Hi Everyone!
Happy Friyay friends! Ok so I figured since we are fully in February its probably a good time to come on and talk about our home goals for the year. 2018 was the year of surprises when it came to #thecottagebungalow. I didn’t really go in to the year with anything specific planned in terms of house projects. In fact, I wasn’t really planning on doing anything major last year after quitting my job to pursue design and blogging full time. But the year proved to have other plans! I ended up starting on the laundry room and hallway makeovers, as well as the bathroom renovation. We actually had no intention on tackling our bathroom overhaul until THIS spring, but when the opportunity to participate in the One Room Challenge came up in the fall I decided to go for it.
As for this year, Naomi and I have some financial goals we are trying to aggressively work toward so there won’t be a ton happening in the way of expensive or major house projects. In fact we will be switching our focus a bit away from the inside of the house to the outside. Here’s whats on my project list for 2019:
The Potager Garden, Side Porch, & Backyard– I’ve talked about this a lot, but my PRIMARY focus in terms of #thecottagebungalow this year will be our outdoor spaces. We’ll be 5 years in this home this summer and have yet to do ANYTHING with our backyard except clear out trees, replace the fence, and take down an old pergola. Our yard is really one of the main reasons we purchased this house and yet we’ve been wasting all the opportunities to make it livable over the last several years. You’ve already seen my potager kitchen garden plans, but I’m also hoping to add a small deck/landing off the master bedroom and creating a dining area underneath our Sycamore tree with pea gravel. I’ll be adding more plantings throughout our landscape and to our front yard flower beds. I’m also hoping to do a little something with the side porch as well.
Master Bedroom Makeover– One of the only interior spaces I want to do anything with this year is our master bedroom. We haven’t touched this space at all in any major design capacity since we moved in. All we did was put in our furniture and add our PAX closet system.
We’ve tweaked some furniture pieces here and there but have never given it any thoughtful and intentional attention. The plan was always to tear this room off and rebuild it properly so that its all on the same level and roofline as the rest of the house. The reality is we have no clue when or if we are ever going to get around to doing it. So its time to make this space at least look like it belongs in our home. I’m not planning a massive structural overhaul here. It will be a budget makeover using paint for impact and probably changing out the lighting a few of the furniture pieces.
Finish The Bathroom and Laundry Room-We have just a little bit to go to complete these projects so we will be taking care of that this year.
Organization– I’d love to get our pantry, hall, and entry closets organized this year. Especially the pantry. It drives Naomi crazy so I’m hoping to do a full on makeover of it. New shelves, storage bins, the works.
Focus on Sustainability– Over the past couple of years we’ve been slowly making changes throughout our home to make it much more eco friendly. This year we will be hitting this one hard. One of our big goals is to get rid of at least 80% of all plastic usage in the house–particularly when it comes to food storage and cleaning supplies. We’ll also be starting to kitchen compost and making other efforts to lessen our carbon footprint.
And there you have it friends! What’s on your to do list for this year?
Until next time loves….
Megan says
I’m excited to see your exterior plans grow into full-blown actions! I know you’ll do an amazing job at it all. I just love outdoor areas and really wish we had planted a few more trees when we first moved here (almost 12 years ago!). In my future home, the exterior will be the first as I want to plant all the plants. We compost and have for years. Our newest raspberry bed just got a lot of compost underneath the soil and manure mixed in too. We’ve topped off some of our old containers too, which is great as my dad helps a lot with this and is our delivery man (minus our own compost).
My goals? Apparently our living room and TV room need help so I’ll be tackling them. I want to use our living room more instead of a big wasted space, so I’ll tackle it this summer (wallpaper, that was there from a previous homeowner, is now ripping off the wall after the texture she also put on it) and then move to our TV room to hopefully turn it into a guest room, after ripping out carpet, redoing the floors, and fixing wall problems there too. Old house problems… but I hope both turn out great.
Amy says
Those sound like great, doable goals! And similar to my house goals too. We have a few budget makeovers planned that mostly involve paint and a few minor switch outs. My other two goals are to eliminate food waste and cut our general garbage waste in half. Good luck with yours!!