Matt and I have a five year plan for various renovations, additions, and purchases we want to make for the house. Every month, we’ll be posting what our to-do list is for the upcoming months. As the months go on, we’ll hopefully be crossing things off and adding things on.

Here are the current goals on our to-do list:

1. Replace older boards in deck
2. Add new handrail to stairs going to second floor
3. Adjust kitchen layout to accommodate new appliances
4. Get quotes on upgrading electric
5. Investigate getting new dryer
6. Purchase small shed
7. Look into getting UPSes for office and for living room
8. Get quotes on gas-powered generator installation
9. Purchase new curtains for living room
10. Fix coat hook in kitchen
11. Purchase or make a table for grilling preparation
12. Get gutters cleared and repaired
13. Reassemble shed
14. Clean up branches in backyard
15. Update living room ceiling
16. Move in new couch set
17. Get rid of vines growing on the side of the house
18. Get rid of vines growing on fences
19. Contact garbage company about getting rid of old couch

Another month of not getting much crossed off the list, but two of the things we did cross off were biggies.

First, we finally reassembled the shed this past month. The lawnmower has apparently not been damaged by the rain, yay. We’ll see how the snowblower does this winter.

Now that the shed is put back together, of course the storms have lightened up, so we’ve finally had time to tackle yardwork again. I got rid of all the vines that started growing like crazy on our fences (we have a grapevine that grows all over the place). The worst, though, is that I hadn’t been maintaining the vines by the north side of the house, and now they’ve grown past the second floor and nearly to the roof. I’ve cut back some, but we need to do a ton more work on that side of the house. (The bees tend to keep me out.)

Now, might I take this opportunity to mention that I’m writing this while sitting on our lovely like-new couch! Our neighbors bought a new couch set, and so they gave us their old set. Perfect timing, because our old couches were shot. This makes it the third time in a row that our couches were free. (The set before this was gotten rid of by a coworker of Matt’s, and before that was a futon brought by Matt’s renter at the time.)

The old loveseat was moved into my office/library on the first floor (to give me an alternative cozy place to read or study), and the old couch is in our alleyway waiting to be thrown out. We just need to contact the garbage company about picking it up, and then that’s that.

Financially, we were thrown for a loop last week when my back right brake finally said enough is enough and had to get replaced. Thank goodness for the emergency fund! But now that’s more money I need to pay back into it, on top of the tree removal. So, everything on this list that actually costs money is being put on the back-burner for the next few months.

On a less to-do note, this month Matt and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary! We spread the celebrating out throughout the week because of course my grad school orientation fell on the same day. (366 days this year! And of all days, it had to fall on that one?) The highlight of our celebration was us going to see singer-songwriter Jeffrey Gaines in an intimate performance on his birthday. He’s perhaps Matt’s favorite still-active musician, and since 1991, Matt has taken every girlfriend he’s had to see JG—well, except me. (Not his fault, because every show we tried to go to either rained out or fell on a day we were unavailable.) After seven years together, we finally had the pleasure to sit right in front and hear JG play his heart out.

The show was sponsored by Matt’s workplace, and so they had reached out to Matt and offered him two comps. On top of that, they slipped to JG the names of some of Matt’s favorite songs. So, the show was basically tailored to my husband. What a special night it was for us.

The next few months will be even harder to cross off things on our list, not just because of money, but because I’ll be starting grad school this fall. And, because I’m crazy, I’m also still working through a certificate program at a local community college too. However, I love what I’m studying, and I love that I have free tuition for both degrees—it’s time consuming and stressful, yes, but I genuinely love the challenge. Being in a classroom is one of my favorite places to be. I’m ridiculously excited for what’s to come!

Matt and I have a five year plan for various renovations, additions, and purchases we want to make for the house. Every month, we’ll be posting what our to-do list is for the upcoming months. As the months go on, we’ll hopefully be crossing things off and adding things on.

Here are the current goals on our to-do list:

1. Get quotes on tree removal for dying tree in backyard
2. Repair outside pipe
3. Clean and open pool for the summer
   1. Make repairs as necessary
4. Replace older boards in deck
5. Add new handrail to stairs going to second floor
6. Get headboard for master bedroom bed
7. Adjust kitchen layout to accommodate new appliances
8. Get quotes on upgrading electric
9. Investigate getting new dryer
10. Purchase small shed
11. Look into getting UPSes for office and for living room
12. Get quotes on gas-powered generator installation
13. Purchase new curtains for living room
14. Fix coat hook in kitchen
15. Fix kitchen screen door
16. Purchase storage box for back deck
17. Purchase solar cover for pool
18. Add solar lights to front walk and back walks
19. Purchase or make a table for grilling preparation
20. Get gutters cleared and repaired
21. Kill grass/weeds growing through patio blocks
22. Book hotel for cousin’s wedding weekend in July

Some progress is better than no progress! And as you can see, there were things we added to the list during the month and quickly got done (or I forgot they were supposed to be added last month, ha).

I found three tree services in our area with good reviews to get quotes from, but with a show opening soon for Matt, he didn’t have time until yesterday to make the phone calls to schedule them. This will hopefully be done within the next week or two.

We’re really getting geared up with yard stuff this year. Last year, we were so busy getting ready for the wedding that everything related to the yard was put by the wayside. We’re doing a total 180 this year! We’re spending most of our time home outside on the back deck—grilling, listening to Mets games on the radio, taking dips in the swimming pool, tending to the grapevine and flowers… It’s really fabulous. Work for both us has been stressful (Matt with a show opening up, and me with major structure changes happening at my workplace and having to build all the high-profile administrative websites related to these changes). So, these times out in the backyard provide a nice escape from the workday craziness.

We repaired our outdoor pipe in such a way so that we shouldn’t have to worry about it freezing again in the future (therefore, nothing to prevent the pool opening again!). Then we got the pool cleaned, bought a storage box to hold all of our pool equipment and other deck equipment, bought a solar cover to keep the pool warmer (it doesn’t get much sun during the morning, so every little bit helps!), and added solar lights to the foot of all deck steps, as well as along our front walk. We’ve de-weeded the front and back yards and just need to kill off everything growing in between the patio block in the back and front yards. It’s starting to look very elegant; we’re quite proud!

We do have the new deck boards purchased; now we just have to pull up the older ones and put in the new ones. I forgot to add last month that we want to get the gutters cleared and repairs, so that way water flows out they way it should—last thing you want is too much water leaking near your house’s foundation!

We searched in earnest for a new headboard this month, and we finally found something we could both agree on at Value City Furniture. It’s actually a whole bed piece, and not just the headboard, and we should be getting it delivered next week. No more dealing with pillows slipping down behind the mattress while sleeping!

The more expensive tasks (small shed, other quotes, etc.) will be held off until we get the trees taken care of. The trees are our biggest expense coming up; then we’ll save up for the next biggie on the list.

Matt is a groomsman in his cousin’s wedding—since we’ll have a rehearsal on Friday night and a noon call time for Saturday, we’re going to try to book a hotel room for Friday to either Sunday or Monday (depending on how expensive the room winds up being). The wedding is at the Delaware Water Gap in the Poconos, so it sounds like a nice opportunity to make a long weekend of it.

July is going to be a busy time for us, between Matt’s workload, my workload, and the wedding, but we’re hoping to at least get the trees done and the other yard-related stuff done. August should be a lot quieter, so we’re anticipating some great strides there.