2018 was a bit slow on many fronts in our house, see my recap of 2018 here, but we have big plans for 2019. Here’s a preview of the house projects and blog plans for this next year!
1. Upstairs Bathroom Renovation
We already renovated our half bathroom on our first floor (check out the reveal here), but for the first project of the year we want to tackle our upstairs bathroom. This is the main and only bathroom upstairs that overnight guests use. We had more people stay with us in 2018 that we expected and it really highlighted the need to us for this bathroom to get a complete renovation! It’s straight out of the 80s, complete with a very short vanity, shell sink, and floral wallpaper (that I actually don’t dislike too much, but its peeling badly so it must go!). We decided to tackle this bathroom before we undergo the complete gut of our master bathroom to hone our tiling skills in a smaller space first.
2. Finish the Upstairs Hallway
The upstairs hallway is looking completely different and we have made a lot of progress on it! The textured walls have been skim coated smooth, the popcorn ceilings scrapped to a smooth finish, hardwoods have been installed, and the railings and spindles have all been replaced. There are a few finishing details like ordering and installing new light fixtures, finishing installing door knobs and hinges, hanging art, and maybe repainting the whole hallway. We would like to get this project completed in conjunction with the upstairs bathroom remodel. For more details on the current status of the upstairs hallway check out this post.
3. Painting the Exterior of the House
The exterior paint of our house is not a bad color – it’s currently two-toned gray, but the wood rot in a few areas on the front of our house is getting bad. See what our house looked like when we first moved in 2.5 years ago here. We have since removed all of the overgrown bushes out front, planted new front landscaping, painted the door black, replaced the house numbers, and updated the exterior lighting. This year we plan to hire out painting the exterior of the house, including fixing all of the wood rot. We plan to get a few quotes to have new siding installed on the front of the house only to potentially completely remove the wood rot problem that arises on the trim pieces that give our house the classic 70s/80s faux tudor look that was popular. We also plan to get a new door OR replace the glass in the door and sidelights of our existing door.
4. Backyard Patio & Landscaping
Are you sensing an exterior theme? Our current backyard situation is looking a little sad. We installed a fence when we first moved in, removed a lot of ivy ground cover, and extended the grass, but we have a lot of water pooling issues, which leads to a lot of mud that is not fun when you have two dogs. We do have a patio that we think was installed when the house was built, it’s not tiny, but we would love to have a little more outdoor entertaining space. The plans for the backyard include replacing the patio with a deck or extending the existing patio, adding river rock and drain systems to the low lying mud-prone areas, and refreshing the landscaping.
5. Dining Room Refresh
I hinted at it in my 2018 recap post here, but I am planning a few updates in the dining room. We got a new dining table that I refinished (read about that here), I hung curtains, and we repainted a few times, but the dining room still feels plain and I honestly do not love the color we ended on when we last painted. I like the color a lot itself, but in our north facing dining room that has a window covered by our front porch the color is falling a bit flat. That is why I love paint, it’s so easy to change a room if you change your mind! Along with a potential new paint color I hope to add a buffet, change the light fixture (again), and some personality with artwork and decor.
6. Finalize Den & Living Room
You may know we completed our den as part of the One Room Challenge in 2018. Recently, we made a switch and moved our TV from our living room to our den. This caused a furniture shuffle and things a feeling a bit off. It’s only been a week, but so far we like the TV in the den – it makes turning on the TV more intentional meaning I don’t just plop down on the couch after getting home from work, I have to go into a separate room and really think about my decision of what I am watching, which for me has been great so far. If we decide this is the permanent situation we want we will mount the TV in the den, get a slimmer TV console (and use the dresser we currently use for it elsewhere), and rearrange a few pieces of art and small furniture. I am queen of moving furniture around and shopping my house, but I would love to get the living room and den to places where I don’t feel like moving things around all of the time.
7. Master Bedroom Finishing Touches
Shortly after we moved in I painted our bedroom thanks to the help of my mom (along with the other 5 rooms she helped me with – thanks mom!). I DIYed a no-sew headboard and we added new nightstands, a new rug, and a new bench. I would say our room is maybe 60-70% done. We already ordered a new light fixture that needs to be installed, plan to add hardware to the nightstand drawers, will update a few bedding pieces, hang artwork and add a chair/table/lamp area that will probably just hold cloths if we’re being honest. The finishing touches I have not gotten around to yet need to be completed.
8. Master Bathroom Renovation
This last project is the biggest project on the list, for both $ and time. With that being said, this will be the last project on our list and depending on our time and budget situation we hope we can at least get this project kicked off in 2019. It will be a full gut job and we hope to reconfigure the space a bit. We will most likely hire out the plumbing and electrical, but we plan to do things like drywall, painting, tile work, and mill work ourselves.
Blog Plans
Post more – 2018 was a slow year for blog posts. I have plan to up my posts to 3+ times per week. I have a lot I want to share and created a content schedule that will help me ensure I stay on track.
Share more organization ideas – One of my initial goals with this blog was to share organization ideas. I have completely failed on that front. I love to organize and create a space for everything in our home, but I really haven’t shared about it.
Create a shop my house & home tour section – I have received questions on Instagram about sources for various items in our house and I currently do not have a good reference to send people to.
Share more behind the scenes – It’s easy to get caught up in the “end result”, but the reality is this doesn’t happen over night, or sometimes even in the same year. I want to share more of the how, why, and general process we take when renovating each room including how we budget for spaces and projects.
I hope you follow along to see what the journey of this next year brings!
See more behind the scenes and pretty pictures on Instagram. Don’t miss the stories features for peaks into behind the scenes and daily life.
Follow along on Facebook. Similar to Instagram, but I don’t use the stories feature.
