I’m coming at you almost halfway through the year to tell you about our home project list for this year (oops). With baby number 2 on the way(!), we are hoping to get the majority of these projects done by the end of July (which I am not doing the math on because I know that seems impossible). This is a really exciting year for home projects because it will really wrap up all but a few projects (the kitchen and bathrooms will be future projects and probably won’t happen for a few more years). It’s been so fun to watch our house come together and I can’t wait for things to slow down a bit after these projects are done.
I’ve included some notes for each project on where we are now; while we didn’t have anything done on these projects at the beginning of the year, we have made some good progress already! I’ve included a few photos that I just snapped on my phone today, to give an idea of our very current progress on each project.
1. Rebuild Retaining Wall
Our retaining wall was already falling down when we bought our house in 2018, and it didn’t get any better from there. We ended up hiring out this project, which was GREAT – and one of only a handful of projects we’ve paid someone else to do on our house! We used a company that specializes in retaining wall rebuilds, which ended up saving us money. Since they were able to re-use all the natural stone block we already had, we only paid for labor.
Where we stand now:
- The wall has been re-built – and looks great!
What still needs to be done:
- Nothing for the wall itself!
- We may add some additional landscaping or another row of blocks.
2. Finish Powder Bathroom Update
This is another rollover project from last year. We got partway through the project and have been intimidated by the rest (such is the DIY life). However, this year I’d really like to make sure we complete this project! While the bathroom feels MUCH better than it did before, I would really like to finish this project off this year. Once it’s done, it’ll be such a nice room.
Where we stand now:
- Fixed hole in the ceiling and repaired drywall (twice).
- Replaced toilet tank (twice – stay tuned for the full post on this project for the whole story).
- Painted the walls and ceiling.
- Replaced outlet and light cover plates.
- Bought everything we need (wallpaper, light, faucet, outlet and covers, light switch and cover).
- Removed the vanity light and installed a new one. (Somehow there wasn’t a box behind the vanity light, so it took some creative thinking. What kept the old light from falling down and shattering for all these years? We have no idea.)
- Added art.
What still needs to be done:
- Install new faucet.
- Add peel-and-stick wallpaper.
- Replace old outlet with a new (much safer) GFCI outlet.
- Replace old dark light switch with a new white one.
3. Build Garden
I’ve been looking forward to this project for a few years, and this is the year! It’s one that we finished in March just in time for gardening season, and it’s been so wonderful to have already. We built two new 3.5’x5′ raised beds next to our deck on the paver area of our backyard. This is probably the most exciting project on our list for me this year; it more than doubled our planting space!
Where we stand now:
- This project is done! We completed it back in March and I’ve loved using it! Stay tuned for a future post on the build.
What still needs to be done:
- I need to finish amending the soil to add more nutrients (I’ll be using this one).
- Some day we will probably add trim to the edges and top to make the beds look a little more finished.
4. Build Scott’s Office/Drum Room
This is a big item on our to-do list this year! When we bought the house, we loved the idea of turning the semi-finished basement room into a nice office for Scott. It’s fairly large and should be able to fit a nice desk, a small sitting area, and his drum set. Our plans are to semi-soundproof the room (as much as we can considering like 90% of our ductwork runs through there) to hopefully cut down on noise a little bit when Scott plays his drums.
Where we stand now:
- Cleared out the room (mostly) and started demo (as you can see from the picture)!
- Replaced the old house trap under the room with a new cleanout pipe that (1) doesn’t have a hole in the bottom of it and (2) is much easier to clean out when needed. (Unfortunately, we discovered that the floor drain trap in our basement also seems to have a hole in the bottom, which means it smells every few days unless we throw water in it. Not ideal, but we will fix it someday, I’m sure.)
- Scott did a TON of research into soundproofing and has a very solid plan of what we’re going to do.
What still needs to be done:
- We need to add new floors, walls, and a ceiling.
- Add soundproofing – wrap ducts, insulate walls and ceilings, maybe other stuff? I know very little about soundproofing.
- Build a closet to store extra drum and office supplies.
- Add a new built-in desk that allows for sitting and standing, and has lots of good storage.
