2012 Goals

Well hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  I have been MIA for the last two weeks, and needed to be.  The week before holidays, work was ca-razy, I felt like I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  But over the last two weeks I was able to spend some quality time with family, we had several guests over which excites us to no end (that we can entertain people on our main floor this year and not in a tiny bedroom!), and caught up on some much needed rest. 

I'll be honest though, we got a whole lot of nothing done in terms of kitchen finishing touches...that's not true we started one little thing ... and didn't finish it.  But I did work on a few little projects over the holidays that I'll share with you this week.

Today I just wanted to put a few of our goals for 2012 in writing.  I love my "to-do" lists, they're scattered all over the house, in my purse, at work...they help me feel more organized and like I have some sort of plan of action.

When I started to draft my list a couple of weeks ago, it looked something like this...

1.  Porch

2.  Mudroom

3.  Garage

4.  Basement

5.  Loft

And then I ha.ha.ha'd out loud.  That may be only 5 items but they are five of the biggest, most time consuming and expensive projects!  So I am going to scratch that and bring it down to only 2 things:

1.  The Porch - it is the original 92 year old porch and it's looking a little worse for wear.  Also the steps up the porch are less than safe  :s  We are constantly shouting out to people leaving our house things like "be careful!  hold the railing as you go down, the steps get really slippery!"..."but be careful, the railing wiggles, so don't hold too tightly!"  So we're thinking it's time to revamp it all.  Only right now, we differ on how we want it to look in the end so we'll see where we end up.  Darryl wants to combine iron posts with wooden tops... I don't know the technical names, but something like this...

...which I think looks very stream-lined, modern and really quite nice.  It's just that our house is 92 years old and I just want to restore the look of the original porch, but give it the not-one-strong-blow-of-wind-away-from-crumpling-to-the-ground look...

(pinterest)



I'd like to have all white railings, but still the chunky square posts/spindles as opposed to the iron.  So we'll see come summer time which way we end up going.  I imagine that cost will ultimately be the deciding factor!

2.  The Basement - this one's a biggie...we'd like to finish our basement.  It's already all demo'd and so grungy looking and, most importantly, a waste of space!  We could have so much more space if it were finished.  What we can't decide though, is whether or not we want to finish it and use it for ourselves, or if we'd like to rent it out and have a third income.  When I put it like that it sounds like a no brainer...but when I actually think about doing it, I feel like I might feel funny having someone below me all the time.  I love my cheesy workout videos and would feel bad bouncing around above someone at 8am on weekends!  But we'll have to decide because ultimately, that's what's going to guide how we end up finishing the basement (whether or not there's a full bath and kitchen put in or not). 

Hmmmmm lots to ponder!  But those are our 2 main goals for the year.  Wish us luck! 

Have you done any porch renos lately?  Did you try to revamp it to a new look or did you keep it close to its original character?  How about basement renos, I know a few of you out there have done this...any advice?  Do you have a basement rental - would you recommend doing it??

Linking up with The Nester's Home Goals Link Party