Remember when I said I was ready to hit the ground running in this new year? Well, evidently what I meant was that I was ready to hit the ground with a slow, leisurely stroll during which I’d stop at every available park bench for a rest. ? It would appear that during the last crazy year, I’ve forgotten how to work. ?
I’ll try harder. I promise. And I do expect that my slow, leisurely stroll will gradually increase to a brisk walk, and possibly even a casual jog at some point. I can make no promises beyond that. ? But what I can guarantee you is that as long as I have projects to do in our house, I’ll continue sharing them here.
Several times last week, I sat down to do my annual “Master List of Home Goals” for 2021. But after last year, and failing so miserably at making any real progress on my list or on the house, I decided to forgo the long, exhaustive list this year.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have goals for the year. I’m just not going to make long, detailed, exhaustive, bulleted lists of every project that needs to be done in every room. Instead, I have general areas that I want to focus on, with the understanding that unforeseen things may come up, and priorities may change.
But for now, these will be my main areas of focus:
Hallway
At one time, the hallway was finished.
Then we had a plumbing issue, followed by plans to change the original master bedroom into a master bathroom. All of that combined turned the hallway into a construction zone again, and as of today, it’s still very unfinished. Here’s what it looks like now…
When I was working on the guest bedroom (which I still need to photograph so I can show you the official before and after), I dropped an entire quart of blue paint onto the unfinished floor in the hallway. And then I dropped and spilled a small can of stain on the floor. This floor has never been finished, and it’s already taken quite a beating! So I still need to rent the big sander and finish the floors, and then get the walls painted and the trim installed and finished.
My goal is to get this hallway completely finished.
Side note: Those windows don’t have anything to do with this area of the house. Those are for my future workshop.
Home Gym
I don’t have a current picture of this room (I’m still working on getting all new pictures!), but the room looks pretty much like this right now, except that I also have all of the tools and other things I used on the guest bedroom in here now. So all of that needs to be cleared out before I can get started.
But this room will be the home gym, and I’d love for this to be a main area of focus this year.
The floor in this room will also need to be sanded and refinished. I’ll do that at the same time I do the hallway.
My goal is to get this room completely finished as well.
Master Bathroom
This obviously needs to be a big area of focus for me this year, but I’m not ready to proclaim that this room will be completely finished this year. I’m not even making that my goal. My goal is to make it usable, starting with an actual floor, drywalled walls, and the rest of the basics.
I’d love for the whole thing to be completely finished this year, down to the final decorative touch, but I don’t want that pressure. We’ll just see what happens as my slow, leisurely stroll turns into a jog.
And finally…
My Studio
I absolutely love having this big studio and the big worktable where I can work on projects. But I’m tired of thinking of and dreaming about it being finished. And as long as this room as no storage at all, it will never function efficiently for me. I have things packed in boxes that are lined up against the walls, so having to search for what I need to work on a project is getting very old.
This room needs storage and cabinets and organization, and I plan to make that a main area of focus for the year.
So that’s it. Now that’s not to say that other things won’t get done. I hope they will, and if I wake up one day and feel inspired to reuphoslter chairs for the music room, well then by all means, I’ll reupholster chairs for the music room. But I’m just not going to put stuff like that on a list for this year.
In addition to those areas of my house, I also want to put more effort into creative projects. I went the entire year of 2020 and only did one creative artistic project, and that was the artwork I made for the guest bedroom.
For an entire year, that was the only artwork I made. And y’all know I love creative and artistic projects. I thrive on them. They relax me, keep my creative juices flowing, and help calm the mind. And yet, that came to a screeching halt last year. So more creative and artistic projects will be a priority for me this year.
Anyway, we’ll see how I do on these goals this year. I definitely feel better about this “general overview” method for 2021 than I do about a detailed, bullet point list that I’ve done the last four or five years. After the craziness of last year, I think all of us should give ourselves a little grace as we tackle 2021. But I’ll also try to pick up the pace and see if I can’t turn this leisurely stroll that I’ve started off the year with into something that’s at least a little more akin to a brisk walk. ?
