Renovations and list making

We are in the middle of Matthew’s bathroom renovation; which is taking longer than I had hoped but the labor (Mike) is free so I can’t complain.  So of course while one project is being done I have my eyes on the next one or twenty. Here is the current list of updates that we are going to tackle.

 

We are in the middle of Matthew’s bathroom renovation; which is taking longer than I had hoped but the labor (Mike) is free so I can’t complain.  So of course while one project is being done I have my eyes on the next one or twenty. Here is the current list of updates that we are going to tackle.

 

Listie McListerson:

 

Front Entry:

·       Paint front door- preferably yellow but mike wants a new wood door with glass inlays which I don’t prefer in case I have to ninja crawl to the peep hole one day.

·       Change light fixture to Monrovianstar 

 

 

Living room:

·     Comfortable seating- chairs and sofa/ loveseat. Currently we have antique ish seating which goes well with the décor and feel of the house but isn’t very comfortable for someone who is tall or weighs more than 100 lbs since the springs sink to the floor. 

 

 I would love something that looks like this. It is keeping with the style of the rest of the furniture but more comfortable. I also love this feel but am not sure I am cured of my OCD enough to handle sloppy slip covers.

 

·       Hang window treatment- Mom took down the last one to make a few tweaks

·       Pillows- I feel in love with this fabric and didn’t have a good place to make use of it until I figured I could always use more pillows. So I bought striped fabric for the back and will use the gazebo cloud on the front and voila I am satisfied.

 

·       Bigger rug- I bought this rug from Overstock about 2 years ago because it helped to bring in some other colors and it was fairly cheap but it has been pen marked by my brother, peed on by the dog and about 2’ too short, so I am considering buying the same rug in the next size up or looking for a different rug altogether. I am not sure yet.

 

 

Dining Room

·       Bigger rug- again I purchased a rug for the living room that was too bland so I moved it into the dining room, it fits okay but by decorators law it is too short, the chairs should touch the rug when people are sitting in them, not just when they are pushed in.

·       Refinish table- I found this table at a stationary store in Florida about 5 years ago, they were closing and selling everything in the store. I got it for $300- 6 chairs and a nice table. I have recovered the chair seats (twice) and am now considering ombre dying the legs from deep pink to at the feet to a high gloss white on the actual table top.

Kitchen:

·       Seal tile backsplash- We finally replaced the horrid brick glass tile that darkened our kitchen to this much more airy small subway tile. It just needs to be sealed. Quickly. Before grease splatters and stains the grout.

 

 

·     Move light fixture- the previous owners had a ceiling fan in the dinette area in the kitchen. First I think that is weird, Second it was a horrible are deco fan that made no sense with the above mentioned brick glass tile and other questionable choices they made in their kitchen upgrade. So when we took down the fan to hang our light fixture, it hung not over the table, but over one of the chairs, meaning when you stood up – tall people that is- you  boinked your head on the chandelier. In a quick fix my father in law zip tied the chain to itself at a higher point. So we need to actually take it down, patch the hole, climb in the wall and saw another hole, move the electric and then re hang the light. But we are waiting to do that until we are ready to texture the ceiling. More on that below.

 

Downstairs bath:

·     Paint trim- I have neglected to paint the trim in this room and every time I am in there with the door closed (which is rare when you have kids since as soon as a door closes its like their spidey senses go off knowing you are looking for a moment of privacy and come knocking/kicking/yelling for you) I see that there are paint drips from the wall and make mental note “gotta paint the trim”

 

·     New staircase rail- There is nothing technically wrong with the rail but I am sure I can find something with a little more visual appeal.

 

Bonus Room:

·     Flat screen tv- thanks to my brother in law and friend matt, Mike and I were gifted for our wedding with a nice large tv, since then though tvs have become flat, instead of 2 feet deep. BUT we have a preschooler who occasionally hits said tv and I bet his little sister will likely do the same- so we have opted to keep the large out of date eye sore until we can rationalize the expense. Perhaps it will be our Christmas gift to us this year.

