fixer upper friday: seven months later

About a month after we moved into our fixer-upper we repainted the basement door with chalkboard paint and made a list of all of the things we wanted to *try* to accomplish this year. Today is 7 months to the day that we made that list. (Crazy, right?!)

So, I thought it would be nice to reflect on

• we have done so far
• what we are planning to do
• what we are going to have to wait on

Here's that list again:

• updating our fireplace (fixing the damper and converting it to a gas fireplace)

Bummer! This fireplace is not done and honestly is not a huge priority right now. Once we started looking into fixing our fireplace, it seems to make more sense to convert it to a gas fireplace if we are going to put time and energy into it. We talked about that we would love to have it ready for Christmas, but it's pretty unlikely, unless we win the lottery, of course. So, sadly, this one will probably have to get on the 2014 list.Although, I do love the repainted blue color and decor.

• clean and paint basement (floors and ceilings)

Basement has been cleaned thanks to some wetness earlier this year. Chris and his step-dad waterproofed the basement earlier this summer, which also led to it getting cleaned! We are eventually going to paint the basement floor and walls... but probably not until the end of the summer at the earliest.

• paint hallways

Done! We painted those early on a light gray color. I even have some wall art on them now!

• start a garden

Done! And my is that baby growing! I'll share some photos soon, but my tomato plants are larger than me!

• paint/wallpaper stairs

DONE! I went back and forth for a while on which to do. I really wanted to wallpaper them but most of the wallpaper I liked was too pricey. The more affordable wallpaper was just bleh. So on a cooped up snow day I committed to painted them ombre blue.

• build workbench

DONE! Chris set this up with an old desk that was left in the basement and some shelves.

• build shelves for storage

DONE! These are amazingly awesome! Christopher and his Dad build these a few weeks ago. They're so sturdy and great and were super affordable.

• replace light fixtures

Nope. And unfortunately not on our nearest horizon. We'll see. These may be put on the 2014 list also.

• get band practice area ready

YEP! It's been ready. (Our church's worship bands practice in our basement on Wednesday nights. It gets a little noisy to say the least).

• organize craft room with pegboard

No. And I'm not sure that I want that anymore. My craft room will most likely be turned into a future swiftlet room, so I think I'm going to just wait on that.

• save money for the kitchen remodeling (for summer 2014)

Yes! And we've had some changes too. Financially we want to be really set before we gut our kitchen and next summer just feels too soon. We decided to save for 24 months (a certain amount each month) and then we'll be ready. We began saving in June so we will be ready in June of 2015. IKEA will come soon enough!

• replace three windows

No. Sad day. I think we will do these by the fall but we're waiting for some things to fall into place first. And I'm pretty sure we'll only be replacing two this fall, not three. The other one will be for 2014.

• build bookshelf with seating bench under windows

This happy guy has to wait for the above to windows first, so not yet.

Well, that's where we're at with our list. It would be awesome if money was unliminited and we could have done all these things by now, but I think going slow is part of the process. We're learning and growing a ton in the process and trusting that the Lord knows what is best for us financially, and many of the times that means patiently waiting.

Any words of wisdom from you other fixer-uppers out there? We'd appreciate them!