Making our Home "Us": My Home Goals for 2012

In March of 2010 we bought a foreclosed "fixer-upper" in the country that was in desperate need of remodeling..as in the WHOLE place.  Not just "upgrading," no, no.  As in ripping some rooms down to the studs and even replacing subflooring!  It's been a big job, and one that we are still not finished with!  But our little house in the country has come a long way and we are hoping to get the inside completed this year.  Then we can work on the outside!  


1.  First on the agenda is finishing the kitchen!  I absolutely love our kitchen and will be thrilled to show you all of it (not just this one wall!) when it's finally done.  Funny thing.....I never noticed until after I had uploaded these pictures that my little two year old was crashing the pics.  In his lil' tighty-whitey's.  Nice. He's evidently enthralled with finding something in our designated "junk drawer!"





But just for fun and to give you a taste of how far it has come, here's what it looked like before!  And see that wall to the right??  It's gone!  This place certainly has come a loooong way!

2.  Also, this year I'd like to take you on a "Before and After" Tour of our home.  No, that's not some scary picture I found, that really is the hall bath when we bought this place.  SCARY!  Don't worry, it doesn't look that way anymore. =)

3.  I know you've seen this red chandelier that lives in the mud room/laundry room.  While the entry part is almost completed, the "laundry" side needs help.  We want to put in cabinets above the washer and dryer, second coat the walls and put the base molding down.  

4.  This is a smaller project, but I want to either repaint and recover these bar stools or find some for cheap. And we really need more than just two! (As a side note...cannot wait for yard sale season to begin again!!)

5.  Rearranging and adding to this gallery wall is high on the "to do" list. You can see in the picture below this one that since I finally found lamps for this entryway desk, they block several of the pictures.  I want to move the whole arrangement higher up, and of course add some pics of our new little Lucy-loo!

6.  Making new pillow covers for our drop-cloth slipcovered couch will be a fun project!  I bought new curtains for in here as well but they aren't up in this picture...those are just $1.99 flat sheets from Ikea. 

7.  I'm just going to confess and tell you that I want completely repaint the living room, dining room and kitchen.  I know, I know, I only painted it less than 2 years ago...but I'm a little crazy like that.  I've been swooning over Silver Sage by Restoration Hardware for a long time.  It would be a BIG change but I think I would love it.  Any thoughts??...I'm all ears!

8.  My husband came home one day a few months ago, walked into our bedroom and said something to the effect of, "We HAVE to do something with this room!"  Now ladies, if your hubby is talking about decorating a room....you know that it really needs something done to it!  Seems like our room is always on the bottom of the priority list and we know it shouldn't be.  As you can see below, there's so much that needs to be done here!  I've been slowly gathering inspiration for our room (gotta love Pinterest!) but still have not quite settled on the "look" we want. 

9.  I really want do something with this nook in my daughter's room.  The desk is a "hand me down" that desperately needs to be refinished and I'm thinking shallow shelves above the desk for books, artwork, etc would be nice.  (If any of you have any inspiration, please let me know!)  Since she loves to read and draw, I hope to make this a special space for her. 

10.  I don't have a picture for you, but our office needs some help!  It's cramped and we need some solutions for desk space and wall storage.  We'll keep you posted!


So...this is definitely not an exhaustive list, but these are the main things I have on my mind. ( And who know's what will come up during the year.)  Making our fixer-upper house a "home", one that fits our family and is geared toward serving others is a big, but super fun job...and one that I absolutely LOVE. Can't wait to knock out some of these projects and share them with you!

 Linking up to Nester's Home Goals Party!