30 Projects in 30 Days?
I’ve never thought it worked for me to participate in blogger things like the One Room Challenge. Starting a room and finishing it in the same year? That’s not how things work in the Crooked House. And even my parents, who raised me with more normal DIY remodeling, leave rooms unfinished until they redo them for the second time 20 years later. But 30 little things in 30 days? Stacy came up with this idea because like me, she’s made major headway on fixing up an old house but left little bits undone everywhere. I’m not excited to do these small projects, so I like the chance to cheer on and commiserate with other people doing the same thing. But on the other hand, September is the return of weather I like, and I’m not sure I want to be bound to give the house all of my time. Especially when some of these jobs can happen when it’s miserable again in January.
But My mom says do it! So here’s my list, leaving some bigger things for later months and breaking every item into the smallest thing I could possibly call a stand-alone job. I’m still not sure if I can manage 30, and I might come up with extra things to sub in for some of these. But this is a good start.
- Finish getting the lath attached? Yes, I am rewarding myself for missing my goal by putting it on this list. There’s almost nothing left to do from this.
- Stucco, scratch coat
- Stucco, brown coat
- Stucco, finish coat. 3 coats, 3 jobs is not a cop out because I said so.
- Wire brush and paint the stub of a cast iron pipe the gutter connects to.
- Weed my flower pots. I haven’t done a lick of gardening all year and now they’re kind of ridiculous.
- Finish painting the kitchen cabinets.
- Install kitchen cabinet knobs
- Have glass fitted in the china cabinet doors.
- Organize/clean the basement and retrieve some materials from the lumber hoard.
- Fill nail holes in woodwork throughout the house.
- (Have my dad) caulk seams in woodwork throughout the house. Because remember, I suck at caulking.
- Make small drywall repairs and patches throughout the house.
- Touch-up paint walls throughout the house.
- Install vintage brass switch and outlet plates throughout the house. (They are smaller than the new ones, thus most of the wall repairs.)
- Bring my twin bed back from my parents’ attic and furnish and set up the guest room. Yes, I have a guest room! I’ve arrived!
- Finish my closet. This means one more closet bar and baseboards, hopefully made of scrap wood. It also probably means random crap in the guest room closet.
- Finish the linen closet. This means paint the shelves and add baseboards.
- Paint woodwork in the upstairs hall
- Paint paneling under the stairs
- Paint and reinstall the basement stairway door
- Install a bulletin board on the back of the basement stairway door. Part for function, part to hide damage.
- Paint woodwork in the kitchen and the big archway between the kitchen and living room
- Paint vestibule door.
- Get the hardware back on the vestibule door and find a skeleton key. Because I’ll be locking the house with an old-fashioned skeleton key when I take the front door off to refinish it.
- Repaint kitchen walls as needed.
- Tape and mud basement stairway walls (there’s not much and they don’t need to be done well)
- Paint basement stairwell.
- My sister bought me a really nice mailbox for my birthday in March. Let’s get it up.
- I promised my sister I’d season her vintage cast iron at the same time that I do mine… a year later, she’s asking where it is. And since she’s visiting home this month, it’s time.
No Responses
Sounds interesting. Have fun.
Good luck! You’re going to be busy!
I would have included a few things like “light a scented candle” to give myself a breather.
You’re more ambitious than I am. If I were to make a list like that for September, I would take one look at it when done and say, “Time for a hike in the woods!” Then I would leave the list stuck to the refrigerator until it turns yellow and dusty. The last thing on the list would be “30. Clean off refrigerator photos and cartoons and wash refrigerator door.” So that would be the only thing I got done. I have to say, though, that DH Bruce is a better organized worker than I am, and so he doesn’t have any of those little things like filling in nail holes and caulking left over after a project. It’s part of his putting the room back in order.
My goal for September is to go through one moving box a day (garage and attic) and give away or repack for storage what’s inside. These are boxes other people packed and moved for me while I was undergoing cancer treatment (six years ago!), and I’m missing some things (mostly books) that must be in those boxes.
Well now that the roommate is gone (or will be in about 3 hours) Bruce can have that room… for free!
I also want to take hikes in the woods and take some small trips and stuff, and having regular exercise in my life has degraded my day to day housekeeping, let alone house projects. But the kitchen cabinets are annoying. He botched the paint job on just about every door and I have boxes of knobs sitting on my bottom step. The only reason I can get the doors open is that (because they weren’t made quite right) most of the door hinges need more adjustment to close right so I can grip onto the edges of the doors. And I removed some of the doors to finish painting them and have had them leaning up against a wall for 2 months. And meanwhile, I’ve decided that the front door needs to be done this fall before it gets cold. It’s possible that I’ll give up, leave some of the interior painting until winter, and use my imagination to come up with easy things or things that I have to do anyway to pat myself on the back for finishing.
I think it’s an excellent idea. I keep a permanent running list, and pick something off any day I have free time 🙂
I’m just not coming up with free time anymore. Yesterday the gym, cooking, dishes, and a halfassed job cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom kept me busy until 9 pm. On a day when I also go grocery shopping I’m liable to walk away from the dishes and go to bed.
You don’t mess around, Chad. Those are some serious jobs! Thanks for jumping on board. I’m so glad you did. 🙂
I’m falling behind already though!
Don’t be afraid to reassess if you need to. Your goal should be attainable.
Also, don’t feel like you have to do one job each day. You may not have time for that.
I’m going to re-number the list to turn the kitchen into more items than it is currently, lol.
Good plan!
Nice! I need to do something like this…
You’re a brave fellow. I might get thirty things accomplished in a month (doubtful) but I couldn’t possibly do one thing each day. I get easily sidetracked. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
I bring up the 1 thing per day not because sticking to it is necessary or viable but because I can’t do 29 projects in the last weekend.