Tag Archives: home projects

Progress Is Progress

I don’t have anything exciting to share with you today (cue disappointed “awww”), but I feel I owe you all a post explaining my recent absence. The reason for this absence is twofold: too many projects underway at one time, and limited time to actually make progress on any of them.

This is what I mean:

dining room with crown moulding

We purchased crown moulding (yea!) But… we have yet to patch it, paint it, and install it. So now it’s hanging out in our dining room with my makeshift growing table.

painting a bathroom  painting a bathroom

We finished painting the small hallway between our kitchen and powder room (yea!) and started on the powder room (another yea!). But… we haven’t even cut in around all the baseboards yet. Last weekend was our anniversary (6 years!), and hanging out together sounded a lot better than painting!

And in the midst of all these started projects, we still have our day jobs, our dog, our somewhat neglected workout schedule, and all the other joys of daily life to juggle.

One step at a time, right?

BUT I did not forget about my blogiversary this week! Please stop back on Thursday for a special post and my first giveaway!

2013 “Resolutions”

Let’s start off with a some background info: my husband works for SparkPeople.com. If you’re not familiar with SparkPeople, it is the largest online diet and healthy living community (and it’s free!). In the spirit of “practice what you preach,” SparkPeople employees are encouraged to participate in an annual challenge that includes fitness and nutrition goals. Participants are also asked to create some personal goals to work towards throughout the year. They don’t have to be fitness or nutrition-related; these goals can be anything. I thought writing these out and sending them into the ether of the Interwebs might help with accountability and responsibility and all those other abilities.

I put “resolutions” in quotes because that word makes me shudder a little bit, and conjures up almost immediate expectations of failure. So maybe something like resolutions will have a more positive effect on my mental outlook for the year to come, especially since after reading through these, I may be asking for a lot of myself at once!

Here goes nothing!…

1.) Work on my diet/food prep. There are a lot of different components to this, but here’s what I’ve got in mind – I already eat a fair amount of organic fruits and veggies, but I want to make an even stronger effort at eating only organic, as well as looking for organic/local/grass-fed sources to buy meats (anyone have any recos?). I’m considering giving the Paleo diet a shot, as I feel it would really benefit me to cut out as much dairy and grains as possible. I’d also like to make an effort this year to make more basics from scratch, at home. For instance, spices and seasonings, chicken or veggie stock, etc, instead of buying from the store. I also want to plan at least 2 meals a week, so we don’t get sucked into the “let’s pick something up because I forgot to defrost the chicken” habit. Make sure those meals include plenty of veggies and fish!]

>> I’ve already started with meal planning: Sunday we had Black Bean Burgers and tonight, Mexican Quinoa is on the menu! Yum! I found both recipes on Annie’s Eats: Black Bean BurgersMexican Quinoa

2.) Find a form of exercise that doesn’t feel like a chore. I’m really looking forward to daily dog walks once the weather improves a bit, but I really need help motivating myself (indoors or out!) when the weather’s so cold and dreary.

3.) Start writing again. My novel is never going to write itself! I don’t know what I’ll write, but I think a personal project, beyond this blog, will be good for me 🙂

 

What are your “resolutions” for the year? If you have any tips that could help with mine, I’d love to hear them! Let’s help keep each other on track and motivated!

{I already listed out some of the house projects I want to complete in 2013. You can view those here.} 

My New Year’s Wishlist

I’m tabling my usual “Weekly Wishlist” this week in favor of a more broad look at the year to come, and what I hope it brings, from home projects to life in general. Corny? Maybe. Rife with things resembling “resolutions”? Also maybe. Indulge me.

2013 Wishlist

– paint the following spaces: entryway, my office, family room, kitchen, powder room (pretty much our whole first floor); our master bedroom/bathroom, and maybe our “bonus room”

– reorganize the pantry (and get Tom to follow the system!)

