Open thread: What’s on your to-do list for the house for this fall/winter?

Leftovers from garage sale #1.

My house is in chaos. This summer, I did a lot of fun stuff, kept the blog going, and was successful at completing two big house tasks:

• I had a big garage sale.
• And, I donated a lotta furniture from two houses ago to a non-profit organization.

In rank order, following is my list of key projects for fall/winter. What projects are at the top of your list??

I need to get to my list stat, because my house arguably is in its worst tumult in years. Here it is:

1. Have a second garage sale — Over the past few years I have cluttered up the back of the garage with vintage finds that honestly, I am never going to do anything with. Ditto, there’s plenty in the attic, basement and even garage hatch that needs to go. I am full of hot air when I say stuff like “when something comes in, something needs to go out.” I need to come to terms that I am a catch-and-release vintage treasure hunter — and plan more time in my schedule to “release”.
   1. After the garage sale, I then clear out anything not sold so that we can get both cars in the house before it starts snowing.
   2. I also need to ensure the back of garage [work area] is free of my junk, so that my husband can use it as a work area. This was a promise I made to him in early summer. He does most of the snow blowing. It has not been fair of me to take this work space from him.
2. Install new flooring into the basement area rec room where we watch TV most nights. We had some water damage in February and had to pull out half of the wall-to-wall carpet. Long boring story. But, yes, it’s been since FEBRUARY that we’ve been couch potatoes in a half-carpeted room. I need to finish my research, make a decision on what to use, and make it happen.
3. Re-wallpaper my husband’s bathroom: Yes, after 13 years up the wall, it’s peeling. Only where the edges butt, but it bugs him. We found some wallpaper in my vintage hoard that he loves, so that makes me very happy. I can likely knock this project off in a weekend.

Then, I can get to the project that really excites me! This summer I also “got started” on another project — converting my living room and dining room into a tropical paradise including a built-in wet bar. But that means that right now, that room is in chaos. The furniture is all moved around so’s I can imagine how the new furniture and bar placement will work… There’s a four-yard panel of curtain fabric hanging on one traverse rod, so’s I can start to matchy matchy it with other planned elements of the room… Art came down, some art went up — but it’s all just for “imagining” and getting visual ideas… Oh, and I have pulled out my entire hoard of Polynesian Pop decor to assess color combos, further cluttering up the place. This is a project that will take a while to complete, but after attending the Hukilau this summer, I really wanted to get started, so tossed these balls into the air.

Alas, there are other things in front of it. I must keep reminding myself: Finish the things you already started — do what neeeeeds to be done — before I launch into what I want to me done. So I guess I should add to my numbered list at the top:

1. (b) Put the living room/dining room back in order so we can all enjoy it until I’m truly ready to get going with my “Mahalo Lounge” (working title).

I’d love to hear your stories!:

How much did you get done this summer?
What projects are on your list for fall/winter?

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