The Farmhouse // A Renovation to-do list
THE FARMHOUSE
As I mentioned last month, we’re going to turn our renovation attention to the Farmhouse this year. And we. are. Excited! There are lots of projects left to do at this house, some cosmetic and some major renovation, but we’re hoping to get to them all over the next 2-3 years.
It’s funny, when we first moved in, we didn’t want to touch any space unless we had the time and money to make it perfect. Like the kitchen had to be ‘our dream kitchen’ and the master suite had to be ‘our dream master’. But over the years, we’ve tempered our expectations. We’ve realized that this is indeed a renovation and not new construction. Doing the best we can with what we have is economical, sustainable, and ‘us’. And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing. Here is a complete list of all of the remaining projects we see right now.
the Farmhouse renovation to-do list
1 // Kitchen
The kitchen already has a lot going for it, so this will be a party-cosmetic, partly-major renovation. We’ll be painting the existing cabinets and swapping some of them around to accommodate a new layout. We’ll also be expanding the kitchen into the laundry room (instead of the main bathroom as we had originally planned), meaning we’ll have to remove a wall. This is going to be fun!
2 // Laundry Room
Since we’ll be taking over the laundry room space for the kitchen, we’ll be moving laundry upstairs into a large closet. Laundry will now be adjacent to the bedrooms, meaning we won’t have to take baskets of clothes up and down the stairs every week.
3 // Master Bathroom/closet
We’ll be reworking this master bathroom and closet to accommodate a shower (we currently only have a bathtub) and reappointing the square footage a bit to give the kids bathroom more room and our closet less. We already redid the master bedroom, so this will make the master suite complete.
4 // Mudroom
The space between the main bathroom and kitchen will get an upgrade with built-ins, hooks, and shoe storage (and those tall cabinets are coming downnnnn!).
5 // Kids Bathroom
This bathroom is only 4’-wide and lacks a tub for bath time. We’re planning to steal some square footage from the master suite to add a tub/shower in here.
6 // Guest Bedroom
This is one of those cosmetic projects. We’ll be removing the carpets and decorating.
7 // Dining Room
This will be another cosmetic project with a makeover of the fireplace. We’re planning to lighten up the space, bring back in more historic charm, and make a comfortable dining space that people want to linger at.
8 // Garden
We have big plans to tackle this space in the Spring (this year or next). We’re hoping to add raised garden beds and a gravel patio for our outdoor table.
9 // Treehouse
We have every intention of playing a lot at our Farmhouse over the next few years, so a treehouse is a must. Our kids will only be young once, after all.
10 // Exterior paint + structural
I’d like to swap the buttery yellow color for a white or neutral. The color should look perfectly at home in the country. We’ll also need to address the sagging front porch.
11 // Parking+ Garage
We currently have a short, one-car garage, which isn’t ideal for a country property where a riding lawn mower, tractor, and trucks, are common. We’re not exactly sure how we’ll address this, but we know it’s an issue. We’d also like to add parking closer to the house. You currently have to park at the road, which isn’t ideal when you have sleeping kids in the car, ice and snow on the ground, or a trunk full of groceries (#firstworldproblems).
12 // Office updates
Our office is one of the most heavily used rooms in the house and we’ve realized we need more storage. I’d like to add built-ins and perhaps a bench for the kids to use (our 5-year-old is always “working” in here now). Who knows if and when we get to this room (it’s plenty workable as-is), but a lighter, more soothing color is also on my list.
That’s everything we see right now and we’re going to be flexible on this list. Projects may come and go as we determine where are dollars are best spent. And the order in which we tackle these isn't set, since we want to allow flexibility to collect materials and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. But we’re 90% sure we’re going to start with the kitchen this Spring. We can’t wait to get cracking!
