House Goals for 2012

When I saw The Nester's post on her planned home goals linky party, I immediately knew it was just what I needed to do to get my butt in gear and actually get some pending house projects done this year.  Now that I have a blog, I can more easily hold myself accountable to things I said I will do - so hopefully in less than 12 months I'll have a post crossing off my checklist!  For the past two years or so, I've been extremely lazy about doing anything to this house - I think it was mostly burn-out since we did so much work to move in.  But now, I've got some newfound motivation and am ready to get 'er done (time and budget permitting, of course).  Without further adieu, here's my house goals list (in no particular order).

Source: houseandhome.com via Wendyjp on Pinterest

Spruce up the entry - I painted our front door a deep, dark blue two years ago, and last year (started, but never finished) painting our shutters the same color as well.  I'd like to finish the shutters, paint the garage door, and make my entry look more like this.

Source: marthastewart.com via Jessica on Pinterest

When we first moved, we got rid of a coat closet in the foyer to make room for a (mostly decorative) entry table and vignette.  After living here for a few years, though, it's clear that, in the absence of much more storage space on the first floor, that coat closet is key.  Add to that the fact that a leak in our roof prompted us to remove the ceiling in the foyer (in 2009), which we have yet to put back.  This year we hope to complete both projects, which will include putting in new insulation, sheetrocking the ceiling, and rebuilding the coat closet - and in doing so spruce up our entry.  I hope our closet ends up looking something like this.

When we bought the house, we knew we'd do two stages of renovations.  Stage 1 we did in 2008 to make the house liveable.  Stage 2 got relegated to the bottom of the list once the crisis and life in general got in the way.  While we're not yet ready to embark on the major projects (we're talking MBR suite addition, family room addition, new stairs, new floors, etc.), I would like to work on getting some estimates in to have a sense of how much this will cost us and at least make some progress on setting up a timeline and budget for it all.  The picture above isn't our house, but one that started off very similar to ours and was expanded much in the same direction as we'd like to take ours.

Source: favoritepaintcolors.blogspot.com via Wendyjp on Pinterest

Decorating-wise, most of my attention has been on the first floor.  Our second floor isn't shabby but it's mostly been thrown together as opposed to well thought out.  I'd like to change that, and, starting with the Master Bedroom, make it a more serene and pretty liveable space for us.  Here is just one of the many inspiration pictures of the look I'm going for.

Source: google.com via Megan on Pinterest

Though we have four bedrooms with four closets, we are literally using all the closet space in this house at the moment!  Part of the problem is that both Esposito and I have an absurd amount of clothes and shoes.  The second part is that we never took the time to update our closets to better reflect our items (i.e. we have a single hanging rod in each closet).  We need to pare down our items and create a closet that works for the both of us, and leaves space in the other bedrooms for future additions to our family and guests.  Esposito has already started the task - he donated three bag fulls of unwanted clothes last week - but there is certainly more work to be done.  Now, I don't have the space to create my dream walk-in closet (at least not until we do the addition - see goal 3 above), but at the very minimum I'd like to create a pretty, and functional space for our clothes.
 

via

One of the reasons we purchased this house was because we loved the lot size - we have a big yard which is great for our dogs and summers.  Along with a big yard comes a lot of maintenance, though, and we've spent a good amount of time and money in just keeping up with it without much of either left over to make it a true retreat.  Esposito is quite the outdoorsman when it comes to yardwork, so this is really his goal (promise - he told me so on New Years!), and we have a slew of outdoor projects in the pipeline, including a new deck, river rock surround around the house, a new shed, etc.



Source: amazon.com via Paige on Pinterest



Now, I'm not a dirty person, but I can be messy.  And Esposito is typically just lazy;)/  While I do have my weekly cleaning routine that takes place on Saturday mornings, I would like to work on keeping up with cleaning the house on a more regular basis so that I'm not spending the better part of my weekend doing so.  This will involve setting up a routine for myself to do every weeknight.  So far in 2012 I've been good, hopefully I can keep it going!

Those are my house goals for 2012, head on over to The Nester to see what other bloggers are making theirs! Are you making any house/home-related goals this year?

