House Project To-Do List

I love my house, folks, I really do. But just like all homeowners I have a list of "visions" and projects for my home. Some of them are things that need to be done, but most are things that I want to do, but don't necessarily need to do. For instance, my home has a lot of "builder grade" features. Our cabinetry is nice, but I do want to do some small things to update it. My biggest pet peeve are all the boob lights. I know why builders use these things- at $10 a pop, they are cheap and do the job, but boy are they boring. I can see four of them from where I am sitting right now. We are currently shopping light fixtures and then the boobs will be leaving my house. LOL

Here is my list of "need to do's" in no particular order.

1. Our front walk right now consists of river rock and pavers. Not only does it look bad, but those pavers are a terrible trip-hazard. We are planning to do a sidewalk completely out of pavers, or pour a concrete sidewalk.

I am interested to see if this works, but no one I have asked has tried it.

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2. Some may disagree that this is a "need to do," but our nursery and sweet girl's big girl room closets need organizers. While the closets in our home are large, some of them are not well organized. My Dad and I are currently building closet organizer shelves for those two closets. We downloaded an Ana White plan and are going to finish this one up tomorrow.

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3. We currently do not have any back up heat. We are eyeing several options, but at the moment, we are between installing a generator and installing a ventless gas log fireplace.

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Keep in mind this list spans the next several years. Here is my list of things I WANT to do:

1. It annoys me that our kitchen backsplash is only on one side of the kitchen. I would like to finish it on the other side.

                

2. I also want to update the builder grade cabinets and the cabinet soffits above them. Something like this is what I have in mind.

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3. Our laundry room is a nice size, but there is only a long shelf for storage. I would like to install wall cabinets and a countertop.

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4. We eventually want to spruce up our front entry by installing a brick and concrete stoop and a vinyl rail like we had at our old house. This is very expensive, so in the meantime. we are just going to paint our rail and stoop.

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5. We also want to install a lamp post in the front yard. How pretty would that look in my front flower bed?

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6. I want to update our builder grade bathrooms a bit by installing tile flooring, wainscoting, new bath tubs, framing our our mirrors and a new tub surround ( I really want subway tile!)
Here is what our baths look like now:

This is what I have in mind:

I want similar tile, but I don't care for the planked walls in this shot. 

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I'd also do some sort of hex tile flooring, stain our vanities a dark color to make them pop against the white trim, and I'd frame the builder grade mirror to match the vanity. 

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7. We have this fantastic attic space above our garage, but it isn't floored. I want to floor that space and build walk-up stairs. I'd also like to drywall the garage walls.

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Please keep in mind these are things we are doing a little at a time. We are still working to decorate our home, too, so it will be a long time before this list is completed. And of course, by then, I'll probably have added to my list :)