H&G goals for 2023

[mrsukyankee]

Any goals for the new year?

Now that I've gotten through my first year of veg gardening, I've learned a lot. So this year's goal is to do better, grow better, be more informed. I know I have to start things earlier so that my veg has time to grow. My other goal is to put in a watering system (drip line), which I'll do in the spring.

In terms of the house, I'd like to start focusing on decorating our guest room and paint the built ins in our bedroom.

[sadie]

Garden related-I'd like to plant some blueberry bushes this year now that my raspberries and blackberries are established. I might go lighter on veggies; I'm zucchini-ed out from last year. I want to boost my balcony pallet wall flowers this year, too.

This year is the year of random smaller scale house and car maintenance projects. Both cars will get new tires; the 15 year old Civic will get some annoying but necessary repairs done. I'm having lighting wired and installed in our living room. I'm hoping to replace carpets in the bedrooms and am hoping to upgrade my bed.

[spinnaker5]

We just got our front and back yards landscaped, so my main goals are to keep up the maintenance so everything continues to look nice as it matures, and also to actually spend time in the backyard and enjoy it.

p.s. Mrsukyankee, our (already old and janky when we purchased the house) irrigation system bit the dust over the summer so that was part of the reno - and critical for us given our area’s watering restrictions. The system they put in connects with an app (Rachio; not sure if it is available where you are but if not probably there are similar ones) so you can manually add a watering cycle anytime. It also monitors soil moisture and adjusts the programmed schedule accordingly. Wild!

[brooklyn]

I’m relieved to be basically done with our $$$ backyard project. I’d like to add a raised veggie garden bed in the spring, but that’s it.

This year I want to add recessed lighting to our primary bedroom and paint it. And finally paint my older son’s room. Those are the only two bedrooms that haven’t been repainted since we moved in in 2020.

Still dying to move our laundry room upstairs and add a basement bathroom in it’s place downstairs, but I don’t even know where to begin there.

[simpsongal]

I want to finish out our walk in closet with drawers and other storage solutions.

Would love to hire an architect to get our next big renovation under way.

For landscaping, we may take down the 60 yr old bushes lining our driveway. They’re hitting the end of life…

[mrspez07]

We’re having all 3 bathrooms and our master bedroom updates/remodeled. 2 of the showers are original 1979 tile and pan, and the beige tile used in a previous remodel is yuck. The bedroom is being added to the list because of the heavy texture in it and the master. We’re redoing some lighting and ceiling in there while we’re at it. Likely new furniture too.

In my yard I’d like to boost the number of perennials in my native/xeric front yard and get a bed in the backyard dug out of old iris and weedy grasses and replanted with some shrubs. We also need to do our shallow window wells on our garden-level basement. They’re a unique size, so I’m trying to figure out how to DIY some concrete ones.

ETA: we also are still trying to find pieces to finish furnishing our basement remodel, like book shelves and a media console.

[origami]

We’re hoping to actually start the extensive renovations still needed from the water damage we had in JULY. I’m not even going to have a goal of finishing them because that seems too ambitious at this point. (I hate insurance companies.) New kitchen, new flooring on 1st floor, basement drywall & flooring and redesign the wall with the fireplace. Fireplace wall is optional but kind of has to be redone because of the flooring change.

[mrsukyankee]

Thank you, spinnaker5!

[krystee]

I would like to add a feature wall and recessed lighting in our living room, replace the rest of our remaining brown blinds with white blinds, and turn our basement from mostly storage to a fun game room/hangout spot. If budget remains, I’d love to redo (or really, do, because it was never done) the primary bedroom.

[dove]

We moved to another fixer upper this summer after H took a job out of state.
We will eventually redo most of the house, but for 2023 We want to do the primary room and bath. And if the renovation gods shine in our favor, the kitchen

[maudefindlay]

Jan 1, 2023 18:20:18 GMT -5 krystee said:

I would like to add a feature wall and recessed lighting in our living room, replace the rest of our remaining brown blinds with white blinds, and turn our basement from mostly storage to a fun game room/hangout spot. If budget remains, I’d love to redo (or really, do, because it was never done) the primary bedroom.

Do you have a design/pattern and color picked out for the feature wall? We might do one in our primary room.

[libbygrl109]

Gardening - I need to improve the soil in my garden, may even take the year off from planting anything at all. The last few years I've had yields that were just meh. I know that part of it was do to our wacky weather, but I also know I haven't been all that great about amending it each year.

House-wise, we need to make some improvements to our screened-in porch - replacing the floor and building new railings. I also want to finally redesign my cookie space so that it is more organized and my work area isn't so cluttered. Other than that, I just need to declutter some areas that I've been neglecting.

[sandandsea]

We need to replace our front door, back sliding door, and garage doors this year. I want the front door and garage doors to match and it’s proving difficult to find.

[SusanBAnthony]

Gardening- finish pulling out two invasive bushes. Keep everything weeded and alive. Actually trim my fruit trees in February like I'm supposed to haha. I have enough gardens that I'm not expanding at this point.

House: probably just refresh some paint. I'm not really in the mood for any of house projects. Mayyyyybe redecorate our guest room/office. But it's hard to justify spending 2-5k on furniture for a guest room.

[dr.girlfriend]

After three years of waiting on our contractor I finally got a text THIS MORNING that they are coming at 8 am tomorrow to demo our powder room! I'm very excited, it's a tiny room but it's the one all the guests use, and it's the only part of the downstairs we haven't renovated. I'm hoping to also add cabinets in the laundry room and redo the upstairs bathroom, but those are lower priorities so I'm not as impatient.

