2010 Project Update

With the recent heat wave, and very hot summer, January 2010 seems like decades ago! But as we settle back into our "school year routine", we're taking a look at the projects we'd like to complete this fall, before the snow returns...

Here were our goals for the year:

1. Finish replacing outlets, light switches and cable boxes.  Rob has gotten a lesson on replacing all these things from a good friend of ours who has a background in all things electric, so he got busy starting this project - but every time we think a room is finished, we find another old outlet. We got off to a good start on this, but unfortunately still have some naked outlets... The good news is that all of the VISIBLE ones have been replaced.
2. Refinish dresser for master bedroom.  The dresser we currently have is from Rob's childhood, and his mom painted it teal many years ago to compliment the jungle theme in his bedroom.  A fresh coat of black paint and some new hardware will make this look like it was meant to go with the bed we purchased a few months ago.
3. Remove wallpaper and paint. We're still working out all of the different design elements for the kitchen, as we eventually plan to put in new flooring and countertops, so stay tuned!
4. Sand and paint kitchen cabinets, followed by installing the new hardware we recently purchased at Lowe's over Christmas break on our huge shopping trip. We are still in the planning phases for our kitchen renovation, but have purchased items like a sink and countertops... not we actually just need to get started.
5. Update the look of our front door with paint (red or black? still trying to decide) and new locks and handles... and maybe a new storm door to create a better seal and save us some major mulah on the heating/cooling bill.  We chose red, and are very happy with the result. We installed a new deadbolt, but realized after we removed the old hardware for the actual knob that they don't make that size anymore, so we've been front-door-doorknob-less since, oh, April. :)
6. Linen wall board(s) project, like this one from PB, to help get our organization booties in gear.
7. Refinish daybed - paint and purchase some new, more fitted bedding and tons of throw pillows.
8. Organize basement. This will include sorting stuff that we've been receiving from our parents' storage, deciding what will go toward a yard sale that we hope to have sometime this spring, and figuring out an aesthetically pleasing way to store what we do want to keep - most likely with the help of an Ikea storage system (like this GORM system) that suits our needs. We have partially accomplished this goal. In May, we had a yard sale but our basement could still use a little help...
9. Build workbench to maximize storage in garage, and provide an area for organizing our ever-growing collection of tools and project parts, like this great new cordless drill we got for Christmas. This is on our to-do list for the fall, along with building our compost bin.
10. Landscape, landscape, landscape.  This is Rob's main goal for the year. I think he could probably care less about some of the other projects on our list.  There is one section of our yard that needs to be graded away from our foundation on more of a slope, and we're hoping that will solve the one area of our basement that leaks the least bit.  But we want to get this taken care of so that we can plan how to refinish the basement in future years.  There are also some trees that need to be cut down, branches trimmed, beds redefined, and the list goes on.  So we will be looking forward to spring in a major way this year! Another partially completed goal... we were able to get rid of some trees and do some basic landscaping, but have a long way to go!

As new homeowners (this fall we will celebrate our first year in our home!) we definitely had a lot we wanted to accomplish and were a bit overly-optimistic about all that we thought we could accomplish. We've definitely been learning that all projects take WAY more time (and sometimes more money, resulting in more time) to complete than they look at the outset. 

Stay tuned as we continue to chip away at our list for the year...