to-do list

I never experienced the nesting phenomenon that so many pregnant women talk about - that burst of energy to clean and tackle projects in the remaining weeks leading up to the birth. Some kind of project-doing, redecorating, sprucing up bug has bitten me recently. Thankfully Brett feels the same way, so we are hoping to combine his handyman know-how and my desire to beautify and make over things to achieve some updates around the house. Since we know we'll be here for at least another three years, and then will have to rent out this place even after we've moved, we want to make some improvements to the place for sanity's sake and so that it will be attractive for potential renters.

First we need to come up with a list and then prioritize. Here is what we have so far:

Research and buy a coffee cart for the kitchen (we have limited counter space, so we thought putting the coffee maker, Burr grinder, and other coffee-related accessories could go there)

Research, buy, and install new counter tops and backsplash (our cheap countertops stain easily and look awful)

Refinish kitchen cupboards and add hardware? (not sure if this is something we want to do yet as it could be pricey)

Research and buy a desk to replace the broken, awkwardly big, ugly computer desk downstairs. We want an espresso-colored (brownish black) modern, straight lines design desk preferably with an option for a hanging files drawer and at least one other small drawer. This is harder to find than you'd think! We pay all our bills online and manage finances online, but I would love some physical files to keep Stella's medical stuff and other household matters in an easy-to-access place. I am so tired of figuring out where to store paperwork. We have those little plastic file case things, but they're in the storage room under the stairs and such a pain to get to.

Replace bathroom door, our bedroom door, and basement door with solid core doors. When Brett finished the basement, he replaced a bathroom, laundry, and Stella's bedroom door with BEAUTIFUL solid core doors. Staining them took a lot of time, so he hasn't gotten around to buying and finishing other doors for the rest of the house yet. Eventually we would like to replace the living room coat closet door and our bedroom closet door, too.

Redo upstairs bathroom. YIKES. The vanity upstairs is the original one from the 80's and it's ugly and falling apart. We also want to repaint it and put in a new floor. This would be an all-weekend thing that we'd really like to accomplish this summer.

Replace hide-a-bed couch downstairs with a more sleek, modern-styled couch. We inherited the hide-a-bed couch from Brett's boss. It's super old and hideous colors, so we bought a slipcover for it, but the slipcover always falls off and looks gross and is a cat hair and lint magnet. Really nice slipcovers are SO expensive. I hate this big clunky couch and it doesn't fit in with the look I'm going for.

Go through books that we have in our bookshelves and organize them better.

Refinish end table in living room.

Move artwork to other rooms; buy artwork for bare walls that we just haven't gotten around to doing yet.

Buy new pillows/buy new pillow covers for the living room couches.

(Finally) decorate our bedroom walls.

Finish up decorating Stella's room AND find a bigger basket for her ever-growing library of wonderful books!

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And that is just what we have for the inside so far. The yard is another story.

Do you have a big to-do list?