The Stevens Family

New Years Eve I had really, really good intentions. My idea was to get my life in as much order as possible so I could start the new year off good. I had very symbolic thoughts going through my head as I rushed through the house trying to get all of the new toys put away, as I straightened and cleaned, and had another battle with my never ending pile of laundry. I thought, if my house is clean when I enter the new year, maybe it'll be a sign that I can keep it that way. I went to the grocery store and loaded our fridge up with fruits and veggies and good stuff, hoping this would symbolize that our fridge will always be full in the next year. Needless to say, by evening I was taking things pretty seriously. My intentions for the rest of the evening was to go out with friends, and to stay up until midnight with Josh to welcome the New Year. So we met with friends for some Mexican food, and headed down to our favorite bar, the Paddlewheel. I had a margarita, and while enjoying an evening our socializing (this seldom happens outside of our family) I started to feel horrible. Thankfully the Paddlewheel boasts the cleanest bathrooms of any bar with good reason, because I spent a good amount of time on floor...I won't go into much more detail, but I'm pretty sure it was food poisoning. So Josh dropped me off at home so he could go pick up the kids. I was in bed by 9, and vaugly remember midnight due to Gavin waking up the first of a handfull of times.
Even though I may not have rang in the New Year as expected, I'm hoping that maybe it will symbolize something else. An empty stomach and lack of appetite may actually mean that I'll finally lose this stupid baby weight. If only it were so simple, right?

On to other things New Year related. Two years ago I developed a list of everything that needed to be done on the house. I came back last year to update everything we'd done so far. Last year I highlighted everything in red that had been accomplished...really, it was pretty impressive. This year, I'll use blue. I'm not sure if there will be much blue used, but we had a baby this year, so we'll just blame it on that.

Jayden's Room

• Touch up floor paint
• Install and paint quarter round and floor trim
• Finish shelving (this is partly done)
  
• Install dimmer switch
• Blank covers for obsolete outlets
• Install lighting in closet
• Paint door

Master Bedroom

• One more coat of paint on walls
• Edging on ceiling
• Plate covers
• Finish Trim
• Install Door
• Install closet lights
• Run cable to our room

Upstairs Hallway

• Finish patching cracks
• Sand
• Primer and paint ceilings and walls
• Install lighting
• Switch plate covers
• Paint woodwork
• Install shelving

Kid's Bath

• Finish Floor
• Plumbing
• Order faucet for tub
• Sand walls
• Primer and Paint walls and ceiling
• Finish painting bead board
• Put up trim
• Put up and finish door
• Install Lighting
• Hang medicine cabinet

Stairway

• Sand, primer, paint walls and ceiling
• Sand and varnish woodwork (this is partly done)
  

Living Room

• Finish woodwork
• Finish installing built in media cabinet
• Finish dresser
• Finish and install french doors
• Touch up paint

Family Room

• Touch up paint
• Put up woodwork
• Finish woodwork
• Install built in bookshelves

Dining Room

• One more coat of regular paint
• Top coat paints
• Woodwork
• Switch plate covers
• Door on closet

Half bath

• Put in ceiling
• Plaster, sand, primer, and paint walls and ceiling
• Paint bead board and woodwork
• Plate covers (all but the lightswitch)
  
• Hang medicine cabinet

Kitchen

• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Drywall walls and ceiling
• Plaster, Sand, Primer and paint walls and ceiling
• Install and paint woodwork
• Sand and varnish floor <--We painted instead
• Install lighting
• Install cabinets
• Install appliances

Outside

• Scrape paint
• Primer (partial!)
  
• Paint (partial!)
  
• Begin landscaping

Gavin's Room wasn't on here when I started the list, so I'll add it now. This is everything that still needs to be finished.

Gavin's Room

• Burn paint off closet door and bedroom door
• Primer doors
• Paint doors
• Fix floor
• Install quarter round
• Touch up wall

My big hope is that this year I'll defy the odds in Real Estate and make enough money to hire all of this work done!


ps. I'll get to the Christmas update someday. It was so overwhelming, that the thought of revisiting it is exhausting to think about.