This week’s Top Ten is all about the things Cort and I would like to do to our house aka the physical Sluiter Nation.
We bought the Sluiter Nation casa exactly six years ago. I moved in and six months later, after a lovely wedding, Cort moved in with me.
We have made some improvements on our house, which we bought new, but not very many. Most deadlines we gave ourselves came and went because of lack of money or time.
Whatever the reasons, we still have a list of things we would like to do…aside from pack up and move to a larger place.
#10: I want to NOT see our weird neighbors. Or more specifically, I want them to not see us.
See that larger “shed” back there? Yeah, that belongs to our weird neighbor, Scary Terry. We watched him ignore the instructions when he built that thing. He had left over parts. Also? The roof caves in every winter. To “get ready for winter”? He goes inside and bangs the dents out. This is the least of his weird. I want a fence. A tall one. That you can’t see through…although you have to admit my drawing is fantastic.
#9 While we are outside…I would like to landscape the backyard a bit.It’s hard to see right now due to the snow, but we have a great backyard. Cort has mad lawning rearing skills, yo. I would really love to have a berm or something that, um, hides that large pole which is technically on our property. Also a nice little flower bed next to the patio would be quaint.
#8 A Second Bathroom.
We have been excited about this bathroom since we moved in. We even got the matching stuff for it as a wedding gift. Five and a half years ago. I have paint colors picked out. I am pretty sure they don’t make the color I picked anymore. Nevertheless I want this done. WE want this done. Before we have to have 12 adults and 1487979874232602 kids at our house this coming summer. Yeah. One bathroom won’t hold all that.
#7. A Big Boy bedroom for Eddie
Again, technically this room has been a “room in progress” for the past six years. You can see how far we have gotten. Stuff we don’t want to look at or think about live here. But instead? We would love for our little man to live here. Some changes may need to happen. Like why do we have all those boxes? yeah, I don’t know either. And please ignore the fashionable tacky dust ruffle that is serving as a curtain so neighbor kids (aka Scary Terry’s offspring) don’t come and take a gander at our treasures crap.
#6 Organization
I didn’t even bother to spruce this picture up. I mean, you can see my unmentionables hanging there to dry. I think that spruces it up all on it’s own. Anyway, this is our laundry room/storage room/my office. It is sad. Granted, it is MUCH more organized than it used to be (see my tubs with the labels for Eddie’s clothes. Yeah, I am awesome). We would like to finish this room–not just for looks but for functionality. We need a shelving system. We need this room to WORK for many different things. Right now? it is sort of a cold, scary place to be.
#5. Speaking of Organization…
I know one of Cort’s big wishes is to finish dry walling the garage and seal the cement. I know he would like to get some sort of organizational system in here as well since we have a gallon of crap to fit in a pint-sized pail. Oh…and two new vehicles would be nice too. Just sayin’. ya know, if we’re wishing here.
#4. Tile
I just really hate linoleum. This was put in before we had a chance to choose otherwise. It’s in our bathroom and entryway too. I hate it. I discolors. It gets funky spots. It’s just ugly. Tile, please. (oh and I would also like new carpet. We put the carpet that is in the basement in after we moved in and it is AWESOME. I would like that throughout the house. This “factory” shiz? Sucks the big one).
#3. A face lift for our side lot
Ok perhaps we don’t need huge crazy flowers and a random happy little family trollop-ping through the yard, but it would be nice to get this cleared of the brush, leveled and then seeded so I can add pretty landscaping later. Having the yard would just be nice.
#2. A bigger deck…and a way off from it.
Ok this was my craptacular attempt at creating stairs going DOWN from our deck. As it is right now? You can only get on and off the deck by way of the slider in our dining room. Annoying seeing as we created a lovely patio just below with some lovely patio furniture. However, if your hotdog is being made on the “upper deck” since it’s close to the kitchen, you would have to go inside the downstairs slider, go upstairs, through the kitchen and out to said “upper deck” to get your tasty wiener. Then you would have to turn around and make this odyssey again to sit comfortably on the patio with your treat. Now imagine if you forgot to get chips and dip. Seriously. it sucks.
Love the deck. Hate the inconvenience.
#1. A family room we can use as a family
Our family room was the first thing we “finished” when we moved in. It has soft, squishy carpet, warm colored walls, and awesome art (Pearl Jam and REM concert posters that are custom framed). But there is just too much crap lying around too. Take Cort’s Corner, for example. While I like our desk and printer “stand” much better than what we used to have, there is still just too much lying around to let a toddler loose in here.
And what you can’t see in the top picture is the huge rack of video games and dvds that are just waiting to be pulled off shelves and tossed about. Something needs to change. We are super close to this being a great family room. We just need a little more work put in…this is actually on the To Do list for Christmas break. And when Cort gets a job (because he SOOO will), we would LOVE to get rid of the ugg-o furniture and get a nice, comfy sectional that we can all pile on for family movie night. And maybe get a TV from this decade. Ahem.
We love our little house…we really do…but there are somethings that we would like to make better.
How about you? Is there anything YOU would change about your house?