·     Console table- when we get said flat screen- I want to get a repurposed console table like this one

 

 

 

·     Area rug

·     Flooring- I am undecided about new carpet or using wood floors throughout the entire second floor including the bedrooms.

 

·     Large scale prints above sofa- Currently I have a swirling bird thing going on above the sofa- I like this but do not love it. And I know that when Lily becomes mobile those will be plucked off one by one. I like this idea of oversized photos

 

 

Master:

·       Remodel bath- add shutters to window

·       Scale down furniture- we have LARGE furniture in our room. The bed is very tall and the wood is very dark. When they delivered it I was pregnant with Matthew I was hesitant about it, then wasn’t sure if it was my hormones making me wishy washy or because it was actually extremely large. Turns out it was the later. Its quite the show when I am late in pregnancy trying to heave myself up on to the bed multiple pee breaks a night. 

·       Window treatment- to be determined as I do not want to close the room in any more than it is

·       Foot throw- I head of this at a fabric store. Instead of taking your comforter/ coverlet etc and folding it up at the foot of the bed, why not just have the right size and beautiful fabric made so that there is no messing around in the morning?

·       Pillows- will coordinate with foot throw

 

Matthews room:

I just went hell bent for election as Gramma would say in Matthews room and to tell you the truth I am not sure why and/or if I accomplished what I wanted.

When we found out we were pregnant with Lily,  I almost immediately made the decision to take the queen out of the guest room (now Lily’s room) and put it in Matthews room-rationalizing that if we had guests, they could sleep in Matthews room and Matthew could sleep in the twin that I was putting from his room into Lily’s room and when Lily grew out of the crib she would already have the twin, Made sense to me.

 WELL, that worked fine at first. Then I realized how massive the queen was in Matthews’s room and it didn’t leave him much room to play. And then I got a hair and sold his dresser (mdf special) on Craigslist without having any idea of what to replace it with. I knew I wanted to get him a desk, so that all his crayons / craft stuff could be contained plus give him a space to make a mess without coloring my other furniture. I had previously bought a VERY LARGE scale world map, in hopes that he would be smarter than me geographically and add visual interest to the room as a plus. So I was left with a large map, moving the twin bed back in his room and a bunch of clothes on the floor since I could not find the perfect dresser. Chaos.

 

 I wanted second hand because I see no reason to spend $800+ on children’s furniture just so it can get destroyed. I scoured Craigslist hourly- I wanted to spend under $200 for a real wood dresser and not have to put a lot of time into refinishing if I didn’t have to. Almost a month went by before I found this gem.

I love the knobs, the color of the wood, the wheels on the legs and the height of the dresser. I loved the price too- $100. I do not like that the drawers stick a bit but my knowledgeable mom will help me soap the rails for a smoother glide.

·       Window treatment- We had these in his room but they no longer made sense so I am reviewing my options.

·       Refinish Pie safe- I have become a believer in Chalk Paint

BackYard:

·       Create larger fire pit- with chimney so that you aren’t overtaken with smoke when trying to enjoy a nice fire on a cool autumn night with the kiddos

·       Add pergola to deck for shade- our house is white which just reflects the sun and makes it impossible to enjoy the deck after noon, ever.

·       Refinish deck- previous owners did poor job at staining and it is peeling up

·       Stain playhouse- afternoon job- paint gun ready- stain purchased, just have to find a dry 2 day period

·     Oh and why not add a doily hammock?

 

 

·       Remove diseased Bradford Pear tree – Replace with weeping willow or another fast growing tree

 

Throughout the house:

·     Flooring 7” plank walnut

·       Ceiling texture- our home has flat ceilings, just painting, no texture- no popcorn which is good- but plain flat just painted ceilings shows every roller mark. We are going to have the whole house textured with knockdown. This is ONE thing mike is willing to let someone else do, they say they are in and out in an afternoon- move and replace furniture and clean up. BAM!

 Dreaming:

·       Add sunroom behind garage which would extend the kitchen

·       Second floor addition above sunroom extra bedroom and laundry room