New Year's Resolutions

New year, new home improvement plans - here are some of ours for this year. Do you have any?

1. Major project: remodel the breezeway into an indoor space:

We plan to start talking to contractors and possibly an architect soon. This is beyond the scope of anything we've done to the house before (ugh, we will actually need permits...). Wish us luck and stay tuned.

2. Hire cleaning help. Not so much an "improvement" for the house but for our life. We decided to try to budget for someone who will come in every week or two to clean, and plan to start looking for someone soon.

3. Reach goal: convert to natural gas. More on this to come but it seems that we would have to make some major fixes so that a natural gas water heater could vent out correctly from the basement. We thought converting would be a relatively minor upgrade, but now we think this might have to wait a while longer yet (and possibly be pushed off indefinitely if we should have to unexpectedly replace a major oil- or electric-powered appliance)

4. Replace some doors. This has been on the to-do list since 2013 so obviously it isn't particularly pressing. But I want a new basement door and new hallway doors, if we ever find a good general contractor.

For most of these, our big hurdle is that we don't have very many "go-to" people to call to work on the house. Our lack of time and the increasing complexity of the projects makes us want to turn to professionals. However, our lack of time isn't helping us launch the starting phase that involves doing research and getting quotes. If you're a local reader and have recommendations, let us know!