So once there was this list...

As a home owner, we tend to make lists. You know the ones I am talking about...It starts when you are looking at the home before you actually buy it. You can see the different colours of paint, and your own little touches that you will put on the house. The second list comes at around the same time as the new mortgage does. The list of things that HAVE to be done so you can get house insurance (one of the downfalls to having an almost century old home..for us it included replacing the 60 year old boiler that was heating the house). There is the "Spring-to-do-list", the "Fall clean-up list" and of course the "It is the dead of winter and i want to do some sort of summer type activity so i will just draw up a list of things i want to fix in the house. There is also the "Someday-list", which is course a list of the things you will do when you win the lottery..someday.

With the return of the nice weather (close your ears Mother Nature....i don't want to jinx it) we are once again looking at the home improvement list. You remember the list..the one that we started last year, and refused to add any more projects to until that list was done. "Other Kim" laughed and reminded us that the list would get added to, because as you do your inprovements, you ALWAYS find something else to "just fix up"

Let's take a look at the list from last Spring..and see how far we have come...

Finishing the laundry room.
Finishing the basement
Finishing the downstairs bathroom
Starting the repairs to the kitchen ceiling, which developed a leak during the winter and has seen better days.
Stripping the woodwork in the front hallway
Prime the walls in the front hallway for painting and then actually paint said walls.
Replace the almost 100 year old windows at the front of the house with a bay one.
Blow insulation into the back of the house, so no more coffee cups will burst come next winter.
Dig out the back yard and replace weeping tiles.
Finish building the deck that was started last year, but never finished.

Ok, so not a lot of things got done on that list.

BUT

We did end up fixing the roof
Sanding, painting and fixing the kitchen
Built a second smaller deck for the BBQ and block table
Built a shed
Built, painted and installed shutters
Leveling out the back half of the yard behind the patio
SO all in all, not a bad dent to the list, even with the extras added in.

But now...it is is SPRING. And that means a new list.

SO here is the list for this year.

Finishing the kitchen ceiling (tiles will be ordered this week...as the tax rebate finally arrived)

Priming and sanding and painting of front hallway

Finish the laundry room. (it is half done, and I have given up on changing the flooring. I am just going to paint it and tack down a carpet runner)

Finish the downstairs bathroom. (Tiling is 3/4 of the way done, but need to find a small sink to make the room more usable)

Pick a colour, and then actually apply said colour of paint to upstairs bathroom. I have given up the desire to change out the tiles. They are ugly..but faced with the cost factor of replacing them in a room that is larger thatn my master bedroom...I will learn to live with them. Painting them is not an option. I have looked at it. It is not doable here. I may however swap out the countertop. It is ugly and blue. It too could be painted, but would not last as long as a new counter...

Add to this the normal spring jobs of cleaning up flower gardens, and this year starting an herb garden so i can stop running to the neighbours every time i am out of basil..and we have what is shaping up to be a busy few weekends.

I want the kitchen completely finished before Bug has her First Communion at the end of May, and would love for the front hall to be done too.

What is on your "to-do" list for this year?