Home Master Project List- Updated

Update: I've been MIA I know. Life just never seems to slow down, but I was excited to see that I had accomplished some of the projects on my list and hadn't even realized it!! :) Yay!!

I'm listing the projects that I want to do throughout the house and also the suggestions from my cousin Sunshine. Those from Sunshine will be listed as (COS- Compliments of Sunshine.)

As I start completing these projects I will post before/after pictures and highlight them on the list. There are some of these that will be quick to do and others that will take longer. That's what I like about this list is I can choose something based on how much time I have to devote at that moment. If you see something on my list and you know of any awesome deals or tips for completing the project I'll be forever grateful!! :)

Living Room

• New Blinds
• Window Treatment
• Replace bottom molding of window frame
• Sand and finish painting the molding around the door
• Install light in ceiling
• Sofa table
  

Kitchen

• Take down border
• Fix kitchen drawers- 1 down 2 to go.
  
• Paint
• Bead board
• Replace light fixtures
• Declutter cupboard above fridge
• Go through cupboards and declutter
  

Back Door/ Stair Area

• Use joint compound and paint over existing wallpaper (any takers for assistance?) COS
  
• Take door off closet and implement shelving system w/baskets for each family member (This one I'm quite excited for...just to have to get all the details worked out.) COS
• Hang other piece of railing up
  

My Bedroom

• Hang long mirror on wall to help room appear larger COS
• Headboard
• Go through Shaun's closet and organize
• Organize my closet and determine better method for shoes
  

Hollie's Bedroom

• Move bed to center of wall rather than pushed up against the wall COS
• Take down Princess decals to create a less cluttered look
• Organize closet with more bins
• Go through tall chest of drawers- organize
• Spray paint ceiling fan
• New DVD player

Kambri's Bedroom

• Paint wall shelf
• Declutter and reorganize (This is an on-going project for anyone with kids)
• Get writing off the wall (I tried a magic eraser and it didn't work. Any other suggestions aside from painting over it?) A little elbow grease and hairspray is what did the trick!!
  

Upstairs Bathroom

• Take down molding around window and put up more of a plastic type molding
• Repaint floor molding around tub (Yay for water...)
• Be on lookout for used cupboard to refinish and hang above the toilet for added storage
• Mirror for wall
• Apply caulking strip around tub
• Replace tub
  
• Replace surround with tile

Toy Room

• Declutter and reorganize
• Prime and paint door
  
• Finish hanging sheetrock
• Tape and paint

Taylor's Room

• Take down wallpaper
• Paint room and molding
• New bedding set
• New DVD player
  

Family Room

• Repaint molding
• Spray paint bookshelves and entertainment center then place together on same wall- creating a faux entertainment center and freeing up space on other walls COS
• Go through and get rid of majority of VHS movies that do not get watched
• Go through and get rid of books
  

Laundry Room

• Finish walls & paint
  
• Paint cupboards
• Replace ceiling sections

Outside

• What can I do with rusty sheds?
  
• Lay sod below flower box area in front yard
  
• Paint flower bed box
• Old window pane decoration on front of house
• Back corner of backyard, fill in hole with dirt- then fill area with gravel
• Vinyl fence
• Clean up flower bed on side of house
• Add shelves under carport by the cupboards
• Figure out a way of organizing tools, outdoor tools, household project supplies, etc. Any ideas?
• Paint peaks of awning in backyard
• Finish filling the flower bed in the backyard
• Tear down wood shed and haul it away
• Close in back portion of carport and add a door
  
• Buy modular storage for enclosed area
  

Throughout the entire house I would like to start replacing the doors as well as either painting or replacing the closet doors.

I'd also like to replace all window blinds throughout the house. - Done

Wow! That's a lot of stuff. Some of these projects/purchases will be quite some time before they can be tackled and/or funded, but this is all part of my comprehensive master list and the unloading my brain thing. :)

Things accomplished in our home

I've been feeling kind of bummed lately about the lack of progress I feel our house is having. So, as a visual for me, I'm listing the things that we have done in the 8 years we have lived here.

• Fresh paint in all rooms but downstairs bathroom, family room & Taylor's room.
• New carpet in living room and hallway
• Upstairs bathroom completely redone, including new tub and tile surround
• Tile in kitchen & dining room where carpet/linoleum was
• New kitchen appliances with exception of fridge
• Replaced front and back entry doors
• New vinyl windows
• New blinds throughout upstairs
• Hideous wallpaper down stairway removed and painted
  
• Tile entry by front door & carport door
• Repainted shutters and new entry doors
• Tore out bushes in front yard
• Maximum insulation put in attic
• Tore out dead tree
• Installed fence along back of property
• Installed gate in backyard
• Shaun's man cave completed with electricity

List still in progress...

A Little Spring Cleaning & Decorating

After many months of debate we have a few decorations now on poor Kami's walls. They still look white and lonely, but for now I don't have the painting mood going on. Any ideas?!!

Hooray for a new bed! I still need to cut some vinyl to go on her headboard.

Her room is so little so we do the best we can with what space we lack! :) The best part of all these pictures is that the rooms have been spring cleaned. Walls and baseboards washed and all. Kami's room needs a little downsizing with the books she has. She's not real into them and we've got books clear back from Taylor that have been passed down, so we're going to go through those a bit more closely.

Hollie went through her room really good and got rid of a lot of junk! She now tells me that it's easier to keep her room clean without all the garbage everywhere.

Of course there are always the ongoing room clutter that has to be gone through. If I can stick to my game plan with a drawer/cupboard a day it'll sure make it easier to keep up on.

After a hard days work the girls are exhausted!

