Happy New Year peeps!

Yes, I am fully aware that is mid-month. I've been a tad busy at work. I helped throw a party. And it was (now pretend you are Barney Stinson and say it with me)...Legen...dary. 525 people dancing, screaming, throwing moss ball. "Moss balls" is fun to say, no? Let's just say it involved ordering 40' of astroturf, a headless horseman ice luge and costumes. JHW said it was like going to a "party like they show on tv and you scoff and say, 'no parties look like that in real life.'" Oh, yeah!

Anyhow...

I shared a things-I-want-to-get-done list with you in 2011. And then in 2012 I came clean on my, overall pretty good, completion rate. And then there was the 2012 list in that post, too. Here it is again:

1. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
2. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
3. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
4. Repaint the ceilings in the LR, DR, stair landing, and kitchen (this is kind of an obvious follow up to the items above)
5. Refinish the antique desk
6. Fix the gutters (we had them looked at, and they need minimal work, but I'd like to get it done!)
7. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house (again, we have a quote, just waiting for spring!)
8. Replace the mailbox
9. Add landscape lighting to the walkway
10. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
11. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
12. Sunroom to mudroom conversion
13. Re-tile the 2 bathtub surrounds
14. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
15. Replace the window in the dining room

And then, you may remember this post...(if you don't feel like clicking, let me just tell you it was about the poltergeist that ran through my home on 2012 and cost us shitloads of money.) At the time of the post I was wailing about the 2 plumber visits for the master bath and the tv and the water heaters. At that point I revised the list to:

1. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
2. Fix the gutters 
3. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house 
4. Replace the mailbox
5. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
6. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
7. Replace the window in the dining room

Well, let me tell you, that early in the year poltergeist stuck around. 2012 was the year of broken shit. The plumber was called back again when water was actually dripping from the 2nd floor landing light fixture, and the gutter thing mentioned so casually as number 6 above? Ha! And number 7? Ha, again! The fascia board was rotted full out around the house and had to be replaced with engineered wood and repainted. And the gutters? Dear lord, the gutters...that was a battle. It ended well, with lot's of shiny new wood...and an empty savings account. Oh, gotta love the projects that have to be done but not one person can actually see or notice that they have been done. Trust me, no one stands on the stairs to the 3rd floor and look lovingly out at the new wood in the mud room gutters and sighs resignedly. No one except me, that is...

So, here is what actually got done:

1. Remove the old smoke detector bracket on the stair landing and spackle the holes
2. Fix the gutters
3. Repair and touch up the trim up at the eaves of the house 
4. Finish the vanity project in the hall bath
5. Sunroom to mudroom conversion (here, here, here, here and again here)

I actually did a lot of other things, too, but this is about accounting, not about patting myself on the back. And now, on to 2013. A year when I will just take it as it comes and if I get any of this done I will say hurrah to that and pour myself a drink.

1. Trim the trees (this has to be done to protect the damned gutters!)
2. Replace the windows in the sun room (this is a must do, second priority to the trees)
3. Get a plasterer to smooth the ceilings in the dining room and living room
4. Fix the giant crack in the master bedroom ceiling
5. Replace the mailbox
6. Add more landscape lighting to the walkway
7. Remove the space heater from the back hall wall
8. Put a new toilet in the hall bath
9. Refresh the kid's room
10. Refresh the dining room (maybe with paint or a new light fixture. I'm just not loving it right now)
11. Paint stripes in the other front hall closet. I only did one in October. The other one is still sad and grey.

I honestly know this all will not happen. Lack of proper funding and lack of enough hours in the day. But here's to dreaming and doing a little bit here and there when I can. 

Comments

[JWH]

I'll take a crack at #7 this weekend, if that helps. I remove, you clean up.

Deal?

[Holiday]

Deal! Can you also tighten the droopy curtain rod in the living room?