Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2012 in Review

It has been over 6 months since my last post here and you may be wondering why. We found out earlier this year that we were going to be having a baby in 2013! I spent the first couple months exhausted, and between that and work, there just wasn't much time for house renovations. Once I got a tiny shred of my energy back, things got crazy with family and then the holidays, so sadly, 2012 wasn't a very busy year for us house wise (for everything other than the house though, it was insane!).

We did manage to get a couple things done though, which I hope to update on here with individual posts soon. We removed the lead paint in the Living Room (and by us, I mean not pregnant me). We got a lot of new furniture/rugs. We made progress on organizing the house slightly. We updated the radiators in the Living Room. We put up some window trim in the Kitchen. We ended up not getting the fence because the quote came in at twice what we had originally been told. We installed undercabinet lighting in the Kitchen (what a difference this makes!) We tore up the rug in the Twilight Room (soon to be baby's room) and the plywood/wood flooring underneath. We got 3 more chickens. We caulked around all the windows (again, what a difference!!).

We have a couple things planned for January and February that we want to get done before the baby comes in the beginning of March. Hopefully we have enough time to get them done! Our plans for the next two months are to FINALLY put up the crown and base trim in the Kitchen, finish removing the paint in the Living Room (R has to remove the paint from the doors) and then paint the corner cabinet and doors, put up the curtains in the Living Room, refinish the original flooring in the Twilight Room and do some small renovations in there to get it ready for the baby (build a cover for the radiator, install a wall switch, replace the door hardware, buy a rug, make new curtains).

R is also hoping that 2013 will be the year he finally cleans out and organizes the basement. Right now, it's pretty much useless because there is so much stuff down there (some is ours, but most of it was left behind and we never had a chance to go through it all). 90% of his tools and supplies are still in the "Dining Room" because it's easier to find them there, but it's becoming a pain and it isn't very baby-friendly. He's planning on installing some lights, additional outlets, shelving and hopes to install some walls to close off half of the basement as a workshop. We're also buying a new freezer in the next month or so that will be going down here.

As for other 2013 goals, something needs to be done about the garage, which is this close to falling down, we need to build an outdoor play area for the chickens, work on the downstairs bathroom (baby will need a bathtub to take baths in!), and hopefully upgrade the back staircase/hallway. We're trying not to get too optimistic about it because we will most likely be super busy and super tired, but it would be nice to at least get some of these projects started!