Owning a house is a lot of work. Though I’ve really enjoyed the thoughtful process of transforming outdated ranch-style house into a home for our small family, it can sometimes feel frustrating; home takes time, along with money. Nothing is as immediate as it feels like it should be.
Because of this torturous combination—expense and vision—Chad and I have stalled with any and all home improvements. Sometimes our list feels too lengthy, or impossible. As we head into the new year with fresh goals and eyes, we’ve prepared a new to-do list for updates we’d like to accomplish for our home, to continue making it ours (and hopefully add further value, of course).
Check it out.
New floors
This one is huge; it’s our maiden voyage, our swan song.
The idea of new flooring has been taunting us since the first moment we set foot in our house on Ginseng Road, still owned by someone else, and the carpet hurt both our eyes and noses.
I can’t wait. I’m a little nervous about choosing a floor color that goes with our wooden trim, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. New floors will be 100% worth it.

Finish painting
I hate to admit this, but there are a few spots in our house that we didn’t finish painting. We still have to do the ceiling of our bedroom, the ceiling of our guest bathroom, and the ceilings of our office and guest bedroom. I’m noticing a pattern?
Pantry shelves
As of now, our pantry is a free-standing structure with extremely deep shelves; though it was once organized, now we have a general idea of where things go and kind of shove them on a shelf and hope for the best. It’s a big mess.
We ordered some pull-out drawers from Wayfair, which we’re hoping will make these shelves 1000000 times more accessible. We might have to stand on a stool to reach everything, but that’s better than the current situation.
Open shelving project
With the pantry makeover, we also want to add in two open shelves to our kitchen space, where we can display some of our more aesthetically pleasing kitchen supplies. I’m thinking we can add our coffee grounds to canisters, move some plates and coffee cups over, and free up some cabinet and pantry space in the process.



Office shelf
This one is lonnnnnnng overdue. We’re adding a basic shelf above our desk to put the room together at last. It’s the finishing touch, just to complete the space.
Guest bathroom remodel
I’m not sure that we’ll ever get to this, but we’d like to replace the bathtub/shower, vanity, mirror, and floors in our guest bath. It’d be a big project to get it up to snuff.
Bigger bed
Last, but not least, I’d like to upgrade to a king-sized bed. We’d transfer our queen to the guest bedroom (fingers crossed that it would fit) and get rid of our full-sized platform bed that I inherited from my brother many years ago.
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