The 2019 Project List

Looking back on 2018’s Project List, we definitely knocked quite a few big projects off the list (namely the master bathroom, master bedroom and closet, and refinishing the floors upstairs), but missed on a few others (the office is kicking off this month, and we put off some of the prep work for our kitchen and living room remodel). It’s great to be able to look back and see the hopes we had for 2018’s projects and how completely thrilled we are with the final result.

So, let’s jump into what we’re planning to accomplish in 2019:

1. The Office

This one is finally in progress. It’s the last room left to tackle upstairs and refinishing the floors was the last item standing in the way of getting started in here. Updates to this space are mainly cosmetic: adding crown moulding, paint, new lighting, new furniture, and organization. We’ve refinished the floors and cleared the room of the furniture that won’t be staying in the space. We’re finalizing the design plans now, so stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

2. The Hallway and Stairs

This one should also be pretty straightforward: painting all our wainscoting in our hallways, refinishing the stairs, painting the banister and spindles, adding a stair runner, a long vintage runner in the hallway and maybe adding a statement light fixture over the stairs. Our hallways have gotten very beaten up from moving tools, drywall, trimwork, windows and furniture up- and downstairs over the past few years, so now we’re just about done with work upstairs, it’s time to resolve all the dings and scrapes in the walls and trim. Note: in the below photos we hadn’t yet refinished the upstairs hallway hardwoods, but we knocked those out over the holiday break so they match the bedroom floors.

3. Painting our exterior

I’m sure our neighbours will appreciate this one… on the east side of our house that is most exposed to the sun, the paint on our wood shingles are aggressively peeling off. On top of that, while we were on vacation this summer, we came home to one of our shutters having completely disintegrated as well. So, in addition to a fresh coat of paint on everything, we’re going to be replacing some of the shutters, and adding some features to our façade to give it more interest. We plan to hire this project out to the pros, since one side of our house is three stories off the ground floor, which sounds terrifying to paint.

Note: this isn’t the side of the house that’s peeling, because frankly, I’m too embarrassed to share that with the internet. It’s so bad that every time we pull into the driveway we cringe because swaths of paint are falling off daily. 

4. Removing the wall between our kitchen and living room

We’ve had this project quoted out and have been waiting until we finalize our kitchen design plans so we know exactly how we want the load-bearing beam that we’re having installed finished off. We’ve done some initial groundwork for this project, like having the plumbers cap the radiator on this wall, but still need to remove the drywall and reroute some electrical. This is going to be the first step in the kitchen renovation.

You can see the wall described in the background of this shot. Can you see how much better flow our house will have once that wall comes down?

5. The kitchen

Now that we’ve lived with our dark kitchen for 2+ years, we’ve learned a lot about what works well in the current layout and what doesn’t (e.g. not being able to open the dishwasher and trash at the same time is the most annoying every. single. day.). We’ve made some great progress over the past few weeks on honing in on a general layout, which will include stealing some square footage from other rooms where it’s underutilized. Our plan is to finalize the layout for the space over the next month and then start sourcing, with the goal of tackling this BIG project over the spring and summer when we can rely on the barbecue for cooking our meals. This is our first kitchen remodel and we’re equal parts anxious and excited to get started.

Here’s where I acknowledged that our kitchen isn’t terrible, but it’s DARK and could be so much more cohesive with the style of our home.

6. Resolving all the different flooring materials

Our main floor features hardwood, engineered wood, vinyl, and tile, making the spaces feel very disjointed. As part of our kitchen reno, we’re hoping to feather hardwoods into our kitchen and sunroom, refinish the hardwoods and lay one consistent tile through the side entrance and laundry room, bringing down the count of mismatched flooring materials significantly.

Not shockingly, I have zero photos of the non-hardwood mishmash of floors in our house.

Well, that’s a lot! I’m excited to see how much we accomplish this year. What project are you most excited to see us tackle?