Thursday, March 4

God, if I can't have what I want, let me want what I have.

I'm struggling a bit with this. Being that I'm home more I see all of the projects that I've been wanting to do for ages, but 1) didn't have the time or 2) money to do. Did you know you can create "pages" in blogger now? I didn't. I created one: Our Home. It's pretty much a photo-journey of our house and the renovations and decor we've done.

In regards to this post title...it's not that I'm not happy with what I have (in regards to our house)...I am, but I see all these little projects that I want to do to tweek things. This may be a side effect of the renovations and my wanting to do SOMETHING in our house to make it prettier...OR it's just time to do some sprucing.

Either way....there are some projects that I've come up with of things that need to get done around the house...things that I myself can do, but none of which can be started until the bathroom is done and the house has been THOROUGHLY cleaned.

Project #1
*Repaint the entire living room/kitchen ceiling
I haven't painted the ceilings since we moved in, and I fully expected to install crown molding, so I never finished edging in the walls/ceiling. It needs to get done. The paint is dirty and cracks are showing in it (gotta love the movement in old houses). It needs to get done.

Project #2
*Repaint the kitchen walls
I painted the kitchen Behr's Laurel Mist when we moved in and then a while after I put up a wall paper backsplash to hide the HORRIBLE spackling/taping job the previous owner did...we tried sanding it out and it wasn't going to happen. I'm not going to change the color in the kitchen, just repaint it...I like the color and I can't think of any other color to paint it.

Project #3
*Buy curtains for the kitchen windows (3 of them)
This is a THORN IN MY SIDE! I have white battenburg lace curtains right now, but we decided that they are too white and the room needs some colored curtains to make it pop (part of the kitchens issues is it's B-O-R-I-N-G!). I found lovely dark red curtains that I really like, but ummmm it's almost $70 a window...WHO CAN PAY THAT FOR A CURTAIN! I'd love just to do a short valance and the tiers, but with our windows we can't....unless I really want to strip and refinish all the woodwork on the 100 year old windows...which doesn't sound at all appealing to me.

So I have a couple of choices...bite the bullet and by curtains (which I still haven't found one that I am head over heels for (I want a nice rich red); make them (which after buying the fabric and the time to do sew them...I think I'd be better off buying them).

Ironically Matt agrees with me that we need new curtains in our kitchen...so I'm on the prowl. JCP had some nice ones that I liked, but all the reviews for them were horrible...that they were very thin and shrunk terribly etc. I'll just keep looking.

I worry about this same thing with making the curtains: Fabric isn't really thick enough to not have a sheer look against a window...and I really don't want to have to line the curtains on top of sewing them.

Project #4
*Paint the outside of our house
We've never painted the outside of our house: We've lived here 5 years....it really needs to be done. Actually it needed it when we bought it, but it was not a priority...now it's desperate for paint and having siding/trim replaced. I think we found someone to do it too (part of the reason why it hasn't been done yet).
Matt does NOT have the time to strip, repair, prime, and paint a house....he just doesn't....even if he thinks he does...he doesn't. FIL recommended a minister to us who painted his office in another town (it's an old house like our's and about the same size). FIL thinks it should be about $2k or so to have our house done....I can handle $2k...I've been putting money aside for a while. Hopefully our house will be repainted before the end of the summer: WOOHOO!

Project #5
*Finish my office
Another room I started, but never finished, because we had high aspirations of doing other things to it (when we first bought our house we thought we would remove ALL the molding and strip it and refinish it - the optimism of new home owners). I'm hoping for my birthday present to repaint the room, frame in the window, install flooring, and paint the molding. It really shouldn't cost more than $100 since it is a small room, but just doing this would make so much difference!

These don't seem like big things, but I know they'll make a huge difference in our house. Heck just cleaning the place will make a big difference lol

7 comments:

kimbosue said...

Good luck with all those changes! I am thinking about making some window "mistreatments" myself, even though I am a non-sewer. I found lots of ideas on Thrifty Decor Chick!! Thinking of doing the roman shade myself...check it out!

Ashley said...

So much to do, so little time. I completely understand. And by the time you get all this done, it will be time to update one of the reooms you already completed. HA! It's a never-ending circle. That being said, it does feel great to complete projects and get things accomplished. Nothing like spring to help motivate us immensely!

Have fun!

sadie607 said...

That's a huge list of projects but I know you can get it all done.

And what's this about the pages? How do you do it and what's it all about?

The Wife said...

We have a fairly young house (early 1990s) but had so many projects when we moved in. I was good at first and then everything else got in the way. I keep thinking I'm gonna work on stuff, but then I don't.

Becky said...

I understand completely. I work from home, so i'm here 24/7 and i constantly think up little things to do, if only i had the time and money as well,oh well, someday, right?

Photogrl said...

Keeping a home up is a never ending cycle.

We've been in ours for 8 years, and just repainted the living/dining room.

I'm totally with you on curtains! Who spends that kind of money on them? I still need curtains in my dining room!

Good luck with getting it all done!

Cajun Cutie said...

Could you make curtains? Might be cheaper and you can get what you like. or could you dye the lace curtains you have a color? I have a ton of home improvement type stuff/projects I want to do around here. My husband is a computer engineer and not really into DIY projects. I on the other hand am a carpenter's daughter.

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