- After the room is finished, we’ll add paint, decor, and furniture.
5. Move Playroom Downstairs
Moving Scott’s office downstairs will free up our fourth bedroom, which will be turned into a playroom. Our new space is downstairs right off the living room, which will make it a perfect spot for a playroom.
Where we stand now:
- Room is totally finished, with paint and floors and baseboards.
- We have a rug and some furniture for the playroom (and plenty of toys).
What still needs to be done:
- Buy some additional toy/book storage. I’m thinking about adding 3 of these short Billy bookcases and then some baskets for toy storage. We’ll also have a pretty big closet that we’ll be able to use to rotate toys and books.
- Add some sort of multi-use seating. I’m thinking about one of these couchbeds or maybe something like this? It’s TBD. This will double as a guest room, so something that converts to a bed would be ideal, but since we have an air mattress, it’s not a deal-breaker. Mostly I want to make sure it’s fun to play on. 🙂
6. Jamie’s Big Kid Room
Moving the playroom to the first floor will free up our spare bedroom, which Jamie will hopefully be moving into this year! The room is a little larger than the nursery and should be a really nice space for Jamie once it’s finished.
Where we stand now:
- The room will basically be a big, empty blank slate once the playroom moves downstairs.
- Floors are finished, ceiling is painted, walls are primed and painted, and the closet doors have been re-painted and re-installed.
What still needs to be done:
- Install baseboards.
- Add window treatments. This is the only room in our house without between the window pane blinds, so we want to make sure there’s a good (safe) way to block out light in here.
- Add a rug and new furniture.
- The door to this room has a big hole in it (oddly, it’s not the only door in our house with a hole in it), so we may replace it with a new one.
- Teach our toddler how to sleep in a regular bed (currently accepting any advice on how in the world we will do this with our wild sleeper).
7. Work on Storage
We’ve been slowly filling up our house and with a new baby coming, we know we need to work on our storage solutions to make sure we have enough space. Since our house has small closets and doesn’t have a full basement or a full attic, we don’t have a ton of space to work with.
Where we stand now:
- Added a new shelf and optimized storage in our basement to move tools and other DIY supplies out of Scott’s future office.
- Replaced our old water heater with a new tankless one (not totally part of our plan, but since it started leaking, we had to do it). The tankless heater is smaller than our old water heater, so we did actually gain a little bit of storage space.
What still needs to be done:
- Purge – get rid of anything we don’t actually need and anything that isn’t worth the amount of storage space it takes up.
- Add more storage to our basement, garage, and shed. We have a few ideas but nothing concrete yet.
8. Baseboard Finishing
After almost 3 years of living in our house, I can finally see a light at the end of the baseboard tunnel – Scott has become quite a pro in the past few months especially and has been crushing it! We only have a few more rooms to complete and some finishing work to do, and then it will be done! (*angels singing*)
Where we stand now:
- Baseboards have been installed in all our bedrooms, living room, dining room, and our upstairs hallway.
- A few weeks ago my mom and MIL came to help on a work day and filled and painted ALL our seams and nail holes which was such a huge blessing! It takes so much effort and since it involves a lot of crawling around on the floor, it is not the most fun thing to do while pregnant.
What still needs to be done:
- We still need to install baseboards in our spare bedroom, our downstairs hallway, and our closets, and then we’ll be done!
- I need to caulk all the tops of our finished baseboards which I have been procrastinating because I still have PTSD when I had to do it in the nursery with really terrible pregnancy carpal tunnel. (I need to get moving, though, because the longer I wait, the more likely it is that I will have carpal tunnel again.)
9. Finish Kitchen Doorway and Pantry
This is our last holdover project from last year. We need to finish some trim on the kitchen/dining room doorway, and we also need to add some doors to the pantry we built last year. Once that’s done, we’ll be finished with our kitchen updates until we do a big renovation in a few years.
Where we stand now:
- The doorway trim has all been hung and half has been filled/painted.
- We have kitchen pantry doors, but haven’t worked on how to actually hang them yet.
What still needs to be done:
- Finish filling/painting doorway trim.
- Install bifold door hardware to pantry.