Projects Plans And Goals For 2025

I’m breaking out my jazz hands in utter excitement over today’s post, our DIY project plans and goals for 2025. It’s my favorite one to write every year. What is it about a new year, a clean slate, and so many possibilities to amp up my inner cheerleader pep?! Oh yeah, I’m a starter, not a finisher. That might be why.

But armed with a shifted mindset for focusing (my 2025 word of the year), I’m ready to tackle projects like a maniac (while blasting “What a Feeling” and spinning around in my leg warmers a la Flashdance). Now that’s a picture.

Without further ado or 80s references, I bring you my grand master list of ALL the projects and tasks I’m attempting to tackle this year. I use “attempting” largely because I know this list is 100% unrealistic to accomplish. More like this is what I would like to achieve if I could channel my inner Martha Stewart or Norm Abram (along with their teams to help get it done).

Boot up ’cause here we go!

Goal #1: Finish The Last 10% Of Projects

I have eight (count ’em) eight projects that are 90% done. They need the last 10% of oomph for me to say they’re finished…for now. Because we all know a room is never finished and needs perpetual tweaking until the end of times.

They include the keeping room/Colby’s office, dining room, landing, primary bedroom, primary bathroom, attic closet, playground, and toy/art shelves.

Subgoal A: The Keeping Room AKA Colby’s Office

The keeping room, otherwise known as Colby’s office and the guest room is one of those rooms we worked on during our blogging hiatus shortly after having kids. Life got busy, man.

It’s a pretty room with a fireplace and one of my favorite spaces in the house. We’ve managed to repair walls, paint windows and trim, build bookcases, drench the whole room in dark green, bring in a sleeper sofa, and furnish it largely with thrifted and Facebook Marketplace finds including the drafting table.

It needs that final push to the end. Some art, office organization (there is currently none), a stool for the drafting table since Colby uses it to review building plans, refinish light fixtures, and more accessorizing.

We’re considering moving the record player and Colby’s vintage Bose speakers here. Naturally we’ll need to build a custom furniture piece to house said record player and our record collection.

Subgoal B: The Dining Room

I have some major renovation plans for the dining room down the road. Think, removing the ceiling to expose the beams, planking it, updating the trim, widening a doorway, building a hutch, and more. But until then there are a few things I want to finish to call it good for now.

The major task is to create a gallery wall around the mirror over the buffet. The wall there feels kind of naked. Plus, I have this dream of someday at Halloween having a “witches wall” with a collection of art prints of witches. This is the perfect spot for that. I’ll have my everyday prints in frames 11 months out of the year then switch them to witches for October!

Other projects include furniture repairs. Our dining room table desperately needs refinishing along with the chairs. I may try to tackle those as well OR I may wait until the kids are a little older and not leave milk rings on the table until I do that.

Subgoal C: The Landing

There once was a landing that was pretty and styled. But then I stole some of the books and accessories for another room, the lamps disappeared to our bedroom, and now I’m planning on moving the records and record player.

See the picture below for the last time it looked pretty before I started stealing things from the nook for other spaces.

The landing needs a new purpose. I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe I’ll restyle it all just for now, or maybe I’ll start from scratch and figure out a good solution. Right now, it’s up in the air.

Subgoal D: Primary Bedroom

It is comical how little our bedroom needs to be “finished.” Some stain and poly on the wardrobe, chalk painting the nightstands, replacing the lampshades so they match, and maybe a little more organization.

Oh, and replace the standing mirror. You see, our poor mirror which I adored had a bit of an accident last year. Let’s just say I slacked about anchoring the mirror, Bea pushed it, and it started falling on her. My mama bear instincts took over and I pulled her to safety.

The mirror crashed and broke into a million pieces. Cue my seven years of bad luck. Just what I needed. Karma, can you put it on my tab from the last mirror I broke?

In retrospect, I could have caught the mirror. Then both the mirror and toddler would have been saved. But alas, I had tunnel vision about my baby’s safety. The frame is still intact so I may be able to replace the mirror within it.

Subgoal E: Primary Bathroom

Our brand new, subway tile bathroom needs just a few things to bring it up to done.

One, we still have a little bit of pencil trim to install. With such an old, crooked house where nothing is square, adding some pencil trim where the tiles meet the old beams makes everything feel a little more finished. We somehow missed a few spots in the flurry to finish.

There was also a paint mix-up. Colby, bless his heart (said as sweetly as possible), went to the paint store to get me another gallon of glossy white paint as I was mid-painting and running out. He came back and topped off my paint holder.

I finished all of coat one, started on coat two, and was like “Huh, this paint finish feels funny.” Because it was flat paint! I have a lot of repainting to do so everything has the same glossy finish, including the door.

