Year One of Homeownership: Our Year Two Project List

One of the biggest lessons from the first year of home ownership is how. incredibly. long. it takes to really transform a home. My HGTV skewed mind thought things would get whipped together and transformed much quicker then they have proven to.

The longer we live in the home, the longer my to-do list grows. With every small area we tackle, I have three more ideas to add. I thought I should do a wrap up of our project list for the coming year. While this list certainly isn't comprehensive of everything we'll be tackling (there are loads of small things we'll be trying to get done as well), these are some of the bigger areas where we'll be focusing our time and moo-lah.

1) Mudroom transformation
Our Mudroom is a small space, and I'm not even sure it's large enough to be qualified as a "mudroom." Entry closet, maybe? Fortunately, with the plans we have in mind, it will be reading as much larger and functioning way better for us after we get to work.

This room is the perfect example of a room with a lot of potential, with the possibility of  increasing the value of the home. We just need to unleash it's potential.

 

Behind that screened door the room extends an additional 2-3'. Currently it's home to a large water heater. That water heater is the reason we haven't started in on the space yet.  The transformation will include removing the water heater and setting up a tankless water heater in our garage (an expensive project that will require a professional), removal of those screened doors, new paint, new lighting, new stone flooring, and a built in style mudroom closet.

This entry may be serving as one of my inspirations.

This ones not too shabby either.

And you know I'm loving the clean contrast of the black hardware on white walls.

 

2) Re-do our Powder Room

In a fit of mania, we demo'd our small powder room that is just off of our dining room, and we've yet to put it back together. We have the extra hardwood flooring that just needs to be laid, and from there, we'll be shopping for a new vanity, slapping up some new paint (navy blue? charcoal gray?), choosing new light fixtures, and hopefully, if I can be convincing enough, installing some more planking (I said planking!!!).  It really shouldn't be that expensive of a room to do, we just haven't recovered quite enough from our other projects to dive into this one.

 

I'm thinking I may steal Jon a week without kids so that we can really hit this room aggressively soon. It would be oh-so-nice to have it functioning so that toddlers have a nearby place to wash their sticky hands after a meal.

3) Total re-do of our Master Bathroom

It's probably safe to say that the photo can do must of the talking on this one.

New flooring, double vanity, new drywall (due to a very odd texture on the walls), new lighting, new mirror, barn door, new awesome shower, etc. etc. etc. We'll be pairing the bathroom gut job with new paint and flooring in the master bedroom, which should really start to turn the whole room around.

 

4) Living Room Built-Ins

While I'm dying to start in on all of these projects, I'm probably most looking forward to the transformation of this large wall. The living room built-ins that we have planned are going to continue to REALLY transform our living room. They will house that obnoxiously large flatscreen TV (purchased by the husband, without my full approval), as well as provide some hidden storage for ugly equipment and gear and open shelves for some pretty display.

 

I have wanted to have my own built-ins for years (yes, some woman covet handbags, I covet built-ins). YEARS I tell you! Prior to buying, with every home that we toured, I would figure out where we could add in our custom built-ins. Now, the time is getting so close, I can almost taste it.

You'll have to come back next week to hear more about the rug

you get a sneak peak of below.

                          

My hope is to begin on our built-in project in September and have it completed by mid November, so that it can be all styled out for the holiday season. Is it odd that I'm thinking about decorating for Christmas? They are going to add tremendous height to the living room and a little character to the home.

Some built-ins that make me go gaga:

These have me leaning towards a saturated green, or grey green for ours.

Crowned with some molding in a traditional style,

it should help to soften all of the hard straight 80's lines of our house.

So fresh and so clean.

What do you think?  Are we crazy to think we'll get all this done this year? Probably. Are we still going for it? Definitely.