The BIG Projects Comin' Atcha | 2015

I hope you all had a great holiday. Ours was truly amazing. We unplugged and spent time with family and now reality is hitting me like a ton of bricks this morning. I must do a recap on the highlights later this week--Friday? Friday. We have a couple updates to share with you this week around the house--it  wasn't all play--but I really wanted the first post of the year to be the 2015 project plans. "Plans" is really more of predictions. This is our annual post where we share what we have written out to do over the course of the year. We have already had one major blip come up at the end of this month that will set us back, but we're trying to remain optimistic. And really, the excitement of completing these projects is almost enough motivation to overcome anything else that comes at us. Trials Schmiles. :)

This year is going to be the game-changer year. The square footage we're covering is pretty concentrated, but the impact will put our home in the bracket of the other homes in our area--we hope! It's kitchen, walk-in pantry, laundry room, mudroom year!! And we'll be tackling a couple side projects I'll get into in a minute, too.

1. Laundry Room/Mudroom If you've been reading for awhile, you may remember last year around the same time we were demoing our old tile floors, we also took out a closet that was in our current laundry room off of the garage.

It stuck out into the space a little too far and just felt like it cramped things up. We weren't exactly sure of what we were going to do, but we knew we wanted it gone. So it came out and today, this area looks like this:

Still rough, but open with potential. Looking the other way, you can see what used to be a 4th bathroom. After re-doing the floors, we never reinstalled the toilet. So, now it is a glorified closet with a sink.

About 6 months ago, while we were going over kitchen plans (nightly conversation. NIGHTLY!) a light bulb went off and we are so excited to finally be able to implement a new floor plan back here this year. Instead of the long laundry room and small half bath that is currently there...

We'll be moving our laundry to the wall where the 4th bathroom was and put a wall of lockers, mudroom style, opposite that. We'll tear the wall down that is currently enclosing the bathroom keeping that area more open, but add a wall in the back of the enclosed storage for...

2. A Walk-in Pantry! This is something that we have longed for and will truly change our kitchen storage issues. Right now, all of our pantry staples are crammed in a narrow standing pantry that used to be in the dining space, but we scooted in the kitchen (hey, that's an improvement!).

The plan is to make a doorway to the new pantry (where the washer and dryer are currently) to the left of the current standing pantry. It will provide easy kitchen access to our pantry staples, but also some small appliances and a chest freezer we're planning on putting on the back wall. The plan now is to recess a full refrigerator (no freezer) with some surrounding cabinetry where the standing pantry is right now. After sitting on it for a good 6 months, it still feels as good as day 1. Once the laundry and mudroom are in and the pantry is done with the wall recessed in between, we'll be set for a...

3. Kitchen remodel! It seems to take us about 4 or 5 designs to finally get our kitchens right. We poured over this space. And since this is a big part of our life, but especially Chris's passion, we want to make sure we do it right. As of now, we have planned

• An extra wide gas range going where our current electric is with a big enclosed hood above it.

• A new window to the right of the range to reflect the one on the left.

• The sink will move to the center of the left hand side with the smaller window to the left centered above it and glass-front cabinets surrounding it.

• A recessed all refrigerator where the standing pantry currently is with cabinetry surrounding it. Lots of large pull out drawers for base cabinets.

• An expanded island with a couple stools on the end, instead of the side.

• For colors and finishes, we're thinking black cabinets with gold hardware, white stone countertops around the perimeter and a chunky butcher block top for the island.

I have been gathering a load of inspiration photos here, but we are feeling especially inspired by this kitchen from designer Jessica Helgerson:

and this one featured in Lonny a couple years ago:

With all of these larger projects (I mean, major demo!), we have found it is nice to escape to something small and simpler in the midst, so we also have planned to

4 and 5. Tackle the Master Bedroom and closet. I only have about 8 different ideas for our bedroom.

6.  Finish the stairwell. Including tearing up the carpet, laying new flooring, hanging a new light and some art, too.

See what I mean by big year?! We'll essentially be hanging out in one corner of the house all year it seems, but after those projects are done, we'll be in a position to bounce around a lot more in the following years (deck, downstairs family room, bathrooms). I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we were trying to figure out what it would take to get the ceiling vaulted in the great room in 2015--unfortunately, a lot. A LOT! But, we feel confident that the upgrades in this post, a long with some recessed lighting will take our home to the next level, anyway. Hope you're as anxious to follow along as we are to dive in.