Well, a new year is upon us, and it wouldn’t be a proper new year without some New Year’s Resolutions. And we’re talking some New Year’s HOUSE Resolutions.
Here are our goals for 2010 (you know I love my lists and organizing)
1. Finish art room
We want to get this OUT OF THE WAY AND FINISHED. Nothing brings me more glee than having a project DONE..although having a space all my own for all my creative endeavors may actually beat that out…
2. Work on the garage
(picture from a photo class my last semester at Mills)
This includes completely fixing the structure (it had fallen off of its foundation and the concrete slab foundation has cracked in the back and falled a few inches below the front)
We’ll also then get power to the garage as well. This probably should have been a bigger priority but Chris was AMAZING and let us work and complete (sooooon) the art room. Currently, whenever we have to use power tools we have to run an extension cord from the house all the way to the garage (and we use power tools A LOT)
Lastly we’ll replace the leaking roof. Then all Picardy structures will be leak free!
3. FINISH SOME SHIT!
The Kitchen
It still needs A LOT of work. After we got it functional, we sort of “forgot” about it. So, like the art room, it would be nice to check a completed room off the list, especially one that we started about a year ago
The Front Door Area
There’s a rumor going around that we didn’t have a front door for a few months….well, that’s true. Whoops! Replacing the hollow-core front door with a PROPER front door took a little longer than we anticipated (okay a few months). I’ve gotten compliments from our neighbors on our front door and I’m not sure if they actually like it, or if they’re just happy there isn’t a piece of plywood up anymore. But, like the kitchen, once we had the front door up and functional we sort of forgot about finishing the drywall and the adjacent coat closet, so it’s time to get that done
The Laundry Room
Not much really left here. Just some floor to lay, trim to install and paint, and closet to put the cleaning supplies in and some general clean-up
The Electrical
Chris has rewired almost the entire house, and it’s still one of his favorite jobs. We’ve slowly gone through and replaced nearly all the old knob and tube, and it’s time to finish that up
4. Get some HEAT in our house
As you may or may not know, our house gets a little cold, so we’ll finally get some proper heat in the house! (no more SUPER layering to stay warm). We’ll have to consult an architect during this process to figure out how probable a second floor addition is in the attic (LOTS of usable space, but is the house structurally sound for it, and where oh where would you put the stairs?) because we’ll need to put in ducting and venting up there as well if we EVER do a second floor addition (that’s like the 5-10 year plan….)
5. Bathroom REMODEL
We have 2 bathrooms, one is gutted with an old, HEAVY tub floating in the middle and the other works, but it’s in the back of the house, and is pretty small and mold covered, so we’d REALLY LIKE to get the front bathroom completely done from start to finish!
6. Back joist rot
You may or may not have noticed this strange addition to the back of the house. Not only is it hideous, but it’s also pretty unsafe. There’s a decent amount of rot that needs to be replaced before we even THINK about tackling how to appropriately use the space (teeny mold bathroom and stinky “animal room” live in the addition)
7. Sewer lateral
When we moved in we knew that there was a bit of a clog somewhere in our pipes in the drive-way area, so during the same time as fixing the bathroom, we’ll most likely address this as well
8. Landscape our front yard
(at least we took down this tree that was eating into our foundation and our neighbor’s driveway)
The front of our house needs some help. It’s got great curb appeal POTENTIAL, but is certainly not there yet. Namely it’s the mint chocolate chip painting job the previous owners did that is holding some marvelous appeal up (who doesn’t love a mint green house with brown trim?). And our gross, growing in patches grass certainly doesn’t do anything to help the situation, so it may be time to rip out, plant, water, and grow a beautiful front yard
9. The Wish List
Maybe we could get around to some of these things…..
Repair the animal room
Structural issues, then the big question of “what the hell do we do with this room?”
Stucco the back of the house
So the addition looks more like the rest of the house and not a hideous red siding blob attached to the back of our house
Work on the TV room
Take down the popcorn, replace the window, clean and paint
Work on the nook
Replace the windows and clean and paint (further down the line we may rip out the ceiling and extend it all the way to the awesome redwood original framing at the tippy top of the house…maybe)
Work on the front room (also known as the game room)
Replace the windows (including the HUGE one at the front of the house), clean and paint, and find a ping pong table for our friend Mr. Trampoline
Address the termite situation
MINOR pressence of termites that should be kicked to the curb sooner rather than later before they do any real, serious damage.
Well, there you have it folks, our goals for 2010. We know sometimes work doesn’t necessarily go according to plan, but we sincerely hope it at least stays close to it next year.
Here’s to checking things off our lists! Have a happy and safe new year!