My Home Goals for 2020

How many of you set goals for yourself each year? I’ll be honest that I LOVE to set goals for myself both personally and professionally – and setting goals for making our home a place that we love is no different.

In the past I’ve always set some goals at the beginning of the year and then kind of willy-nilly tried to get them done. I wasn’t very accountable to making a plan and checking them off the list. So, this year I’m going to do things a little bit differently.

In my personal life, I know that I can handle 3 top goals each day. And I only give myself 3 top goals each month as well. Soooo…. I’ve decided to only choose 3 top goals from my home to-do list. And then re-evaulate every 3 months. This sounds super slow-going on “paper,” but I think it will actually help me accomplish them faster and more efficiently. I won’t feel overwhelmed or lose my focus. At least that’s the hope, anyway. 😜

Thoughts on My Old House & Making Goals There

I thought I’d share how I did on my goals in 2019. I have had several items that were on my goals list for years, and I think I realized why when we moved.

First reason: I never could pull the trigger on any major renovations because I knew we wouldn’t be there for long. I was always watching the market for just the right house to move into, and it was always on my radar. So, I hated the idea of pouring a ton of money into a house and then leaving it.

For example: I had wanted to upgrade the kitchen in our old house since we moved in. But I never thought we would stay in that home for the long haul. I shared more about it in my moving story, but we bought our previous home as a foreclosure to get into the neighborhood we wanted to be in.

Second reason: I felt like the renovations I wanted to do would be over-building the neighborhood. Looking back, after seeing the market and the homes that were selling fastest in our neighborhood, I think it would have been fine. But I didn’t want to put a bunch of money in, sell our home and never recoup a fraction of the money we spent.

I know there is a lot to be said for fixing up your home so that you will enjoy it while you live there, even if it’s not forever, but I just couldn’t do it.

Now that we’re in a home that we plan to stay in for decades, I am totally invested in making major changes. And we don’t have to worry about over-building this neighborhood because we are surrounded by much nicer homes than ours. It will not be hard to recoup the money we put into this home.

Looking Back at 2019’s Home Goals

These are the goals I shared at the beginning of 2019, and I give myself a grade each year. This year’s comments are in italics.

1. Living Room. Grade D-

I’m definitely going to build that coffee table and end table this year. I bought a table saw on sale at Christmas and will put it to good use this year. I’d love to get a new couch this year, too, but we’ll see if it’s in the budget!

• Change out the rug. (I bought this “vintage” distressed rug in 2018.)
• Buy chairs to flank the fireplace. {As you can see in my summer mantel post. [above]}
• Build a coffee table – Nope, I never took the table saw out of the box.
• Build an end table – Never did this either!
• I’d love to replace our couch as well, but I don’t see that happening in 2018.

2020 Thoughts: That table saw is still sitting in a box in my garage. I WILL unbox it and use it in 2020. 😂 And we DID buy a new couch last summer, but it took so long to be delivered that we had it delivered to the new house in December 2019.

2. Fireplace. Grade F

• Spruce it up with a reclaimed beam mantel
• Add some architectural details
• Do something with the beige tile.

2020 Thoughts: I didn’t want to do anything drastic to the fireplace since I wanted to sell the house. I’m glad I left this alone for the next home owners to dress up and make their own.

3. Girls’ Bathroom. Grade: A+

We only have 2 bathrooms in our home: the master bath and the girls’/guest bath. I painted the cabinets in there and decorated it several years ago, but I never loved the color scheme AT ALL. It’s just not me, but I was trying to use some prints that I got from my great-grandmother. I’d like to make it pink and girly and fun for the girls, so a mini makeover is swirling around in my head!

• Paint the walls
• Change out the art
• Add some cute girly elements!

2020 Thoughts: I can say that I nailed this one with a complete makeover! I knew I wanted to give this bathroom some personality, and I did! I was my highlight project of 2019 and I am super proud of how it turned out. Now to make their new bathroom as fun!

4. Guest Bedroom & Office. Grade F

Gracious. This room has felt like the slowest moving process. I finally have my desk that I love and a great office chair, but I’m still lacking some major storage. We also took the bed out of here for my youngest daughter to sleep on since we moved her out of the crib. I’ve always wanted a day bed with a trundle in the guest bedroom. I am trying to work that purchase into the budget this year. Fingers crossed we’ll get it soon!

