List of Home Improvement Ideas

I want to start this blog post by saying that WE love our house.  We bought our house because we loved the neighborhood – it was big, looked like it would be full of families, was quiet and had good school systems.  When we started house hunting, we wanted a house that we could stay in and raise a family in.  Kyle was always jealous of me that I was raised in the same house and came home to the same place every holiday and summer of college and then after moving to Atlanta.  Kyle and I wanted the same thing for our family and future kids. 

Since my 30 before 30 list won’t really be all that accomplished since I turn 30 in like a month and some odd days {I can’t exactly go zip lining or horse back riding or to a brewery in my condition} I am moving onto our Home Improvements List.  This has no rock solid due date – just as we can afford it.   We had 1 savings account already established called “college education fund” and now that we have moved that to a 529 and the money is taken out of our account automatically – we renamed that account to “home improvement fund”.  {when did I become so old and mature?!}

Some of the things aren’t major upgrades and {thankfully} can be done on our own, but they bug me and need to be done.  I just need to spend a weekend at Home Depot or Bed Bath and Beyond or The Container Store and say I AM DOING THIS NOW!

With all that.  Here is our list.  And pictures with ideas {thanks pinterest}.

1. Kitchen Upgrade: Granite Counters
2. Kitchen Upgrade: New Cabinet doors {thankfully the cabinet boxes are solid and strong. We just need new doors that won’t have laminate that peels. G.Ross.}
3. Kitchen Upgrade: Backsplash

Obviously. I love the light color granite and the light color backsplash.  We do like the white cabinets that we already have and want to keep the white when we swap out the doors and we already upgraded everything to stainless. So the neutral granite + backsplash is the plan.  And… we think we could do the backsplash on our own. Can’t be too hard, right?!

4. Laundry Room Redo DONE
5. Hall bathroom upgrade: new sink fixtures + toilet paper holder/towel holder. DONE
6. New paint job of foyer/upstairs landing
7. New paint job of weird sitting room. NO LONGER WANT: WE DIG THE RED
8. Hardwoods in the foyer – take out the weird uneven marble tile area.
9. Remove the sliding doors – install French Doors DONE & AMAZING.
10. Replace all the ceiling fans upstairs – all 6 of them
11. Master bathroom upgrade: new floors
12. Master bathroom upgrade: new shower. bigger shower.
13. Replace all the door knobs upstairs.
14. Repaint the master bedroom.
15. Redecorate the master bedroom.

and when I say “redecorate” I really mean upgrade the artwork above our bed.  And then since the dogs are no longer crated. Figure out what to do with that big empty space. Plus, new bedding and curtains. To match the new paint job. I really like the 3 above ideas. the 3 wooden picture frames would house family photos though // and I love that Song of Solomon verse.

16. Repaint Kyle’s “man cave” / McKenna’s playroom / the family room.
17. Upgrade the TV in the downstairs room – move the downstairs TV into the “man cave” DONE (AND THE NEW TV IS NOW IN THE PLAYROOM)
18. New furniture for the downstairs family room. Move the current furniture to the “man cave” / random weird sitting room. DONE
19. Decorate the random weird sitting room. DONE
20 .Dining room furniture for the dining room
21. Decorate the large landing thing over our foyer under our big window.  {I want large oversized lanterns from Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn}
22. Organize the hall closet upstairs.  DONE.
23. Organize the pantry.
24. Organize the laundry room.  DONE.
25. Organize our master closet.
26. Organize the hall closet down stairs.
27. Change all the sink fixtures in the bathrooms in the house.
28. Get a new front door + paint all the shutters to match.

….we have A LOT on the list to do and I am sure that it will only grow longer.  But luckily, a lot of this can be done on our own and all the organization projects {I blame on nesting} are quick weekend things.  But then we have some major projects to save our bonuses and money for!

13 goals for 2013

I have been working on this post for a few days now – I wanted serious, real life goals as well as some fun ones. And since it is 2013... I decided why not set 13 goals, that way there would be a good mixture of fun and serious goals.

1. Get back into running. I am not saying marathons or even half marathons {yet} ... just lace up the shoes. Dust off the cobwebs. Find my happy place on the pavement again. Run some local fun races. Just get my groove back.

2. Get the house 100% set up. I don’t want to hit January of 2014 and things still not be decorated or done.  This includes organizing it & buying new family room couches and new bedroom furniture. We went 2 years in our rental house with curtains that were never put up.  We had them, just were too lazy to put them up. NOT.AGAIN. ...then i will do a blog tour of our house! :)

3. Read more. Watch TV less. I read a lot at the beginning of last year then let myself disappear into Netflix streaming and TV shows. I need to disappear into a good book more often again! Goal: 30 books in 2013

4. Blog More. Find a direction. Be more open and honest. I feel like my blog is all over the place. i feel like it needs more direction. I  want people {other than my family} to want to read my blog. I feel like I have a lot of superficial posts – I feel like I need to be more honest and put things out there. I have only done that once and it was cathartic.

5. Save More Money!! We already save a lot of money, but as a homeowner who will need a new roof and new HVAC systems in the future, it would be nice to be able to replace those things when the time comes and it not hurt too much. Plus, I want to go to the  Dominican Republic before there are Shanahan kids running around.

6. Be More Relaxed – Dial back the Anxiety – have more ME time. I am a control freak. I don’t like people doing things for me. I cannot make decisions to save my life and when I make a decision I then second guess it. All of this lead me to have a crazy anxiety stress filled 2012. So much so, my doctor put me on meds. I want to learn to let go this year. I’ve asked Kyle to send me to the gym when in a bad mood or stressed. I want to take more time for myself – massages, baths, lock myself away from the world.

7. Do at least one thing that is fun per month. Now that Kyle and I have decided to stay in Georgia, I feel like we need to embrace Georgia. Make friends. and go out and do things. We have lived in the same redundant rut for years – I want to start experiencing Atlanta and Georgia and what it has to offer!

8. Accomplish at least 1 of my running goals from my 30 before 30 list. i think it would be really cool to run a sub 30 5k or something. But to do that... I need to REALLY start running again!

9. Take a vacation. Or a mini weekend trip. Just get away. Our 5 day trip to St. Lucia was just refreshing and a good way to restart our lives. We need to do that more often.

10. Be able to answer the question “what do you want for _________” I have the hardest time answering this question for birthdays and Christmas. I want to be able to give ideas easily this year!

11. Walk the dogs more. Mulligan and Kennesaw are so spoiled with walks in the spring and fall. They’re not so lucky in the winter because it gets dark and the summers because it is too hot. Now that we have sidewalks, the dark won’t be as scary and we need to do longer walks on the weekends. This is not only good for them, but Kyle and my waistlines too! :)

12. Make more friends. This ties into goal #7. We have been in GA for almost 5 years now and I really don’t have a circle of friends down here. All my friends from College realized they hated Atlanta and moved back to Birmingham. But how does one make friends?!

13. Keep my car clean! If you have ever been in my car, you know what I mean. A common phrase for the front seat passenger is “hold on, let me clean you off a seat real fast”.  I’d like my car to be trash free and junk free in the near year.

....13 goals are A LOT of goals. With a lot of variety. I was really bad with my 2012 goals (the only one I accomplished was to look really pretty on my wedding day). So, Wish me luck... I want to do much better this year! :)