Nesting and Power Tools (Home Projects List - 2012)

I have a slight tendency to take "nesting" to the extreme.  Remember our complete house exterior overhaul when I was pregnant with Jadyn?  And our 6 week, 468 square foot home addition that we finished the day before sweet Tyler arrived?  A new baby seems to set a fire under us (me) to attack big projects.  Which is really never well-timed since my over-sized belly makes it difficult for me to be all that useful and the bulk of responsibility falls on my ever-handy husband. But, if you consider our track record, I'm basically a baby-oven every other year and in between I have a newborn attached to my hip - so I suppose there's never really a good time in this house! :-) 
Of course there are a million projects swirling around in my head but given the expenses we've incurred over the last few months, I know I need to keep our plans realistic.  That means the small jobs requiring mostly elbow grease will take first priority.  I also keep forgetting that this baby is only a few weeks away (whoa, right?) so who knows just how much we'll actually tackle before the little man arrives.

Feasible Projects:

1) Organize the linen closet.

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2) Create a gift wrap station in the office closet.  No more digging through the garage cabinets for spare gift bags and tissue paper!

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3) Laundry room makeover.  Josh is going to build me shelves under the laundry counter so that each load can have its own basket.  That way I can get rid of the gazillion hampers around the house and hopefully keep up better on what needs washed.  Of course this also means I'm going to have to consolidate my over-ambitious sorting method since there will only be room for 6 baskets... but that just goes back to my resolution to simplify... right?

Something similar to this, but with round baskets and pretty vinyl labels on the shelves. :-)

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Also on the list: soft blue walls, painted counter tops, white cabinets, hardware, and tile. 
(Yes, I'm slightly obsessed with the picture below.  I think I'd actually get laundry done here!)

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4) Organize school papers/artwork. I love, love this idea from I Heart Organizing... is she genius or what?  Free printables too. 

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5) Painting doorknobs.  I find it slightly amusing that we've lived in this house for 6 1/2 years and accomplished huge renovation projects and are still living with the same hideous brass doorknobs that came with the house.  Well, I'd find it amusing if it didn't drive so gosh darn crazy.  And the pretty oil-rubbed bronze knobs in the addition serve as a constant reminder of what could be.  But, spending $30 a pop replacing door knobs has just never hit the top of the priority list.  So, I'm opting for spray paint... I mean, worse thing that happens is I have to replace them anyway, but the blog posts I've read have all had great success!

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6) The boys' room.  (It doesn't matter how many times I say it... the plural on that is still making my head spin a little! :-))  I've been hanging on to some vintage transportation items in deep reds and blues so that's what I'm building off of.  I love the stripes in this room from I Heart Organizing.  The current paint color is already a blue-gray, so I think we may just be able get away with just buying enough paint for the darker stripe. 

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Josh keeps insisting on bunk beds so they have more floor space, but I am hoping we can fit two twin beds instead.  I love these captain beds and corner storage from PBK and was hoping to have Josh build something similar, but I measured and they won't fit.  Back to the drawing board!

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The only if we find a pot of gold or miraculously make room in the budget projects:
1) Mini face lift for the kids' bathroom.  Some fresh paint, tile floors, framing in the mirror, and adding some board and batten/beadboard with hooks for the kiddo's towels. (I was thinking it would be cute to have a frame above each hook with their picture or initial... we'll see!)

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2) The big living room/dining room/kitchen makeover.  This one has literally been on my list since we moved in, but it's a HUGE project and one that really needs to be done all at once. Husband = not excited.

First up, fresh new paint - which given the size of our ridiculously tall ceilings will be an enormous task all in itself.  I still need to do some research on paint colors but right now I'm digging Behr's Castle Path:

It's a soft gray with a slight taupe hue.  With how open the space is, I knew I had to go with a neutral, but wanted to avoid the infamous builder's beige.

Installing board and batten on the entry wall and dark wood floors throughout:

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In the kitchen, we'll be painting the cabinets white, adding hardware, back splash (subway tile?), and updating the counter tops.  (I love the look of dark butcher block but that will probably be put off for a while... in the meantime I'm dying to try counter top paint as a temporary fix.) A white farmhouse sink would be heavenly, but let's not push our luck. :-)

I'd also like to take a stab at turning our old dining room table into something farmhouse-ish rather than buying a new one. (And keep trying to talk Josh into painting our hutch an antique white... he's not sold!)

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Add some DIY striped curtains in the living room

And eventually hunt for a plush rug, accent chairs, and accessories. 

And that, my friends, is the end to my ridiculously long, ranting blog post.  Did I put you to sleep?  Make you feel sorry for my husband?  Sadly, he has a few projects of his own to tackle too.  It's going to be a busy 2012!