10 weeks, 10 projects

I figure I have about 10 productive weeks left of 2010. My goal is to finish at least 10 projects that have been on my to-do list.

1. Finish master bedroom. I know I have been talking about finishing this for some time now. We are down to just having the hardwood floor installed and then we can move in!

2. After we move out of our existing room, have hardwood floors repaired and then refinished before giving this space to two of the boys (we never did this floor over, just put a wool carpet on top). This room will then be complete (which means all walls are new, trim is new, electrical has been updated, walls are insulated and painted).

3. Finish painting closet and trim in existing boys room and add a new light fixture. We are so close to being done in here, but I just haven’t been willing to get in there, move furniture around and paint. It is much easier to tackle now that the guys are in school for most of the day. I did get the beds painted black like I had planned, but haven’t put together the finishing touches so have yet to post after pics!

4. Paint interior of front door high gloss black and paint new trim around door. Such a small project. Have all the paint. What am I waiting for??? Oh yeah, again I had to wait until no one was home and going in and out for most of the day. If I paint at 9am it should be safe to the touch by 2pm (when they start to arrive home). I know I could paint at night, but by the end of the day all I want to do is sit on the couch and catch up on my reality TV or design shows!

5. Turn the smallest bedroom into my office once they move out to the bigger room. This will be the best reward for all our hard work (at least for me it will be!)

6. Make temporary kitchen a little prettier. We gutted the kitchen and have been using the dining room as our new home central (cooking, eating, homework, you name it). Would like to add some shelving on walls and some fabric under temporary sink (which is starting to feel quite permanent!) Also would like to get a handle on the huge amount of recycling that we do since we are short on space these days.

7. Get 2nd floor laundry room under control. No need to show images, but our system is overburdened right now (started out looking very organized and GAP-like when the kids clothing was small, now it is more guys-college-dorm-room in appearance!) New bedroom arrangements with additional closet space should help.

8. Have stairway, 2nd floor hallway plus all 2nd floor doors painted (we recently replaced 7 of them). For this I will call in a professional painter with staging.

9. Add new fall-to-winter flowers on front porch. Maybe I will start with this??

10. Begin the process of replacing the missing kitchen and first floor powder room!


I figure if I put my to-do list online, I will feel more pressure to tend to these projects. Plus that will be 10 weeks worth of great home renovating content for all of you. Besides, I don’t want to go into 2011 with the same resolutions that I set for 2010 (why do I even bother putting “use treadmill” on the list???)
Wish me luck!