Goals for 2014

I like having lists and nothing is better than making a list at the beginning of the year for me to keep what we want to get accomplished straight. We don't put a ton of pressure on ourselves to complete the list but having it usually means we get more accomplished. So, here is our list for 2014.

House 

1. Finish all of our __% finished projects. I've mentioned before that we are really great at finishing about 80% of a project and then moving on to the next big thing. So this year, I'd like to make it a priority to finish the last few percents of quite a few projects including:

• Kitchen: Trim caulking and painting, wall organization station, peninsula, cabinet trim, misc missing trim, peninsula footrest for stools
• Master Bedroom: Fix base trim, add crown, finish shelves, door for closet?, more art, headboard for bed
• Will's room: Caulk and paint laundry unit, finish laundry basket storage
• Back Entrance: Trim, prime, paint, coat hooks, recycling storage

2. Work on some "problem" areas. We have a few areas around the house that we haven't done anything with because we really didn't/don't have a perfect solution for going forward. I'm hoping we can make some progress figuring out what to do in the following areas

• Painting dining room and living rom: we love the curved walls but figuring out how to paint them has been a challenge
• Getting a gas fireplace installed in the downstairs fireplace: The gas line needs to be run from the kitchen (so the length of the house) which is a pain so finding someone willing to do it for a reasonable price is not going well
• Backyard: We have a lot of interesting landscaping in the backyard, some we like and some we don't. The stuff we don't like really breaks up the yard so there isn't an open area and we would like to fix that. This goes for the random brick foot paths back there as well.
• Outside of the house: We have a slight algae problem on the siding in some places that needs cleaning and the trim around the windows need to be scraped and repainted.
• Front yard: General trimming and upkeep of bushes and making the area a little easier to maintain.

Life

1. Pass major work/school hurdles. Nate has his third year review at work and I have my candidacy (proposal for my dissertation) and (hopefully) my defense coming up this year at school so we are both working away preparing for those.

2. Organize. From budget to chores to literal house organization, I want to improve how we do things to make daily life a little easier.

3. Eat out less. Since Will was born, we have definitely have turned to eating out due to tiredness and lack of time and it's gotten a little out of hand so we're cutting back.