2016: Plans, Goals, and Inspiration for the Year
Are you one for making New Year’s Resolutions?
I have to confess; I am.
I make resolutions every year. And, like many, I often find them hard to keep.
But maybe that’s because I’m making the wrong kinds of resolutions?!
I found this ultimate list at the Simplified Bee and I love it.
All of these ring true with me – even #10. And I love the line about just trying your best.
Last year we “did” a lot. This year I still have projects and plans in mind, but I want to be more relaxed about the whole thing.
Our boys are still young; I work full-time; and I want to make sure that we take the time to enjoy ourselves as a family. To travel to some new places; to go ice-skating and swimming more often; to make messes and be creative and really live in and outside of our home.
Of course inspiration is never running short around here. I still have all kinds of ideas and plans for projects I would love to tackle. Some of them we will get to this year. Some we won’t. And that’s okay.
Because, like I always love to say…
This year I want to!!!
1. Get Organized
My main goal this year is to get ourselves really organized – and that begins with some serious purging. I got started on this goal this past fall after reading the Marie Kondo book “The Magic of Tidying Up” and I did a blog series on organizing along with a group of fellow bloggers. But with the fall being such a busy time of year leading up to Christmas, I definitely left quite a few loose ends and am ready to dive deeper into the process this winter. I’ll be sharing more of this journey as I make my way through our house over the next couple of months.
2. Tweak the Boys’ Bedroom
I shared our boys’ shared bedroom makeover last spring and I still love most of their room – but we have found that having my youngest son’s dresser in the closet JUST. ISN’T. WORKING. The dresser is a vintage piece that I painted and it is too sticky for him to open and close the drawers properly. He constantly leaves his drawers open and then the clothes end up in a big pile all over the place. I would love to switch out the boys’ dressers for something a little more practical and easy-for-a-5-year-old to use; and then turn their closet into a better storage space for some of their toys, books, and schoolwork keepsakes.
3. Makeover the Basement Family Room / Rec Room
Inspiration Via Coastal Living
When we first moved into our house almost 5 years ago, we originally set up our basement family room as a play space for the boys as well as a small TV area. We also have a futon, a bookshelf, a piano, and a treadmill operating in that space. There are a lot of things going on down there, and the way the room is set up is no longer meeting the needs of our family. The boys have changed and grown so much in the past five years and don’t even play with most of the toys that we have in their playroom anymore. We are planning to purge, reorganize, repurpose, and redesign the space to better suit our growing family and I can’t wait to share the projects we have in store along the way!
4. Build a Sunroom Addition
Inspiration Via The Lilypad Cottage
Okay, so perhaps we are getting into “dream” territory a little bit now… but I have been saving and saving and am hoping that when we redo the siding and deck on our house sometime this year (either the spring or the fall), that we can do a small sunroom addition directly off of the dining room. Although we love our house, the one thing that we find lacking is that the living room doesn’t face the lake. We would love to have a cozy seating area with a lake view and are looking into what all it would involve to turn part of our current deck into a sunroom (much like Kelly’s gorgeous sunroom at The Lilypad Cottage). Since we haven’t gotten any finalized quotes on this yet, I can’t speak to how realistic this addition is, butI have my fingers crossed that it will fall within the budget I’ve planned for:)
5. Install a Fireplace & Panelling in the Living Room
Inspiration Via House Beautiful
One thing we have always wanted to add to our living room is a fireplace. I’m hoping that we can tackle that project this fall- I’m voting for a zero-clearance real wood burning fireplace, while the hubs is more in favour of a gas fireplace. When we do this project I would love to add a couple of built in bookshelves to either side of the fireplace, and then add some white painted paneling to the rest of the room (either floor-to-ceiling board and batten or white planked walls). I’m not sure if we will get to this project this year either, but a girl can always dream.
6. Freshen Up the Laundry Room
Inspiration Via Hooked on Houses
The laundry room was actually the very first room makeover that I shared on my blog, and that will be just over 3 years ago next month. I’m hoping to give it a fresh coat of paint {or perhaps even some wallpaper!!} this year to change up the look a little – nothing too major. Sort of along the lines of the mini-makeover I did on our main bathroom this past fall.
Timeline:
January – March:
- basement rec room
- tweak boys room
- get organized
April – June:
- sunroom addition
- siding/deck
- yard maintenance and gardening projects
September – November:
- living room paneling, paint, and fireplace
- laundry room makeover
It doesn’t really matter to me if we actually get through all these goals… I just love thinking and planning and finding inspiration. It’s all part of the journey, right?
Thanks for sharing! It looks like you have some awesome plans for this year. “Just try your best.” I love that!
Shonee
http://www.hawthorneandmain.com
Thanks Shonee!! It was super sweet of you to pop by! Wishing you a great year in 2016:)
I love your “Home wasn’t built in a day…” saying!! So true!
Thanks Heidi! It seems especially true around here, since ours is always undergoing some sort of transformation:) Thanks for your visit!!