Coveting and clearing

The day after Christmas I seriously wanted all the Christmas decor out, out, out. And with much hope and ambition, I did start taking it down right away, but sadly, because I wanted to reorgnize the way I put away the ornaments (I'm getting rid of all those little ornament boxes), it took longer than expected. Tonight we finished pulling down the ornaments we hung from the foyer ceiling and took down all three of the little trees. It feels good to open the house back up. If only it were spring, but alas it's supposed to be 1 degree here. Yuck! With everything taken down it's made me realize how much my walls need art and furniture, and ceilings need new light fixture. One day I'll be brave and just tackle it! But here's the quick list of things I'm hoping to get done this year:

• paint the office

• replace the kitchen light fixtures

• buy a buffet

• buy art/get professional photography done and hang up in dining room and living room

• replace bathroom sink faucets

• paint bathrooms

• possibly tile bathrooms (the lino is holding up well for the most part but one part is starting to peel in one of the bathrooms so we might wait until we see noticeable cracks like we've witnessed in the same lino in our neighbor's house

• clear out the basement and give away tons of crap living down there

• buy outdoor dining set

• buy a rocking recliner for bedroom.

The rocking recliner might be something we tackle soon. We looked this weekend and found something we both like, and after Jonathan scraped his wrist moving our very ancient ottoman in our bedroom, I'm thinking he's more likely to make that happen sooner rather than later.

If we had tons of money I'd love to finish the basement (adding a family room/craft/office area, bedroom, and a bathroom down there), fence the backyard, and put in French doors off our dining area to a little deck with lots of potted plants. A girl can dream!