Otherwise, I really need to frame and hang those three pieces of custom wallpaper art I got made. I think I have an idea how to do it (wallpaper paste onto wood, use molding to make a frame) but I have to actually do it.

[Susie]

In no particular order:

1.  Paint the kitchen and laundry room (last two rooms to be painted since we bought the house in 2021).

2.  Buy Adirondack chairs (Polywood) for the fire pit area.

3.  Grade and partially fence the backyard.  Replace deck stairs and continue the stairs into the terraced area with raised garden beds/firepit.

4.  Remove bradford pears in the front yard.  Replace with something non-fruitbearing and probably native.

5.  Finish the basement.

6.  Replace the shed.

7.  Continue removing the rest of the landscape plastic and landscape stone, replace with mulch and plant perennial beds.

8.  Crown molding and chair rail in dining room.

Some of this will definitely take into 2024 and beyond.

[rubytue]

18 months of work, and we are coming to the end. I have two tile projects left (backsplash and fireplace). We got a bid, H did his usual “that’s too much for something I could do” so we are currently in a debate about that. *sigh* So I guess my goal is to get the tile done, and then chill.

[k3am]

We keep trying to work up the motivation (to live through the experience and spend the money) for our kitchen renovation, but at this point I’d be happy to just repaint. We’ve been here almost 5 years and the paint we moved into was cheap and can’t be wiped down, and between that and our floors (that we won’t replace until we redo the kitchen), nothing ever feels clean.

[mrsukyankee]

To add - talked to my H last night and I think we're going to replace our boiler and update our heating system this year. We've had ongoing issues with it and it's close to the end of its life, so figure we might as well get a system that is more efficient. We knew it would come some times in the next few years, so we have the money to pay for it saved up.

I have also convinced him that we should consider making a change to one room - it was sold as a steam room/shower. The steam part of it isn't working, the venting system sucks and so it's a great shower with mould building on the ceiling. I want to rip it all out and make it into an actual bathroom with toilet, sink and shower (plus put the window back in - it got bricked up). Would add value to the house and make it easier when we have guests as we'd have two bathrooms on that floor. Not sure it will happen this year, but I'm going to talk to my MIL about it and sharing the costs.

[macmars45]

Look into getting a tree for the front yard to help shield the front bedroom from the blazing sun in the summer. It makes the bedroom an inferno no matter what we've tried so far.

Plant more strawberries this summer. They did well and I enjoyed it last summer.

Find a handyman to complete my half bath small reno (new vanity, mirror, backsplash & touch up painting). I had the vanity and mirror installed by the first handyman I found and then he ghosted me. The second handyman was upfront with me that because of other work he's not sure he can finish it for me.

My oldest sister will help me do an accent wall in my bedroom this spring.

[heygrey]

1) expand our garden and refine what we grow. This is mostly a DH project, but I go along for the ride.

2) phase 1 bathroom reno. Currently, we have one large, multi room bathroom. We are going to renovate it in phases to create two normal size bathrooms and one will become a true on suite with no access from the hallway.

[lessel]

We wanted to renovate our bathroom but now there’s a chance we’re selling and moving, so we just gave it a little facelift instead.

[wildrice]

I want to paint 2/3 of our bathrooms and our whole basement/office area. They are the only rooms in the house that I haven't painted since we moved in (May 2020) and it shows.

I also need to find some shade plants to plant in the backyard. I did a good cleanup of the yard last year but most of what I planted died due to lack of light. Thankfully none of it cost much and a lot was annuals that I figured I'd just give a shot, but knowing this now I need to be more strategic. I'd like to also get some furniture or a fire pit or something to make the yard more appealing. We really don't use it at all right now since we have a decent deck that gets a lot more sun and is on our main level, but since we have a yard I hate to just have it sit there for no reason.

I'd love to do a bathroom refresh on our main bathroom but I have a feeling that will be a 2024 project at the earliest. We do need to do something about our closet door in there that keeps falling off its track, but I am not sure I want to replace it when we don't have a real plan for what things will look like down the road. I am not really thinking we'll be redesigning the bathroom as much as just updating it, so maybe it won't matter if we do the closet now.

I also really want to get a new mattress for our main bedroom and a new couch set for the living room. Not sure if both will be feasible this year. I'm also torn on whether we should upgrade to a king bed which would mean we need a new headboard/frame. The room can probably accommodate it, but it would be tighter than I'd prefer. 

[ssmjlm]

We're putting in a pool, so after that's done and the fence, we'll see how things settle and figure out landscaping.

The playroom is getting a slight facelift as E grows up. We just added a loveseat and may change out the ikea expedit for a more closed door cabinet setup with a tv on top.

I want to eventually get estimates to paint the entire first floor. The builder paint is looking terrible, but it's too much space and height for me to tackle. I still need to repaint our bedroom from our new furniture/bedspread. I did the accent wall behind the bed, but the original gray doesn't work with the furniture DH picked.

[definitelyO]

DH wants to redo part of the front yard- it slightly slopes to the street and he wants to brace it up with a natural rock looking retaining type wall. we'll see...

house - we finished our kitchen and living reno and now I need to buy new LR furniture, get art on the walls, and decorate the Living Room. so hard to pull the trigger for furniture