2016

Like clockwork it comes each year.  Christmas passes, our guests go home, the decorations come down and my thoughts turn to the new year.  I think of goals I want to work towards, personally and professionally... and I think a lot of projects I want to complete in and around our home.

In 2014 and 2015, we were walloped by big, large, "not fun" home projects.  They weren't on my list of projects I wanted to accomplish at home, instead, they popped up and caught us by surprise, forcing us to push some of our other projects off to another year.  The past 2 years, we were forced to replace 2 HVAC systems, our roof, the water heater and some wood rot and repair.  The silver linings to those unexpected repairs is that heading into 2016, we know that they are done.

We purchased our home at the height of the real estate market in 2007 and while we are always looking to complete projects that make our home more livable and help us love it a little bit more, we have to constantly watch the bottom line.  As a real estate agent, I find myself thinking about resell value and trying to choose projects that will enhance the value of our home when it comes time to sell... especially since our home value sat stagnant through the housing recession.  

Heading into 2016, I've promised that I won't push to complete any of the big items  on our to do list.  So.... knowing that there are no big projects on the horizon for our home in 2016 and knowing that I won't be able to sit still and not do ANY projects this coming year, I've come up with a list of smaller, more manageable projects that I hope to complete this year.  They are ones that I can complete myself, with minimal help from Mike or skilled professionals (at least that's the plan!)  They are all relatively small projects and somewhat inexpensive projects, but they are all ones that I think will have a big impact on the livability and long term appeal of our home.

I've been sitting on this post for a week... thinking that I can't post it until I take pictures.  But since it's about the before and a way for me to organize and stay accountable to home projects for the year, I'm going ahead and getting it out there.  The fun part will be documenting these changes with before and after pictures as they happen and checking to see the progress I've made as the year progresses.

Home Projects for 2016 

1.  Finish the stair project I started in November of 2015.  I still need to add picture frame molding up front stairs, have the bottom 3 treads fixed and have a runner installed.  This project is going to require a little outside help to finish... I got in a little over my head when I yanked the carpet off the stairs on a whim way back in the fall.

2.  Replace our side entry door (our friends and family entry) with a classic, 9 lite wood door.  I've wanted a more casual entry that allows more light into our foyer for a long, long time.  

3.  Replace the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room with a 15 lite wood french door.  It will still give us privacy when we want it and is a classic, traditional look, but will give us more light and open flow between those two rooms.

4. Replace the door between our side foyer and family room with the same 15 lite wood french door.  We have something similar there now, but it's on its last leg.  

5. Replace the front hall ceiling lights.  My mission is 2016 is to eradicate all builder grade boob lights from my home.  

6.  Replace the upstairs hall ceiling lights.  See number 5.  

7.  Paint the soffit above my kitchen cabinets and add some molding to minimize the soffit and make my 1980's cabinets look like the extend to the ceiling.

8. Do a little touch up work to our breakfast nook bench and add a bench cushion.  At 8 and 10 years old, the boys should be able to handle not ruining a bench cushion... right?  I'm definitely planning to use indoor/outdoor fabric for the cushion and may or may not attempt the sewing portion myself.  

9. Repair and fix my little garden for spring.  The fence took a beating last winter and didn't survive the summer.  It's also been overrun with herbs that come back bigger and better every year, and I think I want to transplant those to incorporate them into some of our other garden beds.

10. Do some much overdue planting in our patio beds this spring.

11.  Mount the family room and master bedroom televisions to the wall and hide the cords and cable equipment.  

12. Gradually declutter and organize my home.  I'm reading my friend Geralin Thomas' new book, Decluttering Your Home and am excited to put some of her advice and practices to use in my own spaces.  When my home feels organized and not a cluttered mess, my life follows suit.  

To be totally honest, putting it all down in print feels a little more overwhelming and a little less "simple", but if I focus on one project every month, I hope that it will be doable.  The decluttering process is a long term project, and a general lifestyle change I hope to make, so that is something that will stretch the whole year through.  

My plan is to blog about each of these changes as they happen.  Truth be told, projects that are easy on your wallet and on your time and make a big impact in your home without making a big impact on day to day life are as important as the big disruptive ones (like those hardwood floors I've been pining for).  

Here's to hoping that 2016 holds great things in store for all of us.... in life and at home.  What are your home plans for the new year?

Before.

To understand my home and my journey to transform it into the house I imagine it to be, it's important to understand where we started.  And there's no better way to understand where we started than to take a little house tour... the same house tour we took right before we put an offer in on our home 8 years ago.

Eight years ago, I was pregnant with Jack and James had just turned two years old.  We felt like we were outgrowing our little ranch and faced with a major addition or renovation to help our house grow to fit our family, we decided to look for something else.

My dream was a 2 story house, with storage, a garage and most importantly... a big playroom to house our growing collection of toys and kid stuff.  Mike's dream was a big, flat backyard with room for the boys to throw a football and the dogs to run.

When the I found our house on MLS 8 years ago, it stuck out.  Even now, I'm not sure why... the style of the previous owners wasn't anything like my own style and while it wasn't a total fixer upper, there were projects we would need to take on to make this house our own.  But something about it felt warm, inviting and homey.  Even in pictures, with someone else's paint colors and furniture, it felt like a place that we could make happy memories and raise our family.

They say hindsight is 20/20, and in our case, I've definitely felt that way in the 8 years we've lived here.  Make no mistake, I love our home.  BUT I was determined to buy something and get everyone settled before Jack arrived, so we were a little under the gun to find "the one".  As I look back through these pictures, I don't think we really thought through how much work it would take to make this house our home... (and by "we", I mean "I".  I think Mike knew exactly how much work this house would take.  But he also knew he was dealing with a hormonal, nesting wife who was 7 months pregnant, so he wisely chose to stay silent on that subject.)

