Home goals for 2012

Okay, so we're a few weeks into 2012 already, but I hope it's not too late to share a few home goals for the year. Here we go!


1. FINALLY finish the office
This is numero uno for a reason. I first posted about our office redo waaaay back in March; nearly a year later, and it's still in progress! I've been working on refinishing the oak bookcase we scored for free, and I can't wait to show you the final results (eeee!). Once the bookcase is in, we'll be doing some major organizing, since everything is crammed into the closet right now. We've started working on it, but we have a ways to go. We also plan to add some open shelving over the desk for more storage, and we need a few finishing touches -- art, curtains and maybe a new light fixture. Maybe we can call this project finished two years one year after it began? Let's hope. :)

2. Make a proper entryway closet
Now that the washer and dryer have been moved to the basement, we have a nice big closet in our entryway -- score! Except, it's not so functional yet as a closet, since it just has a single high shelf. Not sure what we'll do in here, but shoe storage is a must (I like shoes!). I also want to paint, of course! I was thinking stenciling would be fun, but would it be too much with our tiled floors?

3. Work on our laundry room
The walls have been framed out, but the laundry room still needs drywall and doors, to start. (Someday we'll put in a floor, but that's not a priority for now.) We'd also like to put a countertop over the washer and dryer to make a nice, flat surface for folding and stowing laundry baskets, and to keep socks and lint falling between the machines.

4. Paint that red dining room
We're ready to get rid of the red and make the room our own. What color do you think we should go for? I'm thinking a light blue-gray, but I don't want the room to be too cool.

I'm also pondering painting the living room because of our beige overload. If we paint the living room, the dining room will get painted the same color, since they're open to each other and share a wall.

5. The walkway project returns
My 2011 home goals including putting in a new walkway, which we scrapped to save money for our one-year anniversary trip to Quebec. But after snowblowing last winter and sending that crushed gravel all over the yard, the hubs is insistent we get rid of the rocks this year.

And, as a more general goal, I plan to be more decisive this year. There are times when I procrastinate working on something because I'm nervous it won't turn out right, or I'll change my mind. This year, I want to just go for it sometimes, instead of overthinking things.

What are your home goals for 2012? I'd love to hear what you're going to tackle this year!

Valentine's Day decor, part two

Hey all, and happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine ended on a sad note because a certain team couldn't manage to win a certain game...but let's not talk about it! :)

On Friday I showed you my Valentine's Day vignette on the floating shelves in the living room.

I also gave our gallery wall in our kitchen a little V-day love. I think my favorite part about a gallery wall is that you can change it on a whim and give it a new look in just a few minutes.

The hubs walked by afterward and slowed down to look at it. "This thing is always like a surprise to me," he said. Love it! :)

To bring some love to this wall, I added wedding photos of our parents and this one of my great-grandparents. I love it next to the black-and-white photo of us.

My in-laws. And I added a photo of the Eiffel Tower, because what's more romantic than Paris?

My parents on the left and a photo of us from our engagement shoot, each matted with some cardstock.

I also added these love quotations that I printed out for our wedding, but never used. Of course I kept them just in case I'd want to use them for something else...and look, I did!

I framed some of those cutie crocheted hearts I showed you last week on some cardstock.

This big puffy LOVE is from Target last year. You might recognize it from last year's vignette on the floating shelves. I love reusing items, especially holiday-themed ones, so I don't have to keep buying decor items that only get put out for a couple weeks out of the year.

What's this, another LOVE sign? Yep! I made it using a piece of oak, some stain, painters' tape and white paint. I'll show you more on it later. I still gotta paint that edge white, but I was too excited about it not to get it up and show you.

A couple more photos!

Valentine's Day decor, part one

Woohoo, it's Friday! I'm pumped for this weekend -- got a couple projects I hope to finish up, and I can't wait to watch the Patriots beat the Giants in the Super Bowl...go Pats!

My floating shelves are a faux mantel where I like to feature seasonal or holiday decor, so of course I had to pink it out for Valentine's Day.

I did this while the hubs was occupied with something else, and though I doubt it's really his cup of tea, he was very sweet and said he liked my "pink poufy things."

Me: "It looks pretty girly up there right now, doesn't it?"
Hubs: "Uh, yes, yes it does."

He's so nice to put up with me!

This display started with some inspiration from Martha Stewart Living.

