2012 Home Goals

Lately I have been reading everyone's 2012 Home Goals and feeling inspired and definitely a little lacking on what we've done to the house.

In my defence, I need to get more comfortable tackling working with tools and the such, since Cory has absolutely NO interest in helping with the home related tasks. He just doesn't get the same enjoyment out of it as I do and he saw the house as "finished" , the day we moved into it. Of course, he appreciates my hard work, trusts my judgement and loves how things look when I am done, but he really just has no desire to work a minimum of 12 hour days, 6 days a week and then come home and tackle home improvement projects. So, I've decided that this is the year I will learn to do more of the stuff I typically asked him to do, so that I can only bug him when I REALLY need his help!

I have a lot of stuff I want to do around the house, but thankfully it's most just cosmetic. I'd really like to move into a larger home, but we've decided that it probably isn't going to be a reality for another 1 - 2 years and so, I'd rather just make the place better suited to how I want it to look for now. But we've got some big financial goals for the year so everything we DO tackle will need to be done on a serious budget. Here's a room by room breakdown on what I'd like to do:

Powder Room
~ finally hang wallpaper that we started cutting out over a year ago
~ possibly hang the towel ring we bought around the same time
~ find art better suited to the space

Dining Space
~ BUY NEW DINING CHAIRS (this is a top priority as our chairs are not only unattractive, but broken)
~ refinish dining table (Cory has told me there is no point in buying a new table that we'll only end up replacing once we move to a new house in a few years, which I sort of agree on...) so something less chipped, cherry toned and glossy is in order
~ do something to the large wall behind the table (maybe wallpaper, maybe a stencil, maybe just different art work)
~ replace the ugly, broken, white plastic vertical blinds we hung on the slider door in there shortly after moving in as a "temporary solution until we decide on something we love".... since it has now been almost 2 1/2 years.... yikes!
~ hang light fixture I received LAST YEAR as a Christmas present

Living Room
~ purchase new sofa and loveseat (or second sofa) to replace our current, ugly, stained and broken set (something slightly feminine but comfortable and most likely grey)
~ hang drapes on the wall of windows behind sofa. I have a couple fabric options in mind, just have to get the sofas first to commit to a fabric and then attempt sewing these myself
~ re-re-finish the coffee and sidetables since we did them in a cold garage last year and they didn't turn out as I quite hoped
~ new art for the large wall above loveseat
~ possible crown moulding for entire main floor

Master Bedroom
~ decide on new duvet cover for our bed. Since our bed is a very difficult to find size, this will determine everything else in the room so is a required starting point
~ Make upholstered headboard once duvet fabric is decided. We have had the frame sitting in our garage for almost 4 years.... just need to execute this one and stop waffling on fabric choices.
~ Decide on drapery fabric once the other two main fabrics in the room are selected
~ New bench or chair for underneath window

Guest Bedroom
~ Decide which of the following pieces of furniture are staying in the room (armoire, nightstand, dresser and hope chest) and paint those and all new hardware
~ make headboard for bed
~ Drapes for this room
~ possible new ceiling fixture
~ accessorize properly

Office
~ PURGE
~ Drapes to finish window wall
~ Paint frame on cork board to hang above desk
~ Re-arrange furniture for better layout
~ fix or replace dresser in closet for storage

Backyard
~ fix sod that was damaged by dog shortly before snowfall
~ paint fence
~ clad posts from upper deck that builder never did
~ replace upper deck light fixture
~ purchase lounge furniture for lower patio (possible sectional, 2 chairs and coffee table)
~ purchase moveable pagoda-style fire pit
~ add stepped, raised retaining wall-style flower beds along rear fence
~ add lush, tall trees and shubbery to top bed; brightly colored annuals and perrenials to lower bed
~ create fretwork panel to hang from upper deck to create privacy on lower patio from peeking neighbours

Basement
~ Start and finish!!

We have a very small basement (and house I suppose) so this space will contain a small laundry room, a 2nd powder room, the furnace room and a family room at the back.

I also would like to install central air and we are toying with the idea of getting the central vac installed as well.

Lots to do so we hope to make a nice dent in it this year along with some other, fun projects!