2022 Master List of Home Goals

Happy New Year, y’all! These last two weeks have been such a good, relaxing, refreshing time for me, and I woke up this morning with such excitement about this new year and the fact that this could be THE YEAR that I finish every room in our home (that is, our home as it is today, not including the addition that we plan to build onto the back).

It has been a long road, with me working by myself the majority of the time (but calling in reinforcements, like family members and my trusted contractor and his guys, when needed). But with only three rooms remaining, and with all three of those rooms already in progress, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And I have high hopes, barring any unforeseen circumstances, that this will be THE YEAR that I finish them all.

The thought of that is so exciting to me, and I’m ready to GET STARTED!! And I’m ready to get back to my annual list-making so that I have something to refer back to throughout the year to hold me accountable.

I’ve been doing one of these lists of home goals for a few years now (I think I started in 2017), although I skipped it altogether last year. Coming off of the craziness of 2020 (when I pretty much accomplished nothing), I just didn’t have it in me to actually make a list for 2021. But this year, I’m feeling motivated, and pretty much back to my pre-2020 self, so I’m back to making a list. Here’s what my 2022 list looks like so far.

The Home Gym

I spent some time during my break getting this room cleaned out and organized a bit. It’s not perfect, by any means, because it still has to hold a mishmash of things — my rowing machine, the huge stack of trim that will be used for this room, the big boxes of flooring that will also be used in this room, lighting and other items for the bathroom remodel happening in the next room.

So it’s kind of an organized mess at this point. But at least the hardest and most time-consuming project (the striped walls) has been done, with the exception of a couple of touchups, as you can see. Here’s what’s left to do in the room:

• Finish paint touch ups on the walls
• Install the ceiling fan
• Install the six recessed lights
• Install, caulk, prime, and paint all of the trim
  • Window casings
  • Door casings
  • Baseboards
  • Crown molding
• Install the rest of the hardware flooring in the closet
• Install the foam square gym flooring
• Make or buy window treatments
• Build the Swedish ladder
• Build a cabinet and shelves in the open closet area
• Paint Matt’s exercise bike (it’s white, and I’d like it to be black)
• Add mirrors/posters/artwork/whatever else a home gym needs to be a motivational space

The Master Bathroom

I got quite a bit accomplished on the master bathroom remodel last year, so I’m hoping that it can be finished in the first half of this year. There’s still quite a bit to be done. Here’s how that list is shaping up…

• Tile the rest of the bathroom floor
• Grout all of the floors — shower, main bathroom, toilet area
• Tile the walls in the toilet area
• Caulk all of the tile where needed (in the corners)
• Built cabinet in the toilet area
• Install the toilet
• Install the door between the bathroom and home gym
• Install, caulk, prime, and paint all of the trim in the room
  • window casing
  • door casings
  • crown molding
  • baseboards
• Finish the clear protective coat on the Venetian plaster walls
• Install the vanity lighting
• Make or buy a window treatment
• Build the vanities
• Built the window seat between the vanities
• Sew cushion/pillows for the window seat
• Finish the lower half of the walls
  • wainscoting
  • tile accent/backsplash
• Order the countertops and have them installed
• Install the plumbing fixtures — vanity faucets, bathtub faucet
• Install the bathtub
• Make the bubble chandelier above the bathtub
• Paint the doors

Yeah. That’s quite a list. Yikes! Staring at a long list like that, and especially one that includes things like “build the vanities,” as in, more than one vanity, is a bit daunting. But I’ll just take it one step at a time, and it’ll all get done.

My Studio

It’s hard to believe, but once I get those other two rooms finished, that just leaves my studio as the last remaining unfinished room inside our house. After eight long years of working on this house, the original interior that we started off with could actually be finished this year. It’s hard to believe.