Kambri's Room- Phase 1

Kambri's room is now ready for Phase 2- decorating! However, I wanted SOMETHING different done with her room in the meantime, and this is what I came up with for now.

As you can see she had a very unorganized cupboard with books everywhere.

This picture is on the right side of her closet and was definitely wasting precious space that her already small room is in very much need of.

This is take 2 of that same side of her closet with a new bookshelf put in for her books and whatever I decide. Much better, in my opinion.

This picture shows the left side of her closet which I'm definitely liking better as well. And her cupboard all cleaned and organized to be used for her kitchen supplies. (LOVE this cupboard. My Grandpa Hansen made it for me one year for Christmas. It has gotten every ounce of use out of it possible, and then some. I still am working out the inner workings of it currently.

Her kitchen, where she spends many hours cooking over a hot stove. :)

I've now had 2 different people tell me to center her crib, although I was quite reluctant because of spacing issues...but I love it now!! :) What you see in this picture is white, bare walls that are screaming, "PLEASE PLEASE girlify me". Any suggestions? Her bedding is little flowers and ladybugs. I keep saying I'm going to do vinyl ladybugs on her wall, but not sure how to go about it so it doesn't look busy with them!

Toy Room In Progress

This toy room continually causes me heartburn. It's unfinished and hopefully sooner than later we'll get her all fixed up. For now it works...if I can just get the girls to play in there rather than taking all of the contents to every other room in the house.

Before:

After:

Bags/purses have always been a continual problem in our home. So for now, I decided to hang screws in the 2x4's that they can hang on. A little redneck I realize, but frankly...I'm glad to have somewhere to put them temporarily.

This view is from looking in from the door. It's sort of an odd-size room, just long and narrow. Ah well, it works for now. And I've TOTALLY been downsizing on toys. That got me motivated to do a yard sale here in a couple weeks. I told the kids that anything of theirs that sells, they get the $$. Hopefully that'll entice them to find more than then otherwise would.

Not a huge transformation, but it looks a lot better than it did. The before pictures were done after a little big of cleaning up. I always seem to forget to take the befores.

If you see any other suggestions, I'm all ears. :)

Sane Summer Happenings

Update: 9-6-09
There were some things I did great with this summer and others not so great. All I can say is I'm glad kids are back in school. I need some downtime and some structure back in our home!!! It was a fun summer and it flew by quickly!!
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Summer vacation is upon us. I am determined to be a 'fun' mom this summer and to try getting everyone in my family out and doing more! It is also my goal for all of us to enjoy a 'sane' summer together! :)

I've told both Taylor and Hollie that they need to make a list of things they want to do this summer. My focus is to do one 'fun' activity each week. That's not to say that we can't do more, but I have a few motives with this.

#1- I will have something to use as leverage in trying to keep the kiddos in line.
#2- It is summer after all and it's SUPPOSED to be fun!!!
#3- I am trying to become a funner Mom, remember?!

So I've got our initial list and I'll add to it as I go. And of course, due to being a Penny Pincher I'm all about finding the cheapest forms of entertainment. Therefore, as I continue getting my list put together I'll keep you posted on those types of things too!

• West Yellowstone Condo Trip

• Walker Cinema Matinees Tickets (Out of 6 sets of tickets, we used FOUR movies off of them. Shaun and Holl went one day and Holl went with my MIL to 2 others. Note to self: we won't be buying those next summer.)

• Swimming outings

• Bowling
  

• Miniature Golfing

• Treehouse Museum

• Swimming lessons

• Willow Park & picnic

• Camping w/friends (this is really going out on a limb for me as I'm not a camper by nature and this type of thing is really not me. BUT...I used to enjoy camping.)

• Lagoon

• Running through the Sprinklers (at home and w/Stephanie) :)

• Outings w/Emily, Katie and kids

• Extra trip to the condo w/kiddos

• Taylor & Shaun to a Bees Game

• Hollie & I to the monthly scrap night at Alpine (this is open to the public...you should join us- $5 a project)

• Kambri's Weekly 'Talking With Tots' Classes

• Hollie- Honey Bee Camp at Just Bee Scrap'n
  

• Chuck E Cheese

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I will continue to update this post with more...please post your ideas and what you have planned for the summer! Oh, and we are looking for friends to join us in our outings! The more the merrier, right?!

New Windows

We have been needing new windows for a very long time. I guess cosmetically from the outside looking in they don't look terrible...but they were! We had major drafts coming in from them and in the winter we had to hang plastic up to try helping with the drafts. Even still, you could watch the plastic move back and forth with the wind. It was terrible! Plus, I was afraid to open the windows because bugs came in. So, we finally caved!!!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Much prettier!! :) We replaced all 7 upstairs windows. A friend of mine from work, her husband is a general contractor and is the one who did our windows. As luck had it, the day he could come install them was Hollie's b-day and we had a friend party going on at the same time. So of course the girls had to flirt with the guys and kept teasing them calling them 'Handy Manny' and 'Man with no Shirt'. Haha!! They had their work cut out for them!!

We opted to only replace Taylor's window downstairs. As it was to replace his window they had to use a concrete saw to get the old window out, because they were cemented in. So of course this was a rather pricey project due to the extent of labor it took and having to special order such an odd size window. But we did want his window replaced for 2 reasons. One being so if there were ever an emergency and he needed to get out, he could to so easier and two being...when an excessive amount of water is outside his window, it seeps in through the frame and has caused damage in his room! So we're very grateful to have that window replaced as well!!

Before: (I slacked with doing a real before, so here's a picture of just the window.)

After:
Yay for new windows!!!! We love them!