New Year, New Goals
Categories: Ideas - Tags: 2014, bathroom, Control4, DIY, goals, home automation, kitchen, new year, PARA Blog Crew, PARA Paints, radiant heatingHappy New Year! Before I get into today’s post, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for the overwhelmingly positive feedback on the Laundry Room Makeover project we did as a gift for my parents. Thanks also to everyone who took the time to enter the giveaway. Of course there can only be one winner & congratulations to Angela M for winning the gallon of PARA paint as well as the PaintStick EZ-Twist Roller & QuickPainter Pad Edge Painter courtesy of HomeRight. Good luck with your bathroom reno Angela & be sure to send us pics!
Now that all that is out of the way, let’s talk 2014…
This is our first post of 2014 and it’s gearing up to be a big year for us. I want to start by setting the disclaimer that I’m not a New Year’s Resolution kinda girl. I’m not one of those people who gets all gung-ho about a list of personal goals and then runs out to hit the gym. That’ll never be me. But for this year as we enter the ‘home stretch’ (no pun intended) of our Dreamhouse construction we thought making a list of a few of the things we plan to accomplish and putting them in black in white would be helpful. So here they are…
DIY Goals for 2014
- Run Home Automation wire – This is one that we (I’m lookin at you Kes) were supposed to have tackled in 2013, but unfortunately never got around to. We’ll be running all of the wire & conduit for our Cat6, HDMI & audio cabling to support our Control4 automation.
- Install pex for radiant heating – Another of the 2013 goals we’re draggin with us into the new year. We’re looking to install radiant as a secondary heat source for the Dreamhouse – mostly because of the sheer number of large windows we have. I don’t care what anyone says, even with high quality windows & proper insulation, you’re still bound to experience some heat loss when you’re dealing with a full wall of glass & a 20 ft. ceiling across the back of the house. We’re hoping that having radiant to heat the objects in the house will help keep us from having a furnace working overtime!
- Prime & paint – If you remember our PARA Blog Crew submission video, you know that we have A LOT of painting ahead of us. Once we finally get some drywall up in this place, we’ll be tackling all of the priming and painting of the various rooms one by one. I suspect this is one goal we won’t completely get checked off the list this year, but with PARA’s help I’m sure we’ll get most of the way there.
- Organized entry way – The entry is one area of the house that has changed significantly since we revealed the floorplans last year. We’ve updated the ground floor plan to make things more open & include lots of storage. We’ll definitely be including something creative with paint, a bit of IKEA installation, and we might even take on building a bench!
- Kitchen assembly (& possibly install) – We’ve got a pretty big kitchen, with a ton of pieces to be assembled – base cabinets, upper cabinets, full height pantry storage, drawer inserts, etc.. Over the years I’ve become a bit of an expert at assembling IKEA furniture, though with this many pieces I think we’re going to need to take our time and tackle a few pieces at a time over several weeks before the kitchen is actually ready for cabinetry. When it comes to the install, we’re still debating whether this is something that we’ll be tackling ourselves or if we’ll bring in professional installers to do. I guess we’ll see how the budget is looking when we get there, lol!
- Kids’ bathroom – this will probably be one that we tackle closer to the end of the year once the house is complete & we’re all moved in & settled. The third bathroom upstairs between Kash’s bedroom and the room that will hopefully one day belong to baby #2 was something of an afterthought – as in we knew we wanted to have an additional bathroom on the second floor, but our original Dreamhouse budget didn’t factor that in. So our plan was to have it roughed in for us to finish ourselves.
So what do you think? Can we accomplish all these this year or are we kidding ourselves? What are your goals for 2014?
Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead! Good luck, can’t wait to see the results!
It’s definitely a lot of work but as completing each one will bring us one step closer to our move in date I’m feeling excited about it. Thanks for following along!
Good luck with everything! Honestly, I bet you can do it all! We just installed our Ikea kitchen. Some items were easy, others were trickier. Depending on how much time you have, I’m willing to bet you guys can do it. Of course, our kitchen is pretty small, so it’s all relative
Thanks Meredith! Yea, I think if we take our time & try not to let it all overwhelm us we’ll be ok. Our designer did tell us that it’s one off the biggest kitchens she’s ever done though which makes me a bit nervous lol!
Bring it on!! I am all for radiant floor heating. My parents did this in their old cabin and let me tell you, walking on toasty basement concrete in bare feet feels like a day at the spa.
That sounds like heaven, Alex!! I can’t wait.
Sounds like you have a full and very satisfying year ahead. It must feel exciting to know these things are just around the corner. Good luck!
Thanks Dani! It is a bit satisfying but also a little frustrating cause sometimes I feel like we’re so close to being done yet so far away at the same time. Not sure if that makes sense…
Sounds like you’re going to have a BIG year!!! So excited for you guys! I can’t wait to follow along with all of your projects!
Thanks love! Looking forward to following along with you as well! xo
Big year ahead! wishing you all the best.
Thanks Stephanie! Same to you.
I love that quote written above, it’s absolutely true! Have a blessed 2014!
Thanks Trina! Wishing you all the best for 2014 also!