Dining Room Mood Board

Now that my chair rail project is practically done (just needs another coat of paint and then hopefully I'll post a full reveal!), everything else in the dining room is looking a bit worse for wear (isn't that how it always happens - you do one project and that escalates into redoing the whole room!).  I know as late as last week I was talking about redoing the living room and though no progress has been made on that, I've now jumped full force into the dining room!  To remind you of what my dining room looks like, here's the latest iteration (before the chair rail):

The chairs and table have to stay for now, though one day I hope to purchase a table on a trestle so that we can more comfortably fit our big families when we host them for dinner.  I will most likely purchase two chairs so we have seating for six on a normal basis, however.  What I'm looking to change are the drapes (those are already gone - they matched my mom's newly redecorated master bedroom so I gave them to her) and the asymmetrical bookcase, which will be replaced with a china cabinet/hutch for additional storage.  The rug will eventually be changed out as well - actually, moved to the living room as the living room rug needs to go - so that's something else I'm on the lookout for.  Here's a mockup of what I'm considering:

Dining Room MoodBoard by wpolanco on polyvore.com

with the addition of a painting like this that for some reason I couldn't get to look right on my board:

via

I'm starting with the hutch, and I've been scouring craigslist for a great deal on a vintage one to bring some character to the space!

What do you think?

My Weekend in Pictures

Though I didn't share many pictures on instagram this weekend, it was quite eventful ... from house projects, to helping a friend move, to spending some quality time with my mom and sisters, to enjoying yesterday's beautiful weather in the city, and of course shopping, I am exhausted and the work week is just beginning! Here's a few snapshots of it all (as usual, I'm linking up to the Instagram party over a {little} dash of ash):



Friday evening, I drew out all the rectangles for my chair rail molding project.  I tend to be horrible at taking measurements, so this was the easiest (though certainly time consuming!) way to ensure the finished product was what I wanted (you can see my pencil markings on the wall to the right!).



On Saturday, I visited the Crate and Barrel outlet with my mom and found some great deals.  This "Happy" cup was only $1.



INSANE Deal on a California King size Colette bed!



One of the couch options I'm considering from Crate and Barrel.



Saturday evening, I put our miter saw to work and cranked out the rest of the molding.



The finished product!  I'll have more pictures once I get my camera to function again.  I'm still on the fence about whether I will leave it like this or paint the bottom half of the wall white.



On Sunday, Esposito and I drove into the city to brunch with my sister and her girlfriend.  We went to the Surnbunt Cow in Alphabet City for all you can drink brunch - my kind of Sunday morning!






This weekend a close friend of mine closed in a house two blocks away from mine!  Isn't it cute - she bought it for a great price and has SOOO much space inside!  We spent Sunday evening helping her and her fiance tear down wallpaper and prep the house for moving day this coming Saturday.  I'm super excited about having friends so close!

 How was your weekend?





Bloggers Do It Better - Sequins!

It's that time again!  Another outfit post courtesy of Pretty Shiny Sparkly's Bloggers Do It Better series.  This time the theme is sequins (see the military chic post here). 

Unfortunately my camera died just after we took this pictures, so as much as I'd like to do more outfit posts - that will be on hold until I can get it fixed and/or get a new one...  arrgghh!

Head on over to Bloggers Do It Better and see how other bloggers style their sequins!  How do you wear your sequins?

Friday's Fancies - Best Foot Forward

For this week's Friday's Fancies, the theme is best foot forward, or designing an outfit around a pair of shoes.  In my mind, there's no more covetable pair of shoes than a pair of Louboutins.  When (not if) I own a pair, I will most likely opt for a basic black pump, to maximize cost per use.  But since Friday's Fancies is not necessarily about being practical (well, I certainly don't treat it as such), I opted to build my outfit around a fabulous pair of Louboutin laser cut booties. 

Fridays Fancies Best Foot Forward by wpolanco featuring leather high heels

I love the mix of feminine and masculine in this look - the flirty dress with the rugged leather jacket, the lace-inspired laser cut design on the leather shoes, the rose gold cuff covered in spikes, and the dainty earrings with otherwise dark, bold or big accessories!

Head on over to Long Distance Loving to see the other fabulous Friday's Fancies outfits!