Hello friends! I hope this new year is off to a great start for you! I know things have been rather slow here on the blog as we try to wrap our heads around this new year ahead of us. I’m sure like so many of you, Brady and I have been dreaming and scheming up all sorts of plans for 2023 and now comes the hard task of narrowing our focus through all the possibilities to set some concrete goals for the year ahead. We’ve got some BIG ideas that I’m really excited about, but there are also a lot of smaller projects that we’re planning to chip away at in between it all too.
While I love a good to-do list to help organize my thoughts and ideas, it’s equally important to me to revisit those lists to help keep me on track with things. There’s nothing better than the feeling of checking something off the to-do list, but even more, taking stock of what’s not crossed off that list helps us to see which goals we may need to re-evaluate, adjust or prioritize moving forward.
As we round out the first month of 2023, I thought it might be helpful to revisit our very first project list for this new/old house. I put this list of quick & easy projects together just three weeks after moving in. At the time, we were totally flooded with ideas about all of the things we wanted to change and, while not much has shifted in that regard through the nearly six months that have passed, I do think we have a much clearer picture about where we’d like to start with things at least. In looking back at our original list, I’m really proud at our progress – despite the fact that we felt like we were lacking any clear vision for this place (and continue to at times if I’m being totally honest), we did manage to tackle all sorts of little projects around the house (many of which weren’t planned of course). Today, I’m excited to revisit our first to-do list for this new/old house of ours and chat through which items we’ve been able to work through so far, what we haven’t, and why.
Checking in with our Quick & Easy Project List
✔️ ONE: Get rid of that purple door!
You have no idea how happy it made me to see that purple door go! Of all the things on our to-do list, getting rid of that purple door and restoring the oak to it’s original, beautiful state was at the very top. While our exterior still has a LONG way to go yet, restoring this beautiful door was a very necessary first step and it’s impact was even bigger than I ever could have imagined. If you’d like to read more about how I stripped and refinished our oak door, you can find the tutorial here.
✔️ TWO: New exterior door knobs.
Obviously, I couldn’t leave that old hardware on our door after going through all of that work to restore it, so ordering up some new hardware was next on my list. I hummed and hawed for weeks, but in the end I decided to go with this budget friendly option. I think the juxtaposition of the modern black lines with the traditional oak door couldn’t have been a more perfect balance for one another. And because we had no working keys for any of our other doors, I decided to switch out our other exterior knobs for these ones too.
⌧ THREE: New exterior lights.
While these exterior lights are in desperate need of an update, I’m leery to commit to new ones until I know just what we’re going to do with our exterior. We have 10 exterior lights to change out, so before I go through all that expense and work, I just want to make sure that I know exactly what I want and that I’ll be happy with them for years to come. I’m thinking this one may have to wait until we’re ready to take on the full exterior remodel, but we’ll see I guess.
✔️ FOUR: Paint.
Another item I am SO happy to be able to check off of our list! It took me months to get through it all, but painting our walls has had SUCH a huge impact on the look and feel of each and every space inside this new/old house. It’s the thing that’s most made this place feel more like home again for us. I still hope to tackle the closets and basement sooner than later, but crossing this one not-so-little item off of our to-do list feels SO good!
⌧ FIVE: New sconces.
There are SO many wall sconces around this house. SO many. While I’ll probably wait on the basement and master bedroom sconces for a while yet, I’m on the hunt for the perfect ones to line our staircases, hallway and entryway. I have an idea of what I want, but again, considering there are so many to change out, I really want to be sure before I pull the trigger on anything.
⌧ SIX: Window coverings.
Despite my best efforts to lay eyes on samples of every window covering option known to man, I haven’t made much progress on this front. This one is still a high priority for me though as we definitely need some shade from all the sunlight pouring in, especially in the kitchen and living room.
✔️ SEVEN: Set up the office.
Another really good one to be able to cross off our list. Because of all the built-ins, this space was filled to the brim with boxes and furniture that couldn’t be unpacked for weeks. It felt so good to get those built-ins out so that we could get the walls painted, all of our furniture put in place and unpack the last of our moving boxes. Also, have I mentioned how much I love that new colour?! SO good!
⌧ EIGHT: New dining room light.
This makes me so sad. It’s hard to choose a light fixture for this space before I’ve even started on the actual design and layout of what it will someday be, but that darn fan has to go. I may just have to make my peace with not buying the perfect option the first time around for the sake of having something better in the mean time at least.
Whew! I think that’s it my friends. 4/8 isn’t terrible I guess. Looking back at this list, there are definitely a couple of things I think we may choose to hold off on and a few more that we’ll likely add, now that we’ve spent more time here. While we’re working on a big renovation project list for the year ahead, I’m also hoping to put together a new list of quick & easy projects that we can tackle in between it all too. Hoping to have more to share about all of our goals for this new/old house with you soon!
Wishing you SUCH a lovely day my friends!
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I can't wait to hear your thoughts!