House Project Goals for 2019

Each year since I’ve lived in our house, I like to make a list of goals or hopes for what we want to accomplish in our home for the year. Let’s call it a list of “House Project Goals.”

We plan our best, but life happens – so our projects are written in pencil – not pen. Last week, I recapped some of the projects we tackled last year and I’m excited to share our goals for this year with you today! I think creating these lists can be helpful because working on a home is a process for us. It doesn’t get done overnight, and I believe that’s a good thing!

Something I feel nudged to share is that it’s very important to us stay within our means, not spending more than we have. I believe it’s also important to talk to your spouse or roommates about your hopes for your home and then listen to theirs. It’s our desire to be on the same page because we’re talking about time, finances, and energy – those are big deals and can also cause rifts in families. I’d encourage you to set time aside to sit, discuss, and be honest. I always want to make sure my projects aren’t to impress others or to “keep up with the Joneses,” but instead to serve and bring enjoyment to our family. If the projects end up making us fight or create dissension, what good are they to us? Relationships make the home, not the perfectly styled bookcase or a new wall color.

Okay, back to the plan. These goals are what we’re planning for now, but anything could happen this year. We might need need to allocate these funds elsewhere and I want to have an open hand to that.

If this is the first time you’re starting to think about home projects and it feels overwhelming in time and budget, a great place to start is to save a little bit each month. Start by saving $10 or $15 each month allocated to home improvement. When you don’t use it for a month, save it and let it build. You don’t need to overextend to love your space.

So here are our open-handed plans for 2019!

1. THE BASEMENT

Walk down in our basement and you’ll walk back in time: the wood paneling, drop ceiling, and wood built-ins. I remember touring the home for the first time and thinking “this space has so much potential!” It was an added bonus to the home, but wasn’t on our home wishlist.

Our hope for the basement is to be a cozy family-friendly space, whether that’s for our friends’ kids or our own kids. The space already has a great floor plan and is equipped with disguised polls, amazing storage, and really the best layout for our specific basement!

We’ve been saving for this project for a while, but we’re still planning on DIY’ing a lot of it to save on cost, so it will definitely be a process. This is a major DIY project for us and there will be a lot of figuring it out as we go, so we wanted to start now and take our time. I’ll be fixing the ceiling, painting the walls and cabinets, and we’ll hire someone to install new flooring and baseboards.

The layout I’m envisioning will look something like this. Mike and I were both drawn to this look and layout from the first time we saw the photo!

Source: Meme Hill Studio

2. THE DINING ROOM

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen photos and stories on this space. Our dining room doesn’t need a renovation – just a refresh! I painted it when we first moved in and filled it with the hand-me-downs we had on hand. While we’re still using the hand-me-downs, we’re sprucing it up to fit our style!

If I could start this room from scratch and purchase all new everything – dining table, chairs, etc – I might go in a different direction. But we have a wonderful table that was left here by the previous owners so we’re bringing our own style to the room, but using the table as a starting point. We’ve already painted the walls, added curtains, painted furniture, and brought in a new rug, but still have a few more DIY projects up our sleeves before I reveal the entire room.

Shelving and new art for the wall are the finishing touches this room needs and I fell in love with this look from the minute I saw it. We’re creating our own take on this gallery wall for our dining room:

Source: Jenna Sue Design

3. A MASTER BEDROOM REFRESH

We haven’t spent much time updating our bedroom since getting married besides purchasing a new mattress (we love our Tuft and Needle!), a headboard/bed frame combination from Amazon, and some new bedding.

I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, but other areas have received my attention first. The plan is to do a little refresh, not redesign the entire room. We’re thinking of adding art and function to the walls, updating the vanity area and mirror, and adding some comfy chairs to create a little seating area.

Source: Honey We’re Home

4. THE MASTER BATHROOM

When we toured the house for the first time, there were contractors gutting our master bathroom. One of our biggest regrets about the house is not asking the homeowner to stop demoing and allow us to complete the space. Not only was it finished poorly, the design is not our style.

Regardless, we’re thankful for this updated bathroom! I painted the room when we moved in, but I’ve felt a little directionless when it comes to this little room.

I’d love to renovate this bathroom and the other full bathroom next to it and while that’s not our budget priority at this moment, that doesn’t mean we can’t use what budget we do have to create a space we love right now.

So the plan for this year is to paint the walls Alabaster with leftover paint from our entryway hall. I’d also like to add a shelf or two above the loo. I might change out the mirror and paint the vanity, but I’m still undecided on that. We’ll install some hooks for bath towels and call it a day!

I’m looking at a little different style, but here’s an inspo photo of the shelves I mentioned above!

Source: Honey We’re Home

5. LANDSCAPING

Our yard was in bad shape, but it’s come a long way in the past 3 years. It’s not quite where we want it to be, but if anything teaches us about “the process, not the sprint” it’s the outside!

You can’t will plants, grass, or flowers to grow faster (well, you know what I mean)! Instead of tackling it all at once, we do a few things each year to improve our yard and landscaping.

This year, we’re still deciding our priorities, but here are a few things we’re thinking about. We’ll start to add trees and bushes along the back of our yard to mask the chain-link fence. We also plan on removing the playset to make a larger space for the fire pit. I’d love to start small and try my hand at growing some herbs – perhaps in a container or in a raised bed.

And lastly, I love this look so I think we have the perfect spot for something like this!

Source: Magnolia Silos

6. FINISHING UP ODDS AND ENDS

I don’t know about you, but I have quite a few areas that fall into the “odds and ends” category. I have all the supplies, so they might not even take very long to carry out, but for whatever reason I avoid starting projects!

A few things that fall into that category in our home:

• Addressing peeling ceiling paint, patching, and re-painting
• Painting trim and doors (I still have a bright yellow door in a bathroom that is calling out my name!)
• I have organizers to organize my organizers! 😉 I’ve been wanting to refresh and reorganize my linen closet and luckily, I already have all the items I need to do so!

On months where we need to save instead of spend money, it’s great to have a list of things that are no-spend projects.

Feast your eyes on this gorgeous and attainable linen closet inspiration!

Source: Blesser House Blog

So those are the ideas that have been brewing in our minds for 2019! I’m excited to walk through this with you guys along for the ride and it’ll hopefully inspire you to love the home in front of you – even on a tight budget.

If you want to see more ideas I’m loving, you can follow me on Pinterest.

What do you think? What’s on your project list for 2019? Remember, it’s a process, not a sprint and there is joy in that process! It cultivates more than we think – patience, contentment, and celebrating the little things. Just like our homes don’t update in a flash, we don’t grow overnight either. Cheers to 2019, friends!

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