Fall Home Projects

When the girls return to school and I have a bit more time, I plan to tackle a few home decorating projects.  We've lived here for almost nine years and decorating has been at a minimum, mainly due to time.  Although this isn't decorating, I also need to clean out and organize every single closet in the house.  I know there are many, many items in my closet that can go.

The first floor of our home consists of five different spaces:  entry hall, front to back family room, dining room, kitchen and bath/laundry room.  When this house was on the market, the owners had a formal dining set in the dining room and then another dining area in the back of the family room, which is next to the kitchen.  Originally, we had the family room as a family room.  When the girls transitioned out of high chairs, we moved our dining room furniture to the back of the family room and turned the dining room into a playroom.  We did this because the dining room felt like wasted space.  No one ever used it.  The girls ate at a little table in the kitchen and Rich and I ate either at the kitchen counter or on the couches in the family room.  We eat meals as a family now and use our table in the family room all the time.

Our dining room furniture feels crowded in its current location and we have to move furniture if we want to open the table all the way to fit 8 people.  We've decided to return the playroom to its intended use as a dining room.  The girls don't have/need as many toys as when they were younger and I plan to use the space in the back of the family room as a play area. Honestly, half the time, they move toys to the family room when they are playing.  I'm going to paint the dining room and we are throwing around the idea of new furniture.  We purchased the set we have now for our home that was built in 1888.  I don't know. . .

I've had repainting the kitchen on my list for awhile now.  It's green and it needs to go.  Having a color on the walls combined with the cherry cabinets leaves the room feeling dark.  And it's horrible for photos, casting a weird tint.  I would love to rip out the entire kitchen and start fresh.  The cabinets, unfortunately, were not very well made and will eventually need to be replaced.  We've already had one pull apart and detach from the wall and the bottom of the main drawer that we use for utensils falls out if you aren't careful.  We haven't seriously considered a full kitchen renovation because if we're going to do it right, the wood floors covering the entire first floor would need to be refinished and nobody wants to deal with that.

Add the downstairs bathroom to the list of rooms to be repainted.  We may also replace the two couches that we've had in the family room since we moved in.  I may end up repainting the entire first floor when all is said and done.  Oh, I want to repaint the front door too!

There are some pieces of furniture in the girls' rooms that I need paint.  First on the list is chair for a vanity I snagged from the beach house and dates back to my grandmother.  It also needs a new seat cushion and cover.

So, yeah, lots of projects.  And who thought I was going to be looking for another job when the girls returned to school?