• Build or buy a desk with built-in filing cabinet. (Done in late 2016. It’s from Ballard Designs Outlet and there’s a similar one from Pottery Barn. You can see more of it in this post.)
• Add curtains to the office. (done!)
• Paint the office walls. (Done! I painted them Simply White by Benjamin Moore.)
• Buy a real office chair. (I did that in January 2019! I got this one for a great deal and it’s super comfortable. I love it!)
• Replace the full bed with a day bed and trundle in the office/guest room. (I’ve had my eye on this day bed and trundle for forever. I just need to sell the current bed and pull the trigger!)
• Repaint bedside tables or buy new ones.
• Add some bookshelves with cabinets to the room for books and storage.

2020 Thoughts: I never did any of these things because I needed the whole room for my office. Hence why we bought a new house with a dedicated office and it’s own guest bedroom. 😜

5. Master Bedroom.

It’s time for a refresh in this room as well. I still love our bedding, but I don’t love our furniture, except for our nightstand that I made over almost 7 years ago. I still love them! But it’s time to get a new, real bed, instead of a headboard I made and a metal frame. We’re (almost) in our 40’s and it’s time to have a grown-up bed.

• Change out the art above the bed.
• Purchase a new bed.
• Change out the lamps.
• Paint the currently dark wood furniture. (This will probably take some convincing, but we’ll see. #wishmeluck)

2020 Thoughts: I did change out the lamps and we got new beds and a new rug, but otherwise didn’t cross anything else off this list.

My 2020 Home Goals

It would be easy for me to make a huge list of things that need to be done in every room of our new house. Because truth be told, it ALL needs to be changed. If nothing more than the paint colors, I will be changing every single space in this home at some point over the next 5-10 years. I have huge visions and am so excited. BUT, I’ve committed to focusing on 3 things each quarter and then regrouping every quarter to re-assess and make new goals.

So, for this 3 months, this is what I’ll be focusing on:

1. Paint! Paint, paint and more paint!!

I will need to paint every wall space in this home at some point. But my first goals will start with painting these spaces:

• The kitchen, entry way, hallways, butler’s pantry, hall closet alcove, stairwell, upstairs loft and upstairs hallway are all connected and will be painted the same color, so I want them all painted ASAP. I’ve been sharing that process already in Instagram stories.
• The dining room
• My office
• Maybe the living room. I still can’t figure out an idea for a color in there, so we’ll see if I can choose one and get that painted.

This covers the majority of the downstairs, except for the laundry room and our master bedroom and bathroom. Those will wait for another time.

2. Light Fixtures.

I want to replace the lights in most every room. But first, I’m tackling:

• Hallway light. It was removed in the move-in process in order to be able to move things upstairs, and we never put it back. I’m going to put a beautiful brass sconce there! Can’t wait!
• Entry light. I have an idea of what I want, but just need to find it and buy it.
• Add an overhead light in the office.

3. The Office.

I feel a little bit selfish working on my office before any other room, but it’s my command central FOR working on the rest of the house. So, I want to have it done first because 1) it is hard for me to be creative in a space I don’t love and 2) it’s one of the first rooms you see when you walk into my home.

• Finish organizing the space
• Paint the walls Shoji White (Sherwin Williams) – see my favorite white paints colors here.
• Add an overhead light (see above)
• Add blinds to the french doors (I think I want bamboo blinds.)
• Remove old curtains & buy and hang new curtains
• Rug (I’m cheating, because I already have this in place. Haha! I bought this one when we moved in.)
• Make panels for the back of the desk
• Style the bookshelves
• Order or DIY art for behind the desk and other wall
• Hang calendar and art behind the desk

Bonus #4. DIY Dishwasher Panel. I’m adding a bonus goal, because it NEEDS to be done, probably first thing. I bought this dishwasher because the one that came with the house broke the first time we tried to use it and it was 17 years old. So, building a custom panel for the dishwasher is probably the first thing I’ll do!

Ahhh!!! That feels so good to get that on paper and know that I’m only focusing on these three (or four) areas for the next 12 weeks. It will help me get them accomplished, because instead of feeling like I need to make a dining room table, coffee table, dishwasher door panel, desk panels and more, I know I just have to do a few of them!

I’d love to hear about your home goals in the comments! What will you be accomplishing this year??