Projects on deck for 2017

Now that we’re feeling pretty settled in our house, and we’ve been here officially four months, I wanted to lay out the projects we’re prioritizing for the rest of the year. We may not get to everything, and our priorities may shift, but I do want to set some goals:

1. Finish the guest bedroom

We have a June deadline for this room (promised my mom and dad they’d have somewhere to sleep when they’re in town) and BIG plans that I can’t wait to share. I know we naively started the One Room Challenge on this room just after moving, but there was just no way we could prioritize the room in the way that we needed to. So alas, it’s at the top of the list for real this time.

2. The sunroom (phase 1)

I shared my inspiration for this space earlier this month. We’re making some temporary updates so the room can be functional space for us until we decide structurally what we’re doing with the space.

3. The guest bathroom

I did a quick lite makeover of this room before our housewarming party, but we have plans to gut the entire space to make a modern and fresh bathroom that makes us excited to have friends and family stay over

4. Replacing the main beam

This is a boring but necessary one. We have a wooden main beam that spans under the original part of the house (entryway, kitchen, entry seating area) that is totally stable and was to code when the house was built in 1940 but is no longer up to today’s standards. So we’re planning on upgrading to a steel beam and replacing the joists so that we have a 100% solid foundation for the future. I’m a firm believer in making sure the foundation and base is solid to ensure all the future work we do can be perfect and last indefinitely.

5. Designing our outdoor patio

This house is blessed with two outdoor decks/patios and one of the things that attracted us to our town is the coastal, outdoor vibe. So we’re so excited to have a very large and recently installed stone patio to use daily during the summer. Out here, we’re going to be putting in a barbecue, a dining area and a seating area.

6. Miscellaneous projects

Widening the doorway from the front hallway to the living room, hanging window coverings, painting the windows, upgrading our exterior lighting, recovering our brass dining chairs, creating a storage solution for our coat closet, fencing off the propane tank in our backyard, etc.

And on the ‘if we get to it list’ (but likely the 2018 project list)

7. Creating a master suite

Our bedroom is huge and is one of the only houses we looked at that had both a master bath and walk in closet. We know we need to gut both spaces to create a much more functional bathroom with a double vanity, stand up shower and fingers-crossed, a soaker tub, in addition to a more functional and organized closet. The challenge for us is nailing the right floor plan, since we can steal some space from the oversized bedroom. We know that if we ever want to sell the house, this is going to be a major selling point and we should want to maximize it as much as possible and that’s contingent on a really effective floor plan.

8. Decorating my office

This shouldn’t be too hard, just painting the walls, figuring out a floor plan that works and swapping out hardware. This could happen in 2017, but isn’t a top priority.

9. The laundry room

We have a small laundry room tucked off our built in pantry but I was horrified to discover that the room isn’t insulated. So like we try to set foot in there as little as possible and end up hauling the clean clothes through the kitchen and into the living room  in order to fold them. Not ideal. Getting this room warm (or at the very least less cold) and looking chic would make me very happy.

Wish us luck! Can’t wait to see how much of this list we can accomplish over the next 11 months.