A Progress Report

I tell you what…anymore, if it’s summer my name is Worthless. It’s something that’s occurred over the past couple of years. Last summer and this summer, I might as well be a lump of mashed potatoes. With some butter on top. Ohhhh…and some sour cream! With bacon.

Yummmm. Mashed potatoes…

Anyway. I’m extremely inactive. It’s the heat I’m sure. And that my kiddo is home from school. And that hubby is home from school (but at least he works in the basement and is productive). Whatever it is, I feel like I lose my mojo.

I was in our powder room today, looking around at the holes in the walls (that I still haven’t patched after months), and I was reminded of my list of goals I had for this year that I told you about here.

Let’s go through the list, shall we?

First up, the kitchen redo that I started over a year ago. Or was it two years ago? I honestly have no idea. Really. No idea.

I told you I wanted install glass fronts in the cabinets. Still haven’t done that. I’m utterly frozen in fear at the thought of it. I mean, what if I don’t like it? What if they mess it up? (No way I’m DIYing that one.)

If we had painted cabs I wouldn’t be as worried about it, but if one of these gets messed up, we’re pretty much out of luck. I’m frozen people. :)

One thing I did get done – hanging the crown molding:

 

I still haven’t even painted that. ;) Oh yeah, I did paint the back door, so that’s something too. And we all know what a science fair that was, so I get, like, triple points for that.

I discovered the recessed light to hanging light kit at Lowe’s last year, and I still want to find a light to try over the island:

I’m thinking a big lantern, like this:

Or a glass one like this – I’m actually quite obsessed with this lately:

Both are nearly $200, so unless the lighting fairy comes by, I don’t think they’ll happen. I’ve been checking out our local Restore all year for options I could rework and haven’t found anything.

But like everything…it will come eventually. It just takes forever sometimes.

By now I had planned to have the wall behind our bed painted:

And those stripes are still going strong. It would take about an hour for me to just do it…but there they are. Stripes.

I had also hoped to have wainscoting installed throughout the room by now, but the walls are still nekked. Heck, back in January I decided to write an ebook on molding, that I hoped to have mostly done by now.

Gotta do the molding to write about molding. ;)

Speaking of molding – that’s about the only thing I’ve accomplished in the office since January:

OK, a few more things…but not what I had hoped to have done:

The office has taken three years to finish up. Or something like that. Eighteen months…whatever. A LONG TIME.

Remember when I said I was going to paint the chocolate powder room?:

A normal person would just paint the powder room. Not me.

I thought, well if I’m going to paint, I might as well redo it all. I’ll just rip everything off the walls and do something completely different:

That’s how normal people think, right?

The stuff’s been ripped off the walls since April. It doesn’t look too bad from far away, but up close  you see all the goodness:

Since APRIL. :)

I have completed one thing! The ceiling is no longer brown – it’s a beautiful shade of blue/grey:

So at least I’ve got that going for me.

I do this thing where I’ll say “I’ll finish the powder room when I finish the office. But then…I’ll finish the office when I finish the kitchen. But I really want to work on the guest room, but I need to wait till I finish the powder room.”

Aren’t you glad you’re not in my head? ;)

One of the biggest projects I wanted to tackle this year was moving the washer and dryer out of our mud/laundry room:

Because it constantly…I mean ALL. THE. TIME. looks like this:

 

And this:

(Yes, that chalkboard has said the same thing for almost two years. If that tells you anything.)

It drives me NUTS! This is what we see every time we walk in the house – not exactly calming.

I’ve tried to keep it clean. Desperately. It lasts for about 24 hours. There are certain things you learn about yourself and your family that just don’t work. Having our laundry right when you walk in the door is one of those things.

Sooo…I had hoped to move them (up or down) by now. But then I get busy with totally unnecessary projects like book nooks. ;)

No matter that it’s going to take professionals to help move the washer and dryer…so I’m at the mercy of the budget for this one.

The BIGGIE we had hoped to have started by now was the basement:

Our plan after we paid off all of our debt was to start the process of finishing it off. That project has been interrupted by the outdoors, and I’m actually really stinking excited about it.

BIG FAT SMILEY FACE HERE.

It involves some of this:

And a WHOLE lot of this:

So excited I could just pee my pants. :)

This one is not going to be DIY though – which is pretty darn awesome for a change. It’s just beyond our skills so we’re hiring out. They say it will be done before Labor Day, which I believe calls for a HUGE Labor Day party. :)

We decided to move forward with the outdoor project instead of the basement because we know our backyard is an underutilized space – we don’t use it efficiently, for reasons I’ll explain soon. The basement, although unfinished, we use almost daily.

So, outside it is. It will by far be the biggest project we’ve ever done to our house. I’ll show you the process along the way for sure!

So there you go…a progress report on the little progress I’ve made on the to do list for 2012. Encouraging, eh? And yes, I know we have five months left in the year, but fall is coming. That means the holidays come after that (did you know?), so I’ll be pretty obsessed with those two seasons for the next few months.

I am determined to get the office done and the powder room at least started in the next month. And I’m making some minor (inexpensive) changes to the dining room that I’m pretty excited about.

So, when you work on a space, do you just do it or take forever like me? (I call it Decorating ADD.) Tell me, can you walk through your laundry room? What’s the biggest project you’ve undertaken at your house?

And most importantly…do you think there’s any hope for me?

Don’t answer that.

:)