The 2015 Master To Do List

This post is a little late because two of the kids and I had an impromptu hotel sleepover due to dangerous whiteout conditions while we were driving the ten miles home from their fencing class. Ten miles! Have I mentioned that winter is difficult here? It is crazy to think that we were so close to home, but we could not get here.

There is plenty of snow to shovel today, and whiteout conditions are expected again for tomorrow.

Update: I started this post two days ago. The work of winter whittled away my free writing time. All I see out the window is blowing snow. Andy arrived home safely last night. Businesses and schools are closed. All routes into the city are closed as well. It is officially pajama and hot chocolate day.

* * *

The Short Story

1. Roof & Gutters
2. Repair the rot at the front corner of the porch roof.
3. Repair the rot on the backside of the greenhouse/garage by the bi-fold doors.
4. Wash the house and repair 2 shutters
5. Finish A’s bedroom
   a. Paint
   b. Rug
   c. Bookshelf
6. Finish M’s bedroom
   a. Remove Wallpaper
   b. Repair Plaster
   c. Paint the room
   d. Rug
7. Paint Hallways
8. Start thinking about the kitchen remodel for 2016. – Maybe!
9. Organize the house.
10. Start a Garden

The L o n g  Story
1. Roof & Gutters:  I have talked about this often, so I will wait to go more in-depth until the work begins. As a reminder, we will be having the roof and gutters professionally done in the spring.

2. Repair the rot at the front corner of the porch roof: This was the entry point for one of the friendly neighborhood ground chipmunks that is currently hibernating in the walls of BHH. For this project, we will use standard wood for the initial repair, but we will be having a custom trim piece made to match the original exterior molding. We have become acquainted with a local cabinet maker, and I am going to reach out to him to inquire about the cost.

3. Repair the rot on the backside of the greenhouse/garage by the bi-fold doors: This is actually a holdover from last summer. The porch took so long to repair that I never got to it. This one is going to be a challenge. It is a four foot long section. The wood is so soft and mushy that I am able to tear it out with my hands. It has also been an entry point for wildlife. The space beyond the rot is stuffed with empty bird nest debris.

The repair will include tear out, cleaning, and restoring the exterior with standard wood and more custom trim pieces. I am really looking forward to this one despite, or may because of its complexity. A picture would be worth a thousand words here, but I cannot properly photograph that corner of the house during the winter. The restoration will take nearly all summer due to family obligations. I seem to do this type of work at a snail’s pace, and don’t forget that summer only lasts three months here in the north.

4. Wash the house and repair two shutters: BHH is filthy on the exterior. Mildew has crept onto every surface. We will be tacking one side at a time. In addition, we will eventually paint all of the shutters a new color, so I plan to commit to just two of them this summer. They will have to be completely stripped and probably repaired. During the warm summer months, I intend to familiarize myself with the the necessary work and put a system in place to streamline the process.  It is very exciting to me that all of our shutters are original and they still function.

5. Finish A’s bedroom: The good news is that there is no wallpaper in this room. The walls are mostly decent, but they could use a little plaster repair. A. turns 18 this year. 18! That makes me die just a little inside. He is likely at home for only a few more years. He will need a nice, quiet study space since he will be starting college. I want his room to be comfortable, but not too comfortable. We don’t want him to want to stay here forever. Seriously though, Andy and I could not ask for a better teenager. If he wants to stick around for awhile, we will not complain.

6. Finish M’s bedroom: M. has requested an orange room with a rainbow painted on one wall. As I have previously stated, Andy and I take a very hands-off approach to our kids’ room decorating choices. We want them to have the freedom to express themselves in their own space. We do not worry if their rooms match our aesthetic. This makeover will be really enjoyable. Who doesn’t love rainbows? M. has also asked for a yellow rug. I cannot even imagine a yellow rug that does not look like a Muppet pelt, but I will certainly search Google to see what is available.

7. Paint Hallways: We have two main hallways. Neither one needs too much plaster repair. We plan to work on them while the weather is still too poor to work outside. Combined, there are 8 doors to paint and one window. Yikes! Doors and windows are probably my least favorite surfaces to paint. I get frustrated working around the hardware. The hinges are so old that I am always afraid to try to take the doors off. It would make me sad to break one. Andy and I will take a closer look to see if any of the hinges can be easily removed. It certainly would be much easier to paint the doors if they were laying flat on sawhorses.

In the downstairs hall I may make my first crazy bold move and paint the linoleum. When we remodel the kitchen the linoleum will be removed. IF the roof costs more than we expect, the kitchen truly will remain in the daydream stage, and I will paint the hall floors as an interim step. If the roof cost comes back as expected, we may be able to remodel the kitchen in 2016. Therefore, I will not bother with interim steps. I can live with it. It looks ugly and dirty, but I will not take the time or spend the money to paint the floor.

8. Start thinking about the kitchen remodel for 2016. – Maybe! : I addressed this one above. I already have so many ideas. The kitchen will be part DIY and part professionally finished. I do not trust myself completely with this project. I want the kitchen to be a true selling point when we leave BHH behind and move to a little cabin in the woods (Andy? We are doing that, right? Right?)

9. Organize the house: Right now BHH is a nightmare. Several times per day we are running upstairs and downstairs trying to find things. The house is dirtier and messier than I like because there are so many things that do not have a permanent place. We also have very few working organizational systems. There is plenty of storage space in BHH, but we are underutilizing much of it.

10. Start a Garden: We hope to start a small scale garden this year. The growing season is very short, but after spending a summer here, I can see how living in Zone 5 supports  a burst of success during the warmer months. It is up to the grower to plant quickly as soon as the weather allows. I scouted out locations last summer, and I think I know where we will put 2-3 raised beds. We grew tomatoes in California. Water was so scarce, and the days were so hot in the summer that it was nearly impossible to keep a full garden properly watered. Tomatoes were our only success. I look forward to growing vegetables that thrive in cooler weather.

As is typical of our method, this list may grow or shrink over the year if our priorities have to shift.

Now, I am off to shovel more snow!