I have a ton of paper flowers I made for our wedding (and never used!) plus some I made for a friend's bridal shower. And like the pack rat I am, I've held onto them, thinking they'd come in handy...I love being right :)

To arrange them in a heart shape, I used the top of a Kohl's shirt box and cut out a cardboard heart, drawing an outline in pen before cutting, and folding it in half to make sure it was symmetrical.

My paper flowers were all held together with floral wire. I poked holes in the cardboard heart with a pen tip and threaded the wire through, holding it in place with a piece of tape.

It's not quite as fluffy as I would have liked, but it's very sweet and romantic, don't you think? I like how it looks with my old, flea-market frame.

The pink paper flowers are hanging from white ribbon just stuck to the ceiling with Scotch tape...fancy, huh?

The vases I bought last year from Target, and the aqua insulator is from the flea market, which I included after seeing Myra at My Blessed Life's lovely Valentine's mantle.

These cutie birds were our wedding cake toppers. Aww!

I've been using these white branches a lot -- in my fall decor:

Christmas decor:

And now Valentine's decor. They're holding these little crocheted hearts I made, which are super easy to make if you're a crocheter! The pattern is here.

Aren't they super adorable?! I made a bazillion for no reason :)

And the whole shebang is finished off with some white feathers I bought at Christmastime to make a cute little feather tree, buuut....that never happened. At least they're getting some use now!

My favorite part of this little display? I bought nothing except the dark pink yarn, which was $1 at the Dollar Tree.

I'll be back next week with some more Valentine's Day decor -- hint, hint, it's changes to my gallery wall!

Linking up!

A laundry room in the works

Helloooo everyone! Hope your week is going great so far!

Sooo, in September I talked about a laundry room we were planning in our basement...and then last month told you that the cost of doing the whole shebang made us decide to put parts of the project (like the floors and finished walls) on hold.

But we still really wanted to get the washer and dryer out of our entryway and into the basement. Because this just wasn't working for us:

We used a home design software the hubs bought to figure out a layout for the washer and dryer and a utility sink. Then, we had to clean up all of this.

Yikes!

The first phase of the laundry room project called for building out the studs for the walls, moving the plumbing and installing a pump, and doing some electrical wiring. I can't tell you any details about this, and you definitely wouldn't want any how-to tips from me about plumbing and electrical. Luckily, I have a handy hubs and father-in-law, who did all this work more or less in a weekend.

Pardon the blurry phone photo...

And, of course, the appliances had to be moved. We have a daylight basement, so instead of trying to fit the W&D through the basement stairwell, they took them for a little ride onto the front lawn and down to the basement door.

Here they are in their new home! True to my recent blog mission statement for the year, I'm showing you what this room looks like in its natural state, hampers and cleaning supplies and all. It's not pretty, but it's functional, and still in transition.

I looove how much space we have down here -- no worries about laundry piling up! A door here will eventually separate this area from the rest of the basement. It's so hard to photograph down here because it's so dark, but you get the gist.

In this space, we plan to put a storage cabinet we spotted at Lowe's. It'll hold cleaning supplies, hampers for clothes and have some space to hang things while they dry. You can see the drywall in the corner, waiting to get put up (hopefully soon).

We also plan to put a countertop across the W&D to keep things from falling between or behind them. And we'll put up a shelf or two above them for some storage once the drywall is up and painted.

And we hope to put in a laminate floor at some point too. This was the big budget breaker, even for a pretty affordable floor product, because the space is nearly 12 feet by 12 feet -- that's a lot of flooring! In the meantime, we're looking for a rug to put in front of the machines. 

I'm real proud of my hubby (and father-in-law) for doing all this work. He spent lots of time researching and learning about plumbing and electrical and all that jazz to make sure this project was done right.

But the real exciting part is the awesome closet we gained in the entryway (again, this is its natural state!).

We've got big plans for this space too -- not sure what yet, but I'm hoping for some hanging space, lots of shoe storage and a little bench. I can't wait to make this closet more useful. In the meantime, I'm totally enjoying all this space, and it's come quite in handy for when we have lots of people over. No more stepping over shoes to get to the door! No more moving laundry baskets out of the way to open the door! No more coats jammed into the tiny closet with no room for more! 

I even have room again for my river rock boot tray. It's been a great place to leave wet boots to dry this winter.

What have you been working on lately? Tackle any plumbing or electrical projects? I'd love to hear about them!