the blank area in front of the fence- so it doesn't look like a wasteland...

So some biggies left and some little ones.  And there are a very few sexy projects on there, but for the most part, these projects are a bit blah, but necessary.

We don't have any order to how we plan to tackle all of this.  Each month we sit down and make a family budget (yes, we're nerds).  Included in the budget is some money for home repairs.  The money in that budget and the time of the year generally dictates what we end up doing.

You can be sure that we'll share these updates with you as they happen!