Our 2020 Plans for our Fixer Upper

Our 2020 Plans for our Fixer Upper

Happy Monday! Now that February is well underway and I got a few DIY’s completed, I thought I would share this year’s plans for our home. As you know we moved into our forever “farmhouse” on 2.5 acres this past October and since then things have been a little crazy. 

I feel like now is finally a good time to get projects moving along and (hopefully) completed. There are so many things on this list, I hope I am alive by the end of the year… but for real, if done at a steady pace, it should all get done just fine. 

As always, you can watch/listen to this post on the go by playing the video below:

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First off I would like to finish the sunroom which I started back in late October. We painted the walls and the tile floors, but here is the before… 

(These images are from the listing of the house so everything is empty. I wish I knew who took them so I could properly credit and also let them know how amazing they are because the house doesn’t look like that in real life, LOL!)

Of course, it looks better now, but I will need to add blinds and window treatments as well as more decorative pieces. You can see the furnishings in this post. 

Next, we need to finish the laundry room. We started working on it this past November as well but we took a brief halt when I went to the hospital and then switched our focus to enjoying the holidays so not much happened since then. 

This ended up being more than we bargained for because as you can see the opening below covers part of the washer and dryer below which made up purchase a new top loader set even though we brought a perfectly good front loader set from our last laundry room.

RELATED: Laundry Room Progress 

But even after buying them new, we still had to make the opening larger. We had to take it to the studs and move them out further and replace the header. This was all done by my hubby by the way. 

 

 

So while we were at it he removed the popcorn ceiling, painted, retiled and added new baseboards. 

You can watch the process here. 

Of course, there is still more to do because I need storage, so I created a design board for this space in order to finalize how I wanted everything to look. 

I create these all the time because it helps me figure out whether or not what I envision will actually look good and it keeps me focused on getting what is on my vision board and doesn’t allow me to stray (too far at least…). 

If you have ever wanted to learn how to make one, I share exactly how I made this one (without expensive editing software or any photoshop skills).

Full tutorial here. 

Next, and probably the biggest thing will be the floors and guess what, we have a teeny tiny budget for this, so completing it will take a serious amount of ingenuity and hard work on our part. We wish to add hardwoods to the entire first floor. 

But before that we need to remove the popcorn ceilings all over the first floor, which my hubby has already started (full tutorial coming up soon). 

The first 3 rooms that have to get completed are the kids, but of course they all need:

• New Floors
• Smooth Ceilings
• New Closet Systems (since our closets are so much smaller in this house)
• Add New Paint
• Install New Trim Around The Windows
• Order and Install New Blinds
• New Light Fixtures
• Install New Baseboards

I will be so happy once they are in their rooms. It will be nice for them to get their own space. 

After that we will tackle the kids/hallway bath. This will actually be my son’s bath as well as the guests. The girls will have their own bathroom but it’s much larger and we probably won’t be able to redo it until next year. 

We thought that since this one was in the hallway it would be best to redo so any guests can use it as well. 

Not that we have any guests other than my parents cause my house is total disaster right now. ?

 

Of course we need to remove the popcorn ceilings out of the rest of the main floor – kitchen, living and hallway. 

The house is also a bit dark, so we need to add quite a bit of recessed lighting throughout. 

I cannot tell you how relieved I am that my husband is in the electrical field. 

Of course, I would also like to add shiplap throughout several areas of the main floor. Cause I just LOVE shiplap, I mean this is supposed to end up being a legit farmhouse in the end. 

One of the things that I am looking forward to is building a pantry. This house does not have one and I have to go all the way down the hallway (to the linen closet) to get my food items. 

Cause I totally set up my pantry in there. ?

It’s not a terrible situation, but I love to forget stuff when I am cooking so most days it’s like running laps. 

And my mom gave me a great idea of adding a pantry on the wall between the dining area and living area. 

GENIUS! Now you know where I get it from. ?

I’m so excited and I actually think I can do it all for about $200. I cannot wait to share what I plan for it, but this will most likely happen toward the end of the year. 

Lastly for the inside, I would like to paint and decorate my master bedroom. It looks like gray walls, but it’s more of a beige color and it’s not pretty. So I hope I get to do that too. 

Then for the outside.

You totally thought I was done, didn’t you?

 Welp! Nope. 

The outside of the house was really overgrown when we moved in. We have a lot of land but a lot of it is unusable because of the overgrowth. We also had (according to our neighbor) a previous pine beetle infestation issue and a lot of our pines got affected (especially this one that is completely DEAD and dangerously close to our house). 

So we will be hiring out the removal of a lot of our problem trees.

If you live in Georgia you know that pine trees love to fall on houses and we don’t want that. Nor would we want one to fall while we are outside, so out they will go and in will come peace of mind. 

And the crew coming has an amazing machine that brings such a new concept on tree removal you won’t want to miss. I will definitely record the process. We are looking forward to seeing it get done. 

And there are 2 more things for the outside for sure. 

One, is installing an above ground pool for the kids. We don’t live in a subdivision anymore and we don’t have access to amenities like that so we need to have our own. We have had one before and love them – they have come a long way and are so huge! Needless to say, the kids are excited about it. 

And finally, one more thing for the kids is tackling the playhouse. 

When we bought the house, we loved the idea of this playhouse/fort/treehouse. 

But before we can get our kids to play on/in it, we want to make sure it’s structurally sound. We want to add new swings and a new slide.

I want to paint it white, add shutters, and basically give my kids the playhouse I never had. ?

You know you would do the same! 

And once the overgrowth is gone it will be a nice open and safe play space (that large tree to the right is not being removed, it’s actually a beautiful hard wood that will supply wonderful shade). 

Okay, I am sure I probably missed something. That’s the list for now!  

But I am curious to see what you are looking forward to seeing done the most. Let me know below! 

If you like before and afters, the next several months are going to be candy to the eye! And I cannot wait to see all of this come together.

I hope to see you in the next one. Until then, adios!