2010 House Goals

If you follow this blog at all, you know we bought a new house in '09. We took possession in September and moved in in October.

When we first saw the house, we knew immediately it was the one. We had looked at a lot of houses, and we both finally had the feeling like this was our house. However, as much as we loved it, there wasn't a surface we weren't going to have to touch. And by touch I mean paint, stain, tear out, blow up, etc.

So we got to work on the front half of the house and stained the light wood floors darker, overhauled the living room, dining room, and the three bedrooms other than the master, one of which we made our office/crafty space for me. More on the finished parts in upcoming posts.

What we haven't touched yet is the bathroom in the front half of the house, which isn't that bad and will actually be the very last thing we reno in this house, and the whole back part of the house. Oh dear God, the back half. This includes the kitchen, laundry area, second bath, master bedroom, rec room, and backyard.

It's too big and expensive a job to do it all this year, but we've chosen a few areas to hopefully tackle in 2010. I'm going to show you some terrifying pictures now.

1. High on the list of priorities is the laundry area off the kitchen. It also currently serves as the hallway to the second bathroom. Standing in the kitchen, this is what you see:

What the hell is going on here with the two doorways? Here's the view showing the whole laundry space and doorway into the second bath:

The plan for this area is to wall off the second doorway from the kitchen (seen in the first picture), wall off the doorway into the bathroom (more on that in a minute), relocate the water heater which is in the cabinet on the right just before the bathroom door, move the washer and dryer to the back wall that will be created from losing the bathroom door, ditch the laminate floor and lay stone, and install tons of shelving to make this a walk-in pantry/laundry room.

This will be a big job, mostly due to the moving of pipes. But it shouldn't be a huge expense since Mark can do it all.

2. This is the current state of the little second bathroom (shudder):

The plan is to make this our master bath. Even though it's tiny, it's only separated from the master by a wall. So, we'll be creating a new door into the room right where the shower is, thus having to relocate the shower to another wall and of course changing every surface in there. Basically, it's a total gut job.

3. Now we're taking things out back. Let's start with the spa (jacuzzi, whatever):

Inviting, no? I know I wanna put my half-naked ass on that grody bench. Thankfully the pool isn't like this, so resurfacing/painting/tiling that will wait for another year. But this baby's getting a face lift. It will be a trial run in deciding what we want to do to the pool, on a much smaller scale and for a fraction of the price.

4. Speaking of the pool, it takes up about 70% of our backyard. It's truly enormous. But there are a couple of parts that aren't pool. Here's one:

I think we can agree this needs work. The concrete patio is in direct sun almost all day, so we need to construct a pergola of some sort. Still debating what if anything to do with the concrete. Beyond that will be lawn where there is currently a weedy dirt patch. Then we'll tame the unruly trees, do a little planting, and furnish the patio.

5. This is the other patio on the other side of the pool, off the kitchen:

The plan is to lay Plexiglass over the pergola to keep the patio safe from rain so we can use it like an outdoor room, while still allowing light to come through. Eventually (not this year probably) we'll replace our BBQ with a built-in one. And of course there will be furniture and potted plants.

6. Also, we'll plant a few citrus trees and our veggie garden in the front yard this Spring.

Whew! I'm exhausted already, and who are we kidding, Mark will be doing most of it with me freaking out in the background. But, if we can get at least most of these items done this year, it will make me happy as a clam and bring the house so much closer to the condition we imagine it in.

Any major undertakings at your house this year? Or any advice for us?