2024 Project List for our New House!

Happy New Year!

I know it’s technically February but I usually just take January off and go into hibernation mode so I’m making this my official New Year’s post. 🙂

It has been a wild couple of months but I think we are finally feeling a bit more settled in our new home. Just in time to start ripping it apart and making it better haha. If you’re following us on Instagram then you know that the first big project we are tackling in this house will be the kitchen!

(1) KITCHEN RENO

We moved in intending to finish the basement and just make the main space a little fresher with paint, but after living here a few weeks the functionality or lack thereof in the kitchen started to drive us all crazy! After running some numbers we decided it would be a better use of our mortgage improvement money to tackle the kitchen and much easier to do so when the basement ceiling is still open and exposed.

I’ll share all the details in an upcoming blog post but it will be a full gut in the kitchen! Here are some before images to refresh your memory.

The worst offenders in here are the peninsula that makes us feel stuck in a corner and the dishwasher that traps you when open. We will rework the layout by getting rid of the peninsula and adding a skinny island with seating on one end. The appliances are also older than we realized and nearing the end of their life so it’s time for a glow-up! The demo will start in a couple of weeks so stay tuned!

(2) PAINT AND FLOORS IN THE MAIN SPACES

The next project that will happen alongside the kitchen will be a fresh coat of paint on all the main rooms and hallways. There is a collection of wild green and sad beige everywhere so I’m going to to give it all a fresh coat of white! I love green but just not in the shades that the previous owners did. As we reno the kitchen, we will also be replacing the floor so I will continue that throughout the main spaces for a clean cohevise flow. The current floors are not in bad shape but with changing the kitchen layout we will have to anyway so it will just make sense to make them all the same. I’ve been eyeing this Vinyl Plank from Shaw Flooring.

(3) LIBRARY PHASE 1

In conjunction with the kitchen, we are tackling part of the family room beside it. We will be building a cased opening to define the space and give a place for future bookshelves or homework desks on the other side. We will also rebuild the step to be centered in the entry to the room.

(4) LAUNDRY ROOM ON A BUDGET

The laundry room has similar cabinets to the kitchen so as we demo the kitchen I plan to repurpose some of them to make a mudroom bench area and just more storage in the laundry room. We will take out the closet in there and the closet in my husband’s office which will give an extra 2 feet of space. I want to make this a fun and colorful entry so I will be painting the cabinets a fun color…thinking about pink or purple and then maybe adding some peel-and-stick tiles to the floors. I’ll finalize my ideas once the kitchen is done because there just isn’t enough bandwidth right now.

(5) POWDER BATHROOM

Across from the laundry is our powder bath and it’s perfectly functional but I’d love to just make it more pretty since it’s the one guests use. I’m thinking of a new countertop, bold wallpaper, and a deep moody color in here like red or plum purple!

(6) GARAGE PHASE 1

The previous owners left all their tools and all kinds of weird treasures in here. Once it warms up a bit more we plan to sort through all of it and decide what we can keep, sell, and donate. My husband and I love a clean and functional garage so we’d love to set up some functional wall storage and will probably keep one of the workbenches for projects, but the majority of this stuff will be going.

(7) YARD PHASE 1

The yard is also filled with treasure…western decor and loads of planters are splattered throughout it. I plan to simplify everything and we will probably cut down a couple of pine trees that are blocking light into the kitchen. Since we moved in the winter we don’t know what is out there under the ground so I’m excited to see what blooms and we will make plans as we go. My kids want a treehouse and a firepit area but I think right now we will just spend the summer living in it and see what we want/need in our outdoor space!

(8) MASTER BEDROOM AND ENSUITE

This one is mostly just on my wishlist but I’d love to even do a phase 1 if we can. Everything needs updating in the ensuite so we will have to see how far our budget stretches over the next few months. If nothing else we will upgrade our bed to a king-sized!