2014 Home Goals

I’m considering this the first real week of the year. With the holidays falling mid-week, my schedule has been so thrown off the past few weeks. Time to get back to reality with a fresh, new year in front of us!

2013 was a year of minor cosmetic changes to our home {you can see the one year update here}. With a little paint {okay, actually a lot}, some focal walls, and textiles, we are able to change the look of our home rather cost effectively.

I expect 2014 to be more of the same, with however, a few larger-scale projects thrown in. Here are some home goals I am hoping we can accomplish {these are in addition to finishing all of the projects that remain unfinished!}. It is rather clear below this will be the year of the bathroom and tile/countertop updates.

• Bathroom Updates: We currently have four bathrooms in our house, with a rough-in for a fifth in our basement. Which is actually awesome, but they all need work. Our biggest complaint of all is the Corian countertops in all the bedroom bathrooms {meaning all other than our powder bath}. Our home is only about five years old {and has only been inhabited for about 3.5 years} and the countertops are faded and just gross looking. Bottom-line: Corian does not appear to wear well at all.
  • I posted here about big hopes for our Jack and Jill bath {connected to this bedroom and my craft room} and I think this may be a great space for me and my husband to try our hand at our own tiling project {read about our first foray into tiling our last kitchen backsplash with the help of my dad here}. I’d like to start with this area rather than the shower/toilet area. We would tear out the builder-basic mirror, add a new vanity that is standard height {this one is beyond short}, tile the entire wall the mirror is on, add a second sink {if we feel it is doable} and tear out the carpet – yes, carpet – and add floor tile. The other option would be to plank the wall with the mirror.

• • Our lesser used guest bathroom {connected to this bedroom} has standard-height countertops. If we end up changing out the above countertops, we will likely do the same to this bathroom, using the same selection. However, because this bathroom is used much less, I don’t envision replacing the cabinets. This room could quickly be updated with a coat of paint and a new mirror {or adding trim to the existing} and an updated light fixture.

• • The powder bath feels very dark to me and I feel like we could make some rather inexpensive changes to brighten it up and make it feel less Tuscan-style. It would basically involve a new mirror and lighting. Possibly painting the cabinets as well {there is a fairly sizable chip on one of the doors and I can’t think of an alternative to making it disappear}. If we could find a countertop cheap enough, we would possibly swap that out as well and get rid of the mysterious valley in the back {see second photo below} and remove the glass mosaic tiles.

• • Our master needs the most work {in our minds}, but from a budget perspective, the full project will need to be delayed for a few years. In 2014, I would simply like to paint the walls and find a way to brighten up the room, give all the dark brown tile. The space and layout is awesome, but it is dark! The new paint is needed for more than just cosmetic reasons – flat paint should never be used in bathrooms! These walls can definitely attest to that. Turns out I love this room so much that I’ve never even taken a photo of it other than in our walk-through when the prior homeowners still lived here. The craziest part of all? I have never removed that curtain hanging by the bath…

• Doors and Trim: This spring, I would like for my husband and I to try and spray all of our doors in our house white. I still haven’t gotten over the pinkish/yellowish look of all of our trim and doors and I know I never will. I think this is a project we could crank out in the spring. The photo below from our guest bedroom shows just how cream the doors and trim really are.

• Mud Room: This is another room that has maybe only been seen once on the blog. Sadly the only photo I even have of this space is from the real estate listing. It is fairly functional at this point {it serves as our dumping ground for coats/shoes/purse/briefcase}, but it needs some fresh paint and a little style – especially since this is the entrance/exit we use on a daily basis!

• General Goals: One of my more general goals is to finish projects and see them through to the end before starting another one if at all possible. I have SO many unfinished projects right now that are all 70-80% complete. Sounds like it should be easy to wrap them all up, but I have no motivation to do any of them. I think I enjoy the thrill of starting a new project entirely too much.

• Wish List: I would love to be able to get started on our kitchen as well. The backsplash is the top priority for me. Ultimately, we would like to paint our island gray and replace our countertops down the road {we hate our island countertops – the pattern makes them always look dirty}. So, I’m still trying to decide if we delay the backsplash a few years until we are able to replace the countertops.

I’m a strong believer in writing down your goals – I know from experience that you are much more likely to achieve them if you have a written list reminding you of what you wanted to complete. Needless to say, I would be overjoyed if we accomplished most of these goals in 2014. Happy New Year!