Separate formals were a must for me when we were looking at houses... I think I felt that way simply because I grew up with a formal living and dining room and wanted those spaces in the home where we would raise our children.   Most people want a more open concept today and don't need or want the separated space.  I still love having our formal living and dining room areas, but they've constantly evolved in our years here at home to adapt to our current needs.  The living and dining rooms in our house needed some updating when we purchased the house, but the basics were in place... molding, hardwood floors and rooms stacked together so that we can double our floor space whenever we need to.

Another thing I had to have in my new home was a separate family room space... again, simply because I grew up with it.  Eight years later, I still love that our family room is connected to the kitchen and that the room that houses our TV isn't the first thing you lay eyes on when you walk into the front door.  I love that it has a cozy fireplace.  In fact, I wouldn't consider looking at any houses that didn't have a fireplace. (Strange little tidbit about me... I'm obsessed with fireplaces.  My dream house has one in every room).  But I'm also the first to admit that even though this room has seen some major changes in our 8 years here (mostly paint, paint and more paint), it's also the room that sometimes frustrates me the most.  There's still so much I want to do in there.

No doubt, I was most excited about the huge, oversized bonus room space when we bought the house.  James' toy collection at 2 years old was overwhelming and quickly outgrowing the storage options we had in our ranch.  I still love having a dedicated playspace for my kids today and a place to keep all of their toys and clutter away from visitors popping by unexpectedly.  But as the toys have evolved and changed as the boys have gotten bigger, we've started to think about what the bonus room will become in the next phase of our lives.  It's the one room in the entire house that is still the same color it was when we bought it.  It's a space where the focus has been function over form and aesthetics.  I'm excited to transform this space in the next few years into something that the boys will continue to enjoy as they enter their teen years, but it's definitely bittersweet to see that massive toy collection dwindle little bit by little bit.

  
This was our kitchen the day we bought our house.  I look back at this picture and really can't remember what I was thinking when we walked through.  I think maybe I assumed we'd tackle a kitchen renovation within that first year, just like we did in our little ranch?  I'm pretty sure that I walked into that kitchen and saw what I wanted it to be instead of what it was... wallpaper, dark cabinets with frosted glass, tile countertops and a backsplash with garden themed accent tiles.  What's crazy is that 8 years later, we still have not removed the cabinets or the countertops.  We've made major changes in this space but we've done it with paint and by working with what we had.  There are still some things we need to change (like those tile countertops), but for the most part, I love what our kitchen has become... and I love that we didn't have to undergo the expense and hassle of a major renovation to make that happen!

I've always wanted a screened in porch and this house had one... need I say more?

Mike and I both wanted any house we purchased to have a large, flat backyard with lots of grass for playing ball with our boys and fetch with the dogs.  This backyard was big and fully fenced it, but it had trees for miles and not a blade of grass.  We put an offer in knowing that the yard would be our big project.  Both of us will tell you on any given day that it was a bigger project than we ever dreamed it would be!

The bedrooms were pretty basic and gave us what we needed, but lacked personality.  We were excited about a good sized master and a bedroom for both boys.  Coming from a 1950's ranch, they all seemed huge and spacious.  Coming from our 3 bedroom ranch and only one child with another on the way, 3 bedrooms seemed plenty.  Eight years later, I'm still toying with the idea of moving the boys into a bedroom together to give us a dedicated guest room.  Eight years later, I'm still cursing the fact that this house doesn't have that fourth bedroom.  But, three bedrooms works for us, so it wasn't a deal breaker all those years ago and it still isn't today.

Lengthy and long, but that's it... our house as we saw it when we toured it eight years ago.  We've come a long way in those eight years.  Looking back at the MLS photos, it's hard to believe that it's the same house that we live in today.  Looking back is good for my soul because there are days when I'm frustrated at the changes we haven't made yet... and these photos remind me of all the changes and progress we have made... changes that have made this house our home.

Making House a Home.

"Home is where the heart is."  "There's no place like home." "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." Search for quotes about home and the list that comes back is endlessly long.  Home is a integral part of our lives.  It's where we retreat from the world at the end of a long day and where they ones we hold most dear reside.  It's full of love, warmth and memories... home is full of our life.

A few months after I stopped blogging at Storywood Designs, I realized that I missed it.  I missed blogging.  But I also realized that it wasn't the furniture before and after's that I missed blogging about.  I missed blogging about projects in my own house.  I missed blogging about kitchen makeovers in my clients' houses.  I missed blogging about home.  And so, with that realization, I'm back to blogging... for myself and for the enjoyment I get out of chronicling my journey to make our house a home.

If someone asked me what I hope to get out of this blogging this time around, first and foremost, I hope that one day I can look back at the story of our home... our journey to create our home, the changes we made, on our own and with help, and the way we adapted our home to work for our family over the years.  I hope that others can come here and find inspiration... attainable ideas that they can use in their own home.  I hope that I can show readers that making a house your home doesn't have to cost a fortune and doesn't require crazy carpentry skills... sometimes all a major update takes is an ounce of courage and a gallon of paint.  I hope that I can give readers of this blog a chance to see real life living... with 2 boys, an active life and, fingers crossed, furry feet running rampant through the house again soon, we demand a lot of our home and make it work hard for us.  At the end of the day, we are a real family, on a real budget, trying to make this house our home.