Project Plans 2022

Right now I’m sitting in Florida in our beautiful house that’s about to be sold. We’re enjoying our time here as much as possible. I’ve been exercising, taking walks, doing fun family activities, crafts and activities with my son, and getting in some beach time. It’s been such a blessing to recharge!

After working in retail for many years and going to work the day after Christmas, I know this time is lucky and rare. Being able to forget what day it is while watching movies and taking a nap when I feel like it feels like such a gift.

The fall was full of work (that I’ve very grateful for). But I worked long days and many weekends from September-the beginning of December and my soul was just begging me to slow down. So I actually listened.

I haven’t been on social media much. But when my husband took my son kayaking and I felt like planning what 2022 has in store, I started typing this out.  I love brainstorming what projects we’ll do! And with the sale of the Florida house, I should have a bit of a budget to execute some of these. So that’s nice!

One massive luxury of being in Florida is that I have the space from our Logan home and life to think about what isn’t working. What I’d like to improve on. Here’s what I’m dreaming of-

guest room renovation

Our guest room is on the first floor of our house. A few years ago, we totally renovated our main bedroom that’s upstairs. I love that room! But because of our dog Lucy’s health problems, it’s better for us to sleep downstairs. Lucy has trouble with stairs (she’s too scared to go down them now that she’s older) and has a hard time making it outside to go to the bathroom on time.

So we’ve switched to sleeping in the guest room. We’re lucky we had the option and there’s good things about it- the space has better temperature control (oh the perks of living in a 1905 house). Plus there’s a bathroom right off it (there’s no bathrooms upstairs).

But there are some massive down sides too- this room is where we receive most of the packages. Being a blogger means always working on a project and I have items shipped consistently. That room just seems to attract clutter so I’m brainstorming how I can design it with a renovation so that it can be a more restful place to sleep.

Because sleeping in a room full of boxes and piles of supplies for current projects just isn’t doing it for me- lol. I know because that’s how I’ve lived for the past 6 months. Here’s what I think needs to be redone in the room-

guest room renovation plans

• New Flooring

The flooring in this room is bad laminate flooring that is pretty beat up. From old pictures of the house, I believe there’s original hard wood floors in here that are painted pink. One of the old owners LOVED pink even more than me. So we’ll either try to work with that by painting the old floors or put something new down.

• Take out the window looking into the garage

There is a window in the bedroom that looks into the garage. The garage is a newer addition so the window was from before the garage existed. Right now we have a wallpapered board in the window. Taking it down would make changing the layout in here easier

• Replace the plaster walls for drywall

As we’ve slowly redone the house, we’ve been removing the old plaster and then putting in better insulation and drywall. This is a controversial renovation- lots of old house purists prefer repairing the plaster. But we don’t love it and it’s our house, so this is what we’ve been doing.

Plus, with moving the window, it makes sense to patch the drywall then.

There’s old bead board on the wall so that’d need to come down too. The room has a mix of paneling and bead board and it feels a little disjointed.

• Make a wall between the bedroom and the hall. Use that for a big closet/storage area

The room is shaped like a T. This makes it hard to design and there is space that I could close off for some much needed storage space.

The area where my china cabinet is has a big closet on the opposite side. If I closed it off, I could use that closet for project storage.

This is a super old picture of the area I’d like to close off and make into one big closet- the china cabinet is now on the left hand side.

Side note, I know that it is so weird that I need a space for project supplies. Since I started my blog 6 years I’ve struggled to know what to do with my project stuff. Working full time in your house makes it hard to separate your live and your employment which makes it feel like you’re always working. That’s not healthy and I’d like to create literal boundaries.

I just don’t want to stare at a physical embodiment of my to do list when I’m winging down for the day- you know?

Right now my clothes are upstairs and my husband’s clothes are in the guest bedroom closet. That worked when the bedroom was upstairs because he’d shower and grab clothes on the way to the shower. Now I have to run upstairs to choose my clothes for the day and it’d be much nicer to be able to get dressed in the bedroom.

guest room floor plan ideas

My husband and I sat down and sketched out some ideas to solve the issues in here. This is the first option. It makes the closet much bigger. The area that becomes a walk-in closet is wasted space, so might as well close it off so I can store deliveries in there. It’ll also have space for my clothes. I’d probably bring seasonal clothes down from upstairs closet.

With this option, I can keep my china cabinet (that I love) where it is and it’ll be part of a hall.

For option two, I’d have to get rid of the china cabinet- sob! Also, this is a bigger renovation because it closes the door from the bedroom to the living room and we’d have to open a door from another hall to the bedroom. But look at all that storage space we’d get! That’s a TON for this little home!