The vintage style switches also came in from their journey through the backordered desert on a horse with no name. The one-month back order turned into six. We also have a tile to replace around the switch. We cut a tile the wrong size so it shows a gap. But after installing thousands of tiles, one mishap is not bad!

Subgoal F: Attic Closet

I adore my attic closet. It’s as dreamy as magical unicorns to claim it as mine and use it every day. But it needs a little tweaking AND I have an idea to use up some of the empty space.

First, the floor. We knew we were using the closet as our tile-cutting space and scuffing the floor in the process. So we only put one coat of paint on the floor. ALSO, Colby had this grand idea to use caulk backer rod (essentially foam strips) to fill the gaps between the floor boards, caulk over them, and then paint.

I was leery but I rolled with his plan. Needless to say, every single caulk backer rod has wiggled free after walking on the boards. It looks terrible. I plan to pull them all up and give the floor two coats of paint.

Other smaller tasks for the space include chalk painting the blue cabinet, organizing it better for bathroom storage, building shoe shelves, hanging some hooks for purses, and accessorizing.

There’s still far too much space in here and my grand idea is to create a sewing nook. I love sewing but it’s hard to do it in my recently organized craft room. The table is too high for me to reach the sewing machine foot pedal and my cutting mat doesn’t fit great on the desktop.

There’s just enough room to build a sewing table and store fabric in my closet. I may even look for a vintage dress form that I can use for the kids (I hear Brimfield calling). They’re the ones I love sewing for, especially Halloween costumes, nightgowns, and now dress-up clothes for our queen Bea.

Subgoal G: Playground Refresh

We are so close to having a finished playground after recently painting and adding the canopy. There are just a couple of sections that need a second coat of paint and then it’s just finishing the sandbox and accessorizing. We did rehang the swings just after I snapped these pictures in the fall.

We’re aiming to finish this project as soon as the snow melts in the spring so the girls can enjoy it all summer. Although, they’ve loved playing under the new awning this winter! We even took our Christmas card pictures on the playground this year.

Subgoal H: Toy And Art Shelves

Do you ever tackle a DIY project in a fit of rage? That was me just weeks before Rowan’s third birthday. She’s now seven by the way.

The toys had accumulated and we had no place to put them. With family and friends about to descend upon us, Colby and I built some SUPER quick toy shelves in the front hallway. They were supposed to be a temporary fix. But here we are almost five years later. We like them and it’s about time we finish them. Maybe even build some doors to make it look like a built-in cabinet and hide the toy mess.

I also started refinishing the small closet in the living room to use as art supply storage for the girls. It was another fit-of-rage project because the art paints and beads had no home. Alas, another project I started and never finished.

Goal #2: Complete The Greenhouse

While this is another “finishing” goal it needs far more than 10% effort for completion. Oh the greenhouse project, the poor, dragging on greenhouse.

We pressed pause on the greenhouse because we were running out of money. I wanted to install louver windows/vents in the gables but they cost more than $500. We also needed more glass, tons of caulking, paint, and another load of wood to make shiplap siding. Money was tight and we paused for a while.

Money is still tight, so I compromised with Colby and have opted to forgo the louver windows. We want the structure finished and weather-tight before it starts to rot.

I vow that 2025 is the year this greenhouse gets finished…well…at least enough to start using. After all, the seed-starting season is quickly approaching. I may or may not have finished seed shopping today.

Goal #3: The Laundry Room (Maybe Also The Bathroom?)

We had only JUST started planning out creating a laundry room in our first-floor bathroom in the fall. But then Mother Nature blessed us with the warmest of falls and instead of switching to an inside project (the laundry room), I decided to paint the playground instead.

While I’m glad I switched gears to take advantage of some beautiful painting weather, I’m ready to dive back into the laundry room. Mostly because I’ve stepped on 10,000 Legos since our current laundry space is shared with the girls’ playroom.

Goal #4: Focus On Production In The Kitchen Garden

Maybe it’s the political climate. Or maybe it’s inflation. Or even a combination of both as I watch our grocery bills, our biggest monthly expense, climb and climb month-over-month while our income holds steady. But it’s got me doubling down on growing food for production in the kitchen garden.

While production is always my main goal, I always grow a ton to play around with. There are vegetables I haven’t mastered growing yet (that means you cauliflower) and weird varieties I try but don’t pan out well or nobody likes (collard greens we are not friends). While there will still be some of that, the top focus is vegetables with big yields that we eat often, preferably ones I can freeze or store for the winter months.

Goal #5: Convert A Shed To A Playhouse

Over the last couple of years, Colby has been slowly working on converting an old shed into a playhouse for the girls. Here are the playhouse plans. He’s cleaned it out, ripped out the floor, raised the roof, and started roofing it. I have many updates that I need to share and also a side-splitting, laugh out loud story about a skunk.

