Friday, August 26, 2011

The list - again....

Every few months I revisit my "List"  (here and here) - to cross off what I've accomplished and add a few new things that I've come up with.  Since it's been almost a year, and nothing gets me motivated like a LIST, here we go again.


1. STOP being a slacker. Eh - I'm middle aged now.  Slacking isn't so wrong anymore.....

2. Get myself in shape. What can I say?  I'm a "work in progress".  Brian and I did P90X last year and it seriously kicked our butts.  I had nice arm muscles.  But then we stopped.  And it all went back to flab.  And since I've gained a bit of weight I figured the most efficient way to GET IT OFF (blech) was to start "ru-walking".  So that's what I do.  I don't know that it's actually done much, but I feel better about myself and I actually did a 5K this spring so I've got that going for me....

3. Get my house in shape. (Resolutions a through q). Is it just me or does this list grow every time I look at it???

a. Lay new wood floors in the dining room, entry hall and sitting room. Hot Damn!  DONE!

b. Renovate the upstairs bathroom. YAY! This one is done! Woot! Done, 2010.

c. Paint the downstairs study/bedroom. Holy crap - another one to mark off my list - Yahoo! Done, 2010.

d. Add some decorative moldings to the bottom half of the dining room walls. I really want to do this soon, but I can't decide on the look I want.  My ideabook on Houzz has a shit load of pictures.  I like them all.  Decisions, decisions....

e. Design and actually make wooden valances for the family room windows. This was my current project in September 2010.  But I got sidetracked.  Life was busy, the girls were involved in all kinds of activities, we were running around a lot, we threw a bunch of parties and then...wait, what was I saying?

f. Add crown molding to the big family room to match what's there. This room is getting a total redo.  I'm working on my ideas now, so that will be part of it.

g. Talk my husband into moving our bedroom downstairs into the girls old playroom. He's getting sooooo close to letting me start this.....

h. Blow out the wall between the two guest rooms at the end of the hall upstairs. This will happen after item g.

i. Move Olivia into our Master Bedroom upstairs. Again, all dependent on item g.

j. Expand Olivia's old room to create a larger spare bedroom. I really need to get moving on item g.......

k. Reconfigure the kitchen. I am still rolling on the floor with laughter at this. Not happening anytime soon.

l. Talk my hubby into converting the wood burning fireplace in the morning room/breakfast area into a gas fireplace. Given our electric bills last year, this might happen sooner rather than later.

m. Remodel the sitting room into the room I want it to be, which includes the refinishing and reupholstering of a couch which belonged to my grams. I'm totally counting this as DONE even though the couch hasn't been touched (I'm a'scared to try it), nothing has been hung on the walls yet (although I have most of it), and touch ups need to be done (seriously - I am NOT a touch up kind of girl.  Once the major painting is done and that paint brush goes bye-bye, you can pretty much count on the fact that I'll never pick it up again).  But, the wall came down, the floor was installed and the bench/ottoman recovered.  Again - it's done in my book.  For now.

n. Talk my hubby into installing several rain barrels.  There's a freaking hurricane coming.  I'm making him stand outside with buckets since he fought me on this one and we have NO RAIN BARRELS. That'll teach him.

o. Talk hubby into FINALLY allowing me to have a real vegetable garden rather than just growing peppers and tomatoes in pots on the deck for the chipmunks enjoyment. I've about given up on this.  The stinkbugs destroy our veggies.  We might try next year....

p. Paint the trim. All of it. In every room of the house. Yeah, I still hate painting trim so it's a safe bet that this won't get done anytime soon....unless I redo every room in the house. Still, so far, the dining room, upstairs bath, downstairs hall, stairs and sitting room have been done.  So, let's look at the glass as half full.

q. When I get my crap together I will post a full picture breakdown of the house as it exists, and what the plan is. Yeah - still not done. *sigh*

4. Finish that pesky little thing called "Grad School".    DONE DONE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Check Spelling Done, 2010

5. Spend more time with my kids. We've actually really made great strides here.  Unfortunately, with fall gearing up and cheer, dance and school for the girls, I expect our family "bonding time" will once again be in the toilet for the foreseeable future.

6. Spend more time with my hubby. Our anniversary is in September (13 YEARS!) so we hope to sneak away for a weekend.  Somewhere close.  And cheap.

7. Start reading. Have I told you how much I love my Kindle?  I'm blowing through books like crazy....

8. Plant a money tree in the backyard to fund Resolutions 1 through 7. Apparently money trees are back ordered. Maybe we'll find one next year.

9. FINALLY quit smoking for good. I'm not even going to go there....

NEW ITEMS ADDED TO LIST:

10.  Family Room. Put some sort of wainscoting in the Family Room, repaint, resurface the built in bookcases (I simply can't bring myself to paint them.  I'll probably stain them darker), and find new or recover the old furniture.  The room bores me.  I need to amp up the excitement in here. This may call for a complete overhaul.

11.  Downstairs Bath.   I want ceramic flooring, do something with the vanity/mirror and repaint.  I'm struggling because it has nice tile on the tub and vanity and its a difficult color to try and coordinate with, along with the back of the brick fireplace.  I looooooove exposed brick.  But I'm just not sure I'm loving it so much in this bathroom. We'll see.....

12.  Closet. My closet needs some drawers and shelves.  I can totally do this in a weekend, but I need a plan.  And materials.  I'm working on it.

13.  Outdoor furniture. Build an outdoor sectional for the deck.  I want to get this done this winter so next year we can enjoy it. We found some fairly user friendly plans (I love Ana White) so although it's a bit outside our comfort zone, I'm pretty sure we can handle this.

I feel MUCH better now.  I loves me a good list!  Although the fact that this one has grown instead of shrinking may be cause for concern.....

1 comment:

Bethann said...

I love to read about all your dreams and wishes. Can I tell you a secret? I quit smoking 20 days ago by using Chantix and I'm almost ready to get off the Chantix too...I think. Well, maybe. I'll keep you posted, but think about it. Insurance paid for ALL of it. If you accomplish NOTHING else on this list ever, other than this one thing, that would be awesome. I want you to be around forever, or at least as long as I'm here. Take care of you, girl. HUGS!