The Project List

On Tuesday I mentioned we have lots of projects 'The To Do' the best way for us to get them done is keep a list. The goal is to get the big and small projects done room by room. I used to be really good at keeping lists of what needs to be done around our house. Especially the first year we owned our home { we were under and an outside appearance crunch for our back yard wedding reception } In a spam of 6 - 7 months a we painted our entire house, added lots of curb appeal, rolled out sod, replaced the leaning brick flowerbed and seeded our backyard. We had a non-stop project list. There was something to do every night  and every weekend. We went from the ugliest house on the block { all one icky peach color } Who paints there house all one color? It's a don't!

To a cute charming grey house with a cheerful bright red door.

Inside we have a lot of little finishing projects to do as well as bigger ones. Here's our Project List room by room. I'm going to keep list updated and may even dedicate a page to it on the blog, just to keep us accountable.

Project List



Living Room

Touch up baseboards
Sew New Drapes
Buy Area Rug
Finish Secretary Desk
Buy Art for Walls
Hang Family Pictures

Dining Room

OK for now!

Kitchen

Paint Cabinets
Paint Ceiling
Paint Walls
Cut Door panels out for glass inserts
Buy Glass for Doors
Buy Hardware
Sew Roman Shade
Replace Counter tops
Install Back splash
Install one base cabinet

Hallway

Paint Doors ?
Replace Doors ?
Hang Artwork
Hang Large Mirror

Bathroom

Paint
Hang Shelves
New Light Fixture
Paint Bathroom Cabinet
Shower Curtain

Tween Room

Rearrange Furniture
Area Rug
New Bedding
Sew Blanket
Hang Roman Shade

Nursery

Area Rug
Install Tall Windows

Master Bedroom

Hang Mirror
Area Rug
Hang Curtains
Hang Artwork
Touch up Baseboards
Buy Extra Down Comfortable


I'm most excited about finally getting around to making our kitchen pretty, its hard to look at! Our dining room and kitchen share a room so one side looks polished the other dark thanks to dark cabinets and poor lighting. I'm so over it and very motivated to have a pretty bright new clean sleek stylish { you get the point, right? }


It will also be nice to have the little teeny things done hanging art up, done! Wish us luck as we cross items off this list and I know as we cross things off, many new 'To Do' items will pop on. Its never ending, but that's the way like it uh uh { now, start humming KC and the Sunshine Band's song along with me }

What's on your Project list that you been putting off and want to tackle ASAP?

Two Years of CLH

Sunday marked two years of me blogging about our beloved little house. It's been fun s-l-o-w-l-y transforming our little rancher into a comfortable spot for my family. We've tackled a bunch of projects and shared the highs and lows of DIY projects. The afters are what keep us plugging along project after project. Over the past TWO years we’ve gained a lot of DIY knowledge, we can know caulk like and expect, know why its so important to prime! Hasani’s become really good at installing light fixtures and dimmers! He’s installed eight light fixtures around our house and trust me he's no where near done yet.

I’ve been sewing up a storm on my hand dandy very simple Singer sewing machine (lots of pillows, drapes, ottoman, and blankets). With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to look back at some projects we completed the past two years, but not just any projects my favorite ones. Here are my top ten favorite projects completed so far { in no particular order }


1. Painting the Front Door Red. I really love how the Posh Red Door color looks against our grey house greets us and our guests. I'm not saying Posh Red just for fun, the paint is really called Posh Red!

2. Reupholstering the Vintage Ottoman. When I came across this less than perfect ottoman, I knew with some new fabric it would look amazing in Avery's nursery. It was a huge challenge of patience and practice to reupholster this ottoman, but so worth. I use this ottoman on a daily basis and the nursery wouldn't be complete without it.

3. Refinishing Our Hardwood Floors. It took us living in our home almost 2.5 years before we got around to refinishing our hardwood floors, and it was worth the wait. My dad and Hasani did an awesome job on transforming our original 1956 Hardwood floors in a dark brown stain that looks great!

