You know what it’s like; you’ve got a bit of time off coming up and you’ve decided that you’ll be staying at home during this period of annual leave. So even though you’d like to put your feet up, you also feel like you really should be using the time wisely to get ahead with some DIY tasks that you’ve been putting off for a while.
That’s where I’m at right now. I have a list of small-to-medium home decor jobs that I want to do around the home. And I have an at-home holiday coming up. This is why today’s blog post is all about what I hope to do next during my home renovation journey. BUT…
Do you ever feel like you run out of steam with your home decorating projects? When I moved into my fixer-upper house, I had plenty of energy to tackle all those DIY tasks however, I’m now enjoying living in the almost-finished space and don’t really want to rock the boat by starting a new project.
Even though I have a list of things I really want to do in the house, there always seems to be a good excuse not to do them – and that’s probably because I don’t want to make a load of mess and live with half-finished tasks! So, I’ve carefully considered the next jobs that need to be done, which includes the following:
Staircase renovation
The hallway was acutally one of the last spaces we decorated in our house. It made sense to leave it until last because we would be bringing paint, tiles and building materials up and down the stairs while we were renovating the rest of the house so it was likely going to be ruined if we’d tackled it any sooner.
However, by the time we got to stage of decorating the hallway, we didn’t have the energy to do anything more than painting the walls white and tidying up the staircase. You can see the ‘before’ photos in my blog post on how to paint a staircase and that give you an idea of where we’re at now.
So, the next step – excuse the pun – is to actually do a staircase renovation. Some of the treads are cracked and need replacing, plus I’m not sure we want to have bare wooden steps any more. Over the years, I’ve been drawn to the idea of having a staircase runner, especially after seeing Peter from @TheWhiteHome‘s new jute runner.
It makes the staircase look so neat and more finished, plus it seems like a DIY project I could do myself. However, I also know that I’m extra lazy when it comes to lugging the vacuum up and down the stairs so the parts of the stairs at the sides of the runner will definitely be a hotspot for gathering dust.
That means we’re either going to sand and refinish the whole staircase instead – which sounds like a big, messy task – or we’re going to have to carpet the whole staircase. This would also mean the hallway upstairs and the entryway downstairs would need to be carpeted at the same time, which makes it a more expensive option and is a job I don’t think I could do myself.
Watch this space to see what I decide to do..!
A loft ladder
It’s been about 2 years since we first discussed sorting out the loft and adding a ladder to the hatch to make it easier to access the space. We don’t really store anything in our attic at the moment because we’d have to bring in the outdoor ladder from the garage before we can climb up and open the hatch.
The loft is therefore wasted space and it could be somewhere that I can store seasonal items and rarely-used but handy belongings, like camping gear and old toys. But only if the space is accessible – and that means adding a drop-down ladder and an easy-to-open hatch.
Again, I’ve already researched loft ladder options and I know what we would need to do to complete the project. However, I’m reluctant to start the project because it’s going to be a messy task. We’d need to cut into the ceiling to make the entryway bigger so the whole of upstairs will get dusty and will have wisps insulation all over it – I know this is the case because it happens every time we get a box out of the loft.
Also, I know that adding a new hatch with a loft ladder will be just the start of the story. We won’t be able to stop there; we’ll end up adding more insulation to the loft, boarding out the space, building shelves and storage rails, or even plastering and painting to turn it into a clean, tidy attic ‘room’ for our storage.
All of which will take longer than the time off I’ve got planned so maybe just one step at a time!
Small DIY tasks
I bet you’ve also got a list of small DIY tasks that you never get around to doing, am I right? I think that my at-home holiday will be the perfect time to do those little tasks – I’ll get those niggling jobs ticked off the list and will feel a sense of achievement, even if I don’t complete a big project like the staircase renovation or the loft hatch.
My small tasks include; sticking on frosted window film for privacy, framing art works and hanging the pictures on the wall, adding electrical trunking where we’ve installed our new TV, re-grouting parts of the bathroom, touching up scuffed paintwork all around the house and repairing a section of the gutter.
And that’s before we start looking at the garden which needs trees and shrubs pruning, the veg patch weeding and digging over, and the plug plants we’ve got growing being planted into seasonal pots. I’m actually looking forward to getting out in the garden during my staycation break and pottering around, I think it’ll be really relaxing and it’s definitely something I don’t usually get to do during our busy working days.
I’ve shared this list to hold myself accountable and actually tick some of these DIY tasks off during my at-home holiday. I also hope it will help you to feel much better about your own home if you know just how unfinished mine is! Let me know in the comments below if you have any decorating tasks you’ve been putting off and I’d love to hear your plans if you had an at-home holiday – what would you do with that time? Relax or renovate??
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