So Much To Do, So Little Time

In the last post I mentioned a growing to-do list. Though I usually post our to-do lists around our home-buying anniversary, I thought I'd share with you some of the things I'd like to work on while it's fresh in my head. So here is the list, one month early- nothing major (the windows were our major planned fix for the year) but we definitely need to do some upkeep. Here they are in approximate order of importance/likelihood of getting done:

• Repaint the coffee table. Now that the rug is red, we have to make the table blue so it does clash in a weird, kind-of-matches-but-doesn't way.

• Clean out the dryer vent. It's been over 3 years, yikes!

• Mix up some quikrete to treat some loose areas in our stone walkway
  

• Stop the drip in our main bathroom sink. It's driving me crazy. We leave a contained underneath and use the water for our houseplants, but it is so annoying - especially because this is the sink that guests use and the container above the drain stops air from getting to the drain so it is always damp and moldy. I think this will require a new faucet, but we want to get one from a better store than a Home Depot or Lowes (even though they have the same brands as fancy stores, the parts are cheaper - i.e. plastic instead of ceramic) and we haven't had time to look into where to go or what to buy. I'm especially looking forward to having hot and cold knobs that are oriented correctly (they should point parallel to the faucet when they are on, not when they are off).

• Some light fixture updates: we switched the bulbs in our office to LEDs but they are too big now for the old fixture. We didn't like it anyway...
  

• Power wash the siding (we have no excuses - my parents loaned/gave us their power washer).

• Replace the outside lights - the one at the end of the walkway (now that it works, yay!), the one beside the front door, and the one over the garage (which we never ever use). They are the cheapest, most standard looking ones available and I'd really like to buy fancy ones. (You know what are really cool? The gas lamp ones. Of course we don't actually have a gas line to the house, so those are not an option.)

• Make the basement pretty. This is a big project that involves replacing our pantry shelves with something that nice (like these Fjalkinge shelves by Ikea), painting the wall that the fireplace is on, which still has a spot of bare drywall from our furnace woes three years ago, and maybe buying some spiffy new furniture (I would love to get rid of our college futon but still have a place for people to sleep).

• Door replacements, eventually. Last year I said one of the priorities for this year would be a new basement door and new doorways for the hallway.

How much can we realistically get done with a little one around the house just starting to be mobile and curious? Probably not much. But one can always hope.