My studio has been usable for a while now, but it’s far from finished, so the room doesn’t really function in an efficient way. The main issue is that the room has absolutely no storage right now. So here’s what I’ll need to do…

• Install, caulk, prime, and paint the rest of the trim
  • Window casings (all installed, but two still need to be caulked, primed, and painted)
  • Door casings
  • Baseboards
• Built, prime, and paint cabinets
  • Cabinets in the “office” area of the room by my desk
  • The full wall of cabinets on the front (wallpapered) wall
  • Cabinets by the door into the sitting room (i.e., breakfast room)
• Install lighting in the storage closet
• Build shelves for the storage closet

That list seems pretty short, and it doesn’t sound like a lot, but with the sheer amount of cabinets I have to build, I’d bet that that room will take every bit as long as the master bathroom will take me.

So those are the three interior rooms that still need to be finished, and those will be my main focus for the year. I know I keep saying this, but I’m so excited that this could be the year that ALL of the current interior spaces could be finished in our home!!! That is so unbelievably motivating, so I’m going to do my absolute best to stay focused so I can make that happen.

But there are other areas that are my “second tier” goals for the year, and that would be the front porch/front yard, and the carport.

Front Porch and Front Yard

Our front porch needs some maintenance this year. You can see the current state of the stain/wood protector that I used on it. It’s not looking great. So I really need to get a new protective coat on this wood before it gets damaged. Here are a few things I’d like to do if time permits…

• Finish the stone façade on the front and side of the concrete porch
• Sand and reseal/stain the porch boards
• Repaint the front door
• Create a sitting area on the front porch
• Create flower beds around the porch and plant pretty things
• Build steps at the side (studio) door

I’d love to think that this is the year that we can finally get our driveway poured, or have our whole front yard landscaped, but I won’t hold my breath. The driveway will cost about $25,000, and with all this other stuff I want to finish this year, I just don’t see that happening this year. Plus, Matt said he wants to build me a workshop (which will also be about $20,000) before we spend that money on a driveway. And before we have our front yard landscaped, we really need to have a sprinkler system installed, and I just don’t see that happening this year either. But if we win the lottery, all of that could change. 😀

Carport

If you remember, when bought the house, it had a two-car garage. But the garage doors were so narrow that I could barely fit my car (which is a Honda Civic, so it’s not a huge car) through the garage door. And my truck wouldn’t fit through the doors at all. So we decided to turn the two-car garage into my studio, and then build a carport onto the back with a very nice ramp for Matt.

Then somewhere along the way, I thought it would be a great idea to enclose that carport and turn it into my workshop where I use all of my woodworking tools. It would be very convenient with my workshop right outside the doors of the studio (where I do projects like sewing and painting — the non-woodworking projects).

And then, after contemplating that for a while, I realized just how ridiculous that plan was. When we had this carport built, they had to use huge (and very expensive) laminated beams that could span the open areas while holding the weight of the roof. Those beams added thousands of dollars to the price that standard wall construction wouldn’t cost. So if I enclosed the current carport to make a workshop, and then had another carport/garage built further back on the property, we’d just be paying those extra thousands of dollars all over again. That seems ridiculous. So instead, we’re just going to have a separate workshop built, with standard construction (and much cheaper) walls. We’re on an acre of land, so there’s plenty of room for a large workshop.

So that leaves me needing to finish the current carport, which I now know for sure will stay a carport. Here’s what it needs…

• Paint the siding and trim on the carport and the back of the studio
• Paint the back doors of the studio
• Install lighting and a fan in the carport
• Install beadboard ceiling to enclose the rafters, and prime and paint
• Build a curb on the wheelchair ramp for safety purposes for Matt

That pretty much sums up my 2022 home goals. The three rooms inside the house are my main priorities, so those will receive the bulk of my focus and time. But during those days when the weather is really nice, it’s hard to stay focused on interior rooms, so it’s nice to have a few exterior goals in mind as well.

Here’s to an exciting and productive 2022!!

By the way, another goal of mine this year is to be more present on social media, specifically Instagram. I want that to be a place where I share not only behind-the-scenes glimpses of my projects, but also just a more personal look at everyday life stuff. So if that’s something that interests you, be sure to follow me on Instagram.