I’m ready to tackle this project this spring/summer because our girls are at an age where they will LOVE having this play space.

I recently saw a pic on Instagram (which sadly I didn’t save and can’t find) of this gorgeous garden between a playground and a playhouse. It gave me the itch to finish the two structures so that maybe by the fall, I could plant a garden around the playhouse using clearance plants from the local nurseries.

Goal #6: Makeover The Girls’ Shared Bedroom

So much drama concerning this project. Catch up on what happened last year with the girls’ bedroom in my Best And Worst of 2024 post. The TL;DR version is I tried to include them with every detail of the planning and designing but they changed their minds constantly!

While I like to have a room completely planned out before I dive in, this method isn’t working well with the kids. My strategy going forward, is to design this room like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. I’m going in one step at a time and giving them two choices each time. That’s it. I think it will go a lot better (she says optimistically).

Goal #7: Master Composting

Composting is my garden nemesis. While I know how to compost and understand the general concept of it, I haven’t figured out a good system for our family yet. This is the year to come up with a kick-butt system so I can stop buying my compost from the local garden center.

There are two composting problem areas for me.

One is that I need a system that is big enough. We compost EVERYTHING around here. And it’s not just kitchen scraps. Fun fact, it is illegal to throw food scraps in the regular trash here in Vermont. It must be composted. But we also compost grass clippings, dead plants from the garden, trees and brush we run through the chipper and more.

We built a three-bin composting system years ago which we thought was great but it’s not big enough and fills up in a week.

The second problem is that it must be convenient in the winter. Our current composting locations are kind of a hike from the house. In the wintertime, no one wants to trek through the snow or in the dark to the compost bins. We’ve tried using barrels in the basement, tumblers near the door, and other options but haven’t found the perfect one yet.

Goal #8: Renovate The Playroom

Same as the goals for 2024, once the laundry room is out of the playroom, I’m itching to redo this official first-floor bedroom into a dedicated playroom space for the girls. While a full renovation would be super expensive and we likely won’t have the money for it, since it includes replacing windows (have you seen how much a window costs these days?!?!). A more basic, work with what we have reno is more likely.

At a minimum, I would like to paint it, maybe plank the peeling walls, build some built-ins for storage, create a dress-up area, curate a kitchen nook, and up the art area ante.

Goal #9: Kitchen Refresh

We have got to do something about our kitchen. Both Colby and I HATE our kitchen and we want to fully renovate it. And by renovating it, I mean moving it to the other side of the kitchen which is larger and currently houses our breakfast table. Then it opens up the current kitchen area as a mudroom/entry space.

But the kicker is that a renovation like that takes a lot of time AND money. Both of which are currently limited in this stage of life. We’ve hesitated to do a for-now mini makeover of our current space because every year we’re like, next year we can do it.

If we had just spent some time reconfiguring and altering our current kitchen footprint from the get-go we wouldn’t be in this mess. I also didn’t finish painting the cabinets many moons ago because I didn’t want to buy another gallon of paint when we would be renovating “next year.” I think we’ve gone through seven “next years” now.

So this year, I want to give our current kitchen some love. Both design-wise and organization-wise. It’s an embarrassment of hodge-podge furniture and nothing feels intentional. If we get creative with our budget and toss in a metric ton of elbow grease, we can make it functional and beautiful.

Goal #10: Convert A Shed To A Gym

And my final goal, the big one, is to convert the shed near the greenhouse into a gym. This is a pipe dream right now and highly unlikely that we’ll get to it, but both Colby and I are desperate for a gym space away from the house to escape to.

Before we can even think about converting this space to a gym, we need to relocate everything that’s inside. It’s an eclectic mix of things in there. From camping equipment and beach chairs, to plant pots and winter tires. There’s even a hoard of things we moved here from Maine ten years ago and never touched. Decluttering the shed is on the shortlist.

To do this, we’d like to replace the lean-to part of the shed and build a gear storage attachment. Then things like skis, snow tubes, camping equipment, golf clubs, etc. have a home outside for easier access when we need it.

We’re also debating raising the shed roof a little and even enlarging its footprint just a bit to make room for everything we like. It may not be necessary but we want to figure it out early since the shed has a lot of rot and needs the roof replaced along with other repairs.

And that, my friends, concludes my whopping list of project plans for the year. I refer to these posts year-round to help keep me on track and in check. Here’s hoping it keeps 2025 focused and rolling on the home and garden project front.

So if you made it this far, congratulations! You deserve a medal for sticking it through this far. I can’t afford medals because you know, inflation and they probably cost one billion dollars. So how about a virtual head pat and “congratulations” instead?! Until next time, dear readers.

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