Better late than never: Master Wish List of Projects 2013

Between my vacation and the subsequent recovery, somehow it is February. I never got new "before" pictures of the house and yard, and I never made a new To Do list that I just realized hasn't even been updated since SEPTEMBER!

This is the perfect opportunity for me to make excuses or beat myself up about not meeting my goals. But I'm in a really good place today, so I'm just going to acknowledge both the fact that this is the situation as well as my feelings of surprise at this being where we are now, and move onto accomplishing the goals I set out to begin with.

So without further ado, a fun little list of ideas of what we want to accomplish in the coming year, sorted by area of the homestead.

Everywhere, first step:

• Get before pictures!

Front Yard:

• Replant container bed by front door.
• Remove the rose bush that is creeping into the walkway.
• Re-edge the existing beds, and refill with wood chips as needed--not buying more though!
• Prune roses. All the roses. Possibly use the pruned bits to grow roots on new plants, potentially even to replace the existing ones that aren't in the best shape. 
• Fill the beds with flowers. What we have now leaves most of the yard bare most of the time, I'd like to landscape in such a way as to have something blooming most of the time and not ever have to look at a bunch of rotting yuck. 

Back Yard:

• Plant the toilet planter or get rid of it. 
• Prune the roses along the shed, re-trellis them, or get rid of them.
• Remove the tree by the patio, and the one by the compost.
• Remove most of the plants (and wood chips) along the back of the house and re-plant that whole area with usefulness and patio parties in mind. 
• Re-edge the existing beds. 
• Break down firewood. 
• Hang eye bolts on the hanging planter rail. 

Vegetable Gardening:

• Pull out existing plants. Cover beds with newspaper and cardboard. 
• Build compost bin.
• Build raised beds. 
• Plan and execute vegetable gardening plan! It's almost time to think about starting seeds inside. 
• Install rain barrels. 

Outside House:

• Power wash siding, concrete, windows.
• Repaint wheelchair ramp. 

Garage:

• Clean out garage.
• Donate tools and such. 
• Arrange garage as lounge area. 
• Related: Move to a smaller storage unit if possible. 

Inside House/Hallway:

• Paint all the things! Every single room needs a paint job.
• Scrub hardwood in entryway and seal it. 
• Replace some/all of the flooring (esp. kitchen and bathrooms, also dining room, hallway, living room).

Kitchen:

• Replace chandelier with globe light. 
• Bolster the small appliance shelves.
• Sand and refinish the countertop edges and backsplash.
• Install a tile backsplash behind stovetop.

Dining Room:

• Clean, reorganize bookshelves.
• Sand and refinish the tabletop. 
• Replace curtains.

Living Room:

• Replace/Dye curtains.

Office:

• Sort, scrub, and reorganize. 
• Set up Mum's computer. 

Master Bedroom:

• Install more lights.

Small Bedroom:

• Put DVDs in garage.
• Unpack records.
• Unpack books.
• Dust everything. 
• Put up my jewelry and hair stuff. 

Laundry Room:

• Sort cleaning supplies and store properly.
• Move toilet paper and paper towels inside.

Cooking:

• Lacto-fermented veggies
• Kombucha
• Sourdough and whole grain everything! Pretzels, pancakes/waffles, cookies, who knows what else
• Yogurt and sour cream
• Perfect the mozzarella recipe
• Roasted chickpea snacks
• Sprouts
• Mr. Moon wants to get more into baking in general, and I want to get into baking with soaked & sprouted grains
• CANNING!