the one with the 2021 home to-do list

Ladies and gents, Spring 2021 is (almost) here and with that, we start to leave behind our seasonal affective ish and start to jump into our overambitious home projects like the adorable chipmunks we are.

Last week, we discussed buckets and overwhelm and how we're dealing with all the stuff we're dealing with. This week, we thought we'd super briefly duck into one of the ways we like working through stuff: Painting and building and decorating and organizing and improving our lil home sweet home.

We'll see what actually happens, but these are the things (+pictures) that we're planning on tackling in 2021!

We’ll break this down by room. (Spoilers: The first two pictures are gonna look like we're straight-up hoarders. We're not. We just...overprepared for parenthood prior to the last few years of that not happening on schedule?)

Nursery

Goal: Get to a place where if we a) find out we’re pregnant, b) adopt a child between 0-5 years of age, or c) need additional sleeping arrangements for family or friends, we can use this place. 

• Get all stuff out (stockpiled kid toys/furniture, Rebecca art supplies, literally everything) 
• Paint white instead of current (light green, light yellow) 
• Paint some kind of decorative mural situation
• Furnish (need twin bed frame, have just about everything else)

Spare Room

Goal: Get to a place where we can use this as a viable spare room for adult friends and family. In the future, this will likely be an older child’s room. Until then, we’ll continue to use it as a library and office space, too. 

• Manage stuff better (not as bad as nursery, but still clearly a storage room slash Rebecca does video calls here)
• Get queen bed (current twin mattress on floor will go in nursery) 
• Paint white (blue is lovely, but the room will feel lighter/airier with white, and will camouflage electrical conduit better, and will also allow Rebecca to…)
• Paint some kind of decorative mural situation

Our Room

Goal: We like this space, but we need some things on the walls and better lighting. This Insta highlight may give a decent feel of the space :)

• Put up wedding picture + a few related pieces of art around room
• Get cool map or something to put on wall
• Get matching bedside lamps

Living Room

Goal: We like this space. It’s pretty good. 

• Put up window decals on window over couch, so we can keep window open without seeing lovely view of alleyway (we LOVE LOVE LOVE living in Hyde Park, but one downside - which we don’t mind at all except for this matter of aesthetics - is that the view out these windows is nonexistent. So we’re experimenting with decals to see what magic they can bring)
• Figure out how to incorporate mini family gallery photo wall probably on wall next to couch? 

Kitchen

Goal: We like this space. It’s pretty good. I have long-term dreams of incorporating less beige in here (concrete counters, demoing the upper cabinets, getting a different sink), but for 2021...

• Figure out a bar cabinet situation
• Probably get rid of dishwasher? (We don’t use it, it keeps breaking, and we both like washing dishes by hand)

Office

Goal: Declutter and decorate. Note: To the left of this, Ted has an equal amount of space. We joke that we started working from home and immediately found a way to create two standard office cubicles in our living quarters

• Similar window decal situation, because these windows (there are five narrow ones in a row) are a really cool architectural feature we have, but the view outside them isn’t great
• Do abstract-batten-board wall treatment next to Rebecca desk
• Cord management

TEDTALK

While Rebecca has the fantastic room design ideas, I have plans for a few other projects.

The relatively small one will be patching several wall holes leftover from past projects. Now that the ambient temperatures are above freezing, so the patching compound can dry right, they should be pretty straightforward.

The backyard will be the major thing. Goals:

• Polish the hardscape details
• Add more (dog-resistant) greenery everywhere, for an urban garden vibe.

Get a repairman to fix our roof leak. That’s something beyond my DIY skills (and access ability), and the towels have been there long enough.

Re-seal the driveway. The winter was not kind to it.

That should be plenty, right?