– create a better, combined filing system for all our important documents, tax info, etc

– build bookshelves & a window seat for my office

– install crown molding

– install wall molding if we feel like it / have time to get fancy

– pick out a pattern and fabric so my mom can make us a quilt for our bed

– furnish some of our emptier rooms (dining room, bonus room)

– expand the vegetable garden; try growing some fall/winter items this year! (pumpkins???)

– attend Haven Conference in August

– take a trip to the West Coast (Oregon/Washington) to visit family and friends

– start some personal writing projects (that novel ain’t gonna write itself!)

– try to be more patient and get less discouraged when things don’t work out the way I want them to (oh, this applies to so. many. things.)

– try running again. (reminder to self: take it slowly. starting with intervals is okay. everyone has their own pace.)

Whew. Okay. That sure seems like a lot of stuff. But I think it’s doable! And if it’s not, that’s what the “try to be more patient” item is for 😉

What’s on your wishlist for 2013? A special item? A long-awaited project? A personal goal? I’d love to hear what you’re working on in the new year!

The Stain Game

So I realize that house projects have been a little non-existant lately. Sorry. We’ve got so many in our heads, but time and funds don’t work on the same timeline. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they did?

One project we Tom finally did get around to was staining the deck. I felt like we were really tempting the Weather Gods by waiting until November, but it seems like it turned out okay! We had absolutely beautiful weather in Cincinnati last weekend – upper 60s (may have even hit 70 at one point!), sun, and clear skies, so Tom high-tailed it to Lowe’s on Sunday morning to pick up deck cleaner, deck stain, and brushes. He spent the entire day working. I cheered him on from inside the house, because somebody had to keep Molly company out of trouble.

Here’s a Before pic of the deck from the summer:

boxes on railings

And After:

We used Olympic Maximum in Cedar Naturaltone. I like the way it turned out – much warmer-looking. And, no more rain soaking into the wood! The downside? It freezes on the surface! It’s going to be a fun winter navigating a slippery deck in order to potty train a puppy…. oh well! All part of the experience, right?

Now I can cross this one off the Things I’m Putting Off, But Desperately Need To Do list! Woohoo! Have you conquered a project lately that you were a little less-than-motivated to do? Here’s hoping that Pantry Reorganization comes next… (ugh).

Things I’m Putting Off, But Desperately Need To Do

1. Reorganize our pantry.

I got off to a good start at the beginning of the year, hauling home a huge amount of totes and bins from Target, but due to other members of the family not paying attention to my system (Tom, I’m looking at you), it demands a re-do. Our pantry has also become a bit of a catch-all. I don’t there’s anything too unrelated to kitchens / dining in there, but now I’m scared to look.

2. Create a filing system.

Tom and I have had separate filing methods since we got married 5 years ago. He takes care of his, and I take care of mine. And the problems with this are numerous…

– We now have a lot of joint accounts and shared assets, from savings accounts to our mortgage payments.

– We constantly lose W2 forms during tax season because they wind up all over the house.

– I use a pretty simple Banker’s box system; Tom… well, I’m still not really sure what his filing system is. But statements have turned up in some pretty random places around the house, including a drawer of our nightstands.

I have no idea where to start. As soon as I start thinking about this project, I feel completely overwhelmed. I feel like I need to take at least a week of vacation to sort it out and do it properly. Please, oh please, help me find the inspiration, determination and endurance to complete this task!!!

3. Stain the deck

While Tom will probably take the lead on this one, I should probably offer my services. At least to pick out a nice stain color 😉

We’re waiting for the weather to cool down before tackling this one, but then I see college football and Bengals games eating up our weekend afternoons…

4. Seal the driveway

There’s been some debate recently about how important this one is. Do we really need to seal our driveway? I guess it would help it last longer, because the last thing we want to do is pay thousands to have it re-poured in a few years. Thoughts? Any tips on driveway sealing?

What tasks are you putting off? Let’s inspire each other to conquer them!