Which option do you like better? Option 1- a reasonable sized closet. Or option 2 with the giant closet and tons of storage space? I see the beauty in both. Especially because it solves a lot of the layout issues and dead space in here. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

So that’s mostly what I’m thinking. There will also be fun projects like maybe making the bed a canopy bed, adding a pretty ceiling decoration, and in general sprucing up the decor. Right now it’s a mish mash of thrifted pieces but I’d like it to feel more intentional with better storage. 

Side note, there’s nothing bad with thrifted pieces. I obviously love thrifting! It’s just that I hurried to get this room ready to be an additional bedroom for Air BNB. So some of the pieces are just ok.

This will be our big project for the year and I think it’ll add a lot to our quality of life. 

linen closet

Since our house was built in 1905, all the bathrooms are additions. This means there’s some weird layouts. Right off my bathroom, there’s a storage area between the bathroom and the kitchen. The house has very little storage, so we’ve always been grateful to have space for some linens and cleaning supplies. Our games go there too.

But I think this space could serve us so much better! The current cabinets don’t have drawers so items aren’t easy to organize. There’s also a countertop space that is a waste. It’s not like I do food prep there. Instead, it attracts clutter and would be better for more storage.

I want to tear out the old cabinets and start fresh. Don’t worry, we’d reuse the cabinets in one of our sheds or donate them to Habitat for Humanity.

Here’s what I’m thinking. I’d use IKEA cabinets with pretty fronts for a floor to ceiling storage. We have tall ceilings and the current cabinets don’t go to the ceiling. I’d have a space for a step stool so I could reach the top and I’d have so much more storage!

Right now our fancy table linens (cloth napkins and tablecloths) are stored in a bench at the foot of my bed. I’d love to have space in this closet for them. We don’t have any extra kitchen storage and since this space is right off the kitchen, it’d make sense.

A new cabinet would be gorgeous and nicely store everything. When I painted these cabinets I didn’t paint the inside. It feels dirty and dingy when putting stuff away. A fresh start would be so nice! 

Thing I’ve never gotten around to

Since we decided to sell our Florida house I’ve felt a mix of emotions- I was and am definitely sad about losing this important part of me. But there is also a massive financial burden being lifted off my shoulders. So I have adopted the attitude that if I have to sell, I’m going to make my Logan Utah house as good as possible.

Here’s a few things I want to get to that I just haven’t prioritized before-

• paving the driveway- our front driveway is huge and made of gravel. It’s terrible in the winter to clear of snow. In the summer it grows weeds and never looks great. We actually tried to get bids to have it paved in the fall, but we couldn’t get anyone to do the work. In 2022 I’m hoping we can get on someone’s schedule to get the work done.

 

• fixing the garage door- this is embarrassing, but our garage door doesn’t have a remote so we have to jump out of the car, push the button, and then drive in. We’ve been doing this since 2018 when we bought the house. I don’t know how much work this will be, but it’s an inconvenience and it totally unnecessary.

 

• possibly adding solar panels? Sustainability is really important to me so adding some solar panels would be so cool to me. I don’t know much about this process, but I’d like to learn more!

small fun projects- playroom

In the playroom, I have a few changes planned to help the room grow better with Don. I want to have more space to show off his artwork. He’s really gotten into drawing lately and I want to encourage that!

I also want to move his play kitchen to the playhouse. In its place, I want to make a little vet play area. I’d make a table where he could examine stuffed animals, a place to look at play x-rays, and little cages for his stuffies. Again, an interest he has that I’d like to help develop.

Maybe I’d add a TV in here so he can play his video games upstairs. I’m still undecided on that. We’ve talked about adding a TV up here for ages and haven’t mostly for budget reasons.

small fun projects- she shed

The floor in my she shed is gravel. It grows stuff in it in the summer. I’d like to do a concrete floor and then tile over it. For the tile, I’m thinking of doing a pink and white checkered floor! This would really finish the space off and make it much easier to clean. 

small fun projects- Don’s room

Last year I redid the floors in Don’s room. I love them! But I didn’t really get around to customizing his room. I want to add more personality. Also, when. I recently asked Don which room he likes better- his tiny Florida room or his Logan room he said Florida because it has more toys. So I need to work on that more.

I’m sure in the summer we’ll do more outside projects. As always, I want to do at least one fence project. We’re slowly fencing our huge yard and it’ll be good to add another section. Outside our kitchen window has a view of our neighbor’s storage and car parking. Putting in a fence and a bird feeder is on my list!

Anyway, those are my thoughts! What project are you excited about? What layout do you prefer for the guest room turned main bedroom?