4. Sewing Drapes for the Dining Room. Finding this pretty fabric for only a 5.99 a yard was an amazing deal and it truly transformed our overly white dining room into a more lively spot to dine in.

5. Building Ledges for our Entryway. I'm often inspired by Pottery Barn, most of the time not but their prices, after seeing a fellow blogger build some simple ledges inspired by Ikea, I knew I had to build ledges to make our entryway feel more inviting. Since building these ledges, I've also built two for the nursery.

6. Chevron Baby Blanket. I loved this pattern when I came across it and decided to sew a baby blanket with chevron one side and white minky on the other. Now that weather has been cooling off, I've been using it all the time. It's so cute to see Avery snuggles up in a blanket I made for him.

7. Refinishing Tabari's Desk. I bought this desk for $15 a thirft store, it was so much work getting to its after! I even cried becasue I was sanding so much, lol. It was all worth it when I walk by Tabari's room and see him completing his homework on the desk, I redid for him.

8. Painting our Craigslist Dresser. Over the years Craigslist has been good to me. I bought this solid wood dresser with dovetail drawers for only $45! All it needed was new paint and pretty hardware.

9. Installing a Drum Shade Chandelier in our bedroom. I was so called when we got rid the old boob lighting on our bedroom and replaced it with a pretty chandelier I bought from Overstock.com.

10. Making Nursery Artwork. I had so much fun creating this 'artwork' for Avery's room, the colors make me, He's already noticed them while lying in his crib!

It’s fun to take a look back, but even more to think about our future projects we need to complete. We have so many projects on our to do list, that we’ve decided to keep a monthly goal of crossing items off asap. We plan to take on a lot of projects after the kiddos head of to bed. I'll share our project list to do very soon.

My love of blogging has only increased the past two years, along with the loving it now more than ever. We want to improve it, just as I mentioned updating the DIY Project page as well as added a Craft & Sew Page (coming soon) We also want to start hosting monthly Giveaways to you our readers which we love so much! We also plan on doing some video projects, house tours of our tiny house and maybe some craft projects (we had fun taping the House Proud Segment for Nate Berkus Show)


I also want to get better at take pictures for the blog and of course of my family! I’ll be investing in a new DSLR camera soon! I was gifted Abode Photo Editing software recently (thanks mom) so I’ll be learning that too. Big Thanks to everyone for the sweet comments, encouragement and emails about our little house. Another goal I have for the blog is to blog more often goal is 4-5 days a week which is so doable. The plan is show you more of our projects we’ve thinking about and in process of even if there won’t be a pretty after for awhile, and continue keeping our content good ( at least to me its pretty good!). I will also be more invovoled in other Social Media, mostly Twitter. Oh hoe I love to tweet!! I hate to say it I'm  to into Facebook, but I love Twitter, so if your on Twitter follow me :)

What's your favorite project of ours that we've done around our house?

What's your favorite DIY project you've completed in your home?

Happy Anniversary Little House

A year ago we closed on our first house December 30, 2008 to be exact! It took us 6 months and a few failed offers before we finally got a yes from a seller {The Bank}. Over the last year we've slowly been transforming our house into a home. I know its sounds a bit cliché, but it takes time to make your home reflect your personality.

Our Home January 2009

Our Home Now

Thanks little home, we love you. The past year was spent: pulling weeds, painting our house, laying sod, creating a new flower bed, paying funky bills sewer & garage (new for us), laughing, crying over a never ending to do list, Starbucks on the front porch, our Wedding Reception in our backyard (pics to come), our son playing in his tree house, too many trips to Lowes and Home Depot, getting a family pet Mojo the Chihuahau, Redoing our Entryway, starting the dining room re-do AND so much more. Wow was that the longest run-on sentence ever?!? Little house I enjoyed every minute of it, and it feels good to slowly turn you into a Chic Little House - that I know you are!

2009 you were a wonderfull year! I miss you already....but it's only going to get better.