Old House Drama + New House Project List

Hello, friends!

Well… we survived the move! We had a super smooth closing on the new house last Friday (yay!!) and foolishly thought we’d get ourselves moved in the same day.

Out of the house we’ve lived in for four years. On a rainy weekend during one of the coldest winters Nashville has seen in decades. With a three year old.

Somewhere the moving gods are laughing at us.

The very, very good news is that we’re officially out of our old house, keys turned in and everything, and in our new house. Our new couch arrived yesterday, the Internet guys finally made it in from Atlanta to get us all set up, and we actually brought our mattresses inside from off the front porch so we could sleep on a real bed again.

It’s the little things.

We absolutely LOVE our new house. It has so much potential in terms of design and decor, it is far less cramped, and most importantly on these very cold mornings, it has a hot water heater that actually WORKS.

Chris has been through the ringer with our former landlord. Uncle Ralph, as Mackenzie calls him, is obnoxious in the strongest sense of the word, and has said more than a few things that have made me literally want to punch him in the nose. When Chris was telling me the last of it last night, he could see the reaction on my face, and he said, “Just let it go. For my sake, let’s just focus on our new house. Do it for me.”

I can do that.

Back when we were working through all the details of closing and repairs on the new house, I started a new house project list in Evernote. Without further ado, here’s my initial list, in no particular order:

Master Bedroom:

• Blinds
• New bedframe or headboard
• Chair for corner viewable from door
• Paint

Master Bathroom and Closet:

• Blinds
• Tall corner shelf for closet linens storage

Mackenzie’s Bedroom:

• Blinds
• Paint bedroom
• Paint playhouse
• Build play kitchen set
• Build playhouse facade
• Set up reading nook
• Build imagination/dress up area
• Build shallow bookshelves

Extra Bedroom:

• Blinds

Living Room:

• Entry way organization with coat rack and spot for shoes
• Paint
• Area rugs
• New couch

Dining Room:

• Paint
• Piano or cabinet
• Area rug
• New dining room table
• Barn doors?

Laundry Room:

• Purchase and pick up new washer and dryer
• Risers for washer and dryer OR cabinets
• Place metal shelves above washer
• Chest freezer goes in here

Kitchen:

• Install slide out drawers in existing cabinets
• Temporary: Side table in front of chalkboard wall
• Build new pantry with barn doors
• Eventually — expand and remodel the kitchen

Office:

• IKEA Billy bookshelves with doors for Dee’s supplies
• New chair or stool for Chris’s desk

Yard & Garden:

• Build a gate
• Design, build, and plant the garden
• Build a patio

Making lists like these really helps me focus on the important goals. We made a ton of progress on our urban homesteading checklist, and it’s a great benchmark for measuring our progress over time. Obviously, it’s going to take a lot of time to tackle all of these projects, but that’s part of the beauty of owning your own home and making it yours.

Today, Chris and I created a Pinterest board to start cataloging our favorite ideas. You can check that out here: http://www.pinterest.com/dee_wilcox/new-house-design/. Our first big step is to create a whole-house color palette. It’s new concept for us, but it seems like a good idea. Have you ever created a whole-house or whole-project palette like that before? I’d love to hear about your experience with the process. 🙂