Projects on the go

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was a bit burnt out from the laundry room mayhem.  I'll be honest with you, we still have not taken a single step towards completion.  Instead, we have started a bunch of other projects which I'm sure will also remain ongoing for some time.

It seems to me that there are many blogs out there that whip through a project at record speed with reveal photos sprouting up moments after the project was undertaken.  Well that's nice for them (really nice) but I can't operate like that.  Weather, timing, budget and desire all play a part in getting my projects closer to completion. 

This is what's on the go at the moment (aside from the laundry room that I have listed here):

Backyard:  We've pulled out a ton of overgrown shrubbery that doesn't work for us and raked up leaves and dead plant debris that we didn't clear out in the fall.  We've stuffed 19 garden bags full of refuse.  We still have an enormous pile of bush and debris left to bundle up and we need to buy some plants for the gaps we've made.  Jason wants some fruit trees and I'm happy to take a back seat on this project.   It will be a lot of digging but I think in a couple years we'll be thrilled to have fruit from our own back yard (we currently have grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb.  We'll also plant some cherry tomatoes shortly too).  We need to take out one of the raised beds at the back of the yard (it's an eyesore that holds way too much decorative grass).  It is also where lawn ornaments either come to mate or die or both.  We found no less than two dozen broken solar-powered lights shaped like various critters.  It is a true menagerie back there.  We're building a shed in its place so that we can clear out some garage space as well as some basement space.

My office space:  As you saw here, I've been working on improving my office-space as well (as in my real work office).  Today I went to Target and bought a couple frames and a piece of fake-but-beautiful coral to try to style my bookcase. 

The hallway:  I'll do a before and after post soon.  We stripped the hallway of its chair-rail wallpaper and discovered that the walls had never been primed, causing a lot of damage.  We had them scratch coated with plaster then primed, sanded, painted and replaced all the old baseboards and trim.  We still need to rip out the front hall closet (it was not originally part of the house - it juts into the garage such that you can't actually get a car in the garage on that side).  Install hooks, shelves and shoe storage for guests, paint the dresser I got from my grandma (below) and make a gallery wall out of gold frames that I need to scavenge from thrift shops. When we do this we'll likely also finish up the hooks and trim in the laundry room since we'll essentially be doing the same thing in the front hall.

Front yard:  Paint the bench, garage doors and front door.  Reuse the bricks from the raised beds in the backyard to make a big black-eyed Susan bed in the front. 

There's A LOT more on the long-term list, but these are the items we hope to get to by the end of the fall.  Aside from my office space, these projects are all intertwined:  to get our car in the garage for winter we need to finish the hallway and clear out space in the garage, hence the need for the shed and the backyard re-do. 

What projects do you currently have on your list?

Happy DIYing!