My summer goal extravaganza, OR All the simple things I want to do so I like my house and yard more

Here's two things you should know about me:

#1 - I do not have a lot of expendable money. Maybe $10 a week. 

#2 - I am pretty lazy. 

But I am not going to let those two facts get in the way of my Summer Goal Extravaganza! 

I spelled "extravaganza" correctly on the first try, which is amazing because:

#3 - I am a horrible speller. 

But this is me rambling. Back to the topic!

Now that the weather is getting warmer and windows may be opened and 32 degrees a thing of the past I am itching to get a few smallish projects done around the house.

For starters, the kitchen. Now if money weren't so tight I'd gut it and redo it all. White subway tile with a subtle, grey grout. Creamy, grey cabinets. Crisp, white countertops. A stainless steel fridge with the freezer on the bottom. A double oven and a great big stovetop. A new window with a stainglassed panel across the top.

But money is tight so instead I'd like to take down the floral wallpaper on the soffit and paint it white, then change the outlets and light switches for white ones.

Next, I'd like to buy a new storm door; one that doesn't drip grease and allows for a breeze and isn't dingy.

Instead I'll put a fresh coat of white paint on the front door... and maybe splurge for a new storm door anyways.

The main bath was filled with towel wracks and nail holes. It had ugly wallpaper and all I wanted was to take the paper down and paint everything blue. We didn't fill in any holes but everything got painted blue.

A pretty blue, but one that ruins the awesomeness of the tile. And it turns out that the holes drive me crazy. So my next little job is to fill in the holes and repaint the room white, possibly a very light grey. I'd love to rip out the sink and its cabinet and put something else in, add some shelves to the wall, put in a new floor. (We had this in our old house and I loved it. I don't like tile because it's too cold, hard, and difficult to clean. Give me linoleum!)


Now outside.

I want to paint this bench, which has a mate and together they convert to a picnic table. I was thinking of a clever almost charcoal color. What do you think?

From the back patio, which is where this bench sits, up to the sidewalk jutting into the yard below we would like to pour a nice, wide sidewalk. Next to the house I'd like to mulch and plant hostas, bleeding hearts, a butterfly bush, hydrangeas, yarrow, cosmos, snap dragons - a whole flower garden. 

To the right of the sidewalk there is a large oak and grass doesn't grow, as you an see from all the dirt. I'd like to throw down more mulch and place our St. Francis statue. This, in the cheapest version possible, may actually happen. (Depending on how many speaking gigs I'm able to book. so hire me! I'll make you laugh, cry, and praise Jesus, and then I'll plant me some flowers.)

Then there's this corner of the backyard. At the top of the rise is a rec trail so people cycle, run, and walk past our house all day long. And we will soon have new neighbors so we'd like to plant some bushes and get privacy. Evergreens, forsythia, maybe.

And then that nasty bump... well the twiggy mulberry bush needs to die once and for all, the burn barrel needs to be gotten rid of, and I'd be happy  to put up a simple but pretty fence and make it our compost (which it unofficially and rather sloppily already is). Maybe plant a boxwood or two. I love boxwoods.

Here's the back of the house. Not soooooo bad but you're not up close. We need a storage shed to store the bikes and some other toys. I need to get my benches painted, put flowers in some pots, and create a specific seating area. We also need to mulch along the house and to do some landscaping there. I was thinking oregano, lavendar, and a lemongrass with something flowering, too.

And I know you can't really see it but the space between the left of the patio and the trunk of the pine tree would be a perfect location for a cute, little pondless waterfall. I have the pile of rocks (you can see them in the bench picture above) so we'd just need to buy some river rock and the pump... and all the stuff to run electricity out there. I'd also like to fill the under boughs with white lights because: gorgeous. This part will not happen this summer, but I wish it could.


Then there's the front.

A few things:

 If the bushes don't start to regrow by mid-summer we will likely cut them down to the ground. I need some kind of edging to keep the yard out of my flower bed. The white columns need to be repainted and flower pots need to be planted and new mulch needs to be thrown down.


Some of those dreams are a bit too big: pretty fences, lots of shrubbery, and pondless waterfalls, but the cheaper versions will probably happen. And that's enough to make me happy. :)

Wish me luck on my Summer Goal Extravaganza and tell me about your goals. Do you have any plans for fixing up and prettying your house now that the weather's warmer?