2023 Home Resolutions

Happy New Year! 

We're a couple weeks into the New Year and with the crush of holiday activities behind us we're turning our focus to the next 12 months. I'm not much of a resolution or even a word of the year person, but I do tend to have a list of home related goals going at any moment, so I thought this year I'd put them in a more public space and see if I couldn't have something fun to show for it by next January. 

Harlan and I have owned our home since 2011. In the 12 years we've been its caretakers we've touched just about every space with some sort of remodel, some small, some massive. The exception to this is that we've left the yard relatively untouched. We've pulled plants when they've died (most of the time), but for the most part it's a mossy, kind of grassy, kind of okay-ish space. When we bought the home I had grand visions of overflowing veggie boxes in the summer, and beds full of tulips in the spring and dahlias in the fall. After 12 years it's time to admit that I can be trusted to neither prune nor water on any sort of consistent basis and that while I have a pretty reliable sense for planning in indoor spaces I'm generally hopeless when it comes to outdoors. Which leads me to our massive goal for 2023: a complete yard renovation. 

We've brought in a professional for this, Naomi Goodman of Firecracker Design Studio, and she's well underway on our planning. She's presented 2 designs for us so far and since I'm sure I'll be sharing more about this in the coming months I'm sharing here the design we're not drawing from as much and even it is incredible. We are so excited to complete this massive undertaking this year and cannot wait to finally have this project wrapped up. 2024 resolution? Tend to the plants we've put in! 

Other things on our list for the year? Well, our 5 year old's lego collection is truly massive and it's time to come up with a better display solution that allows us to keep the bricks away from our 1 year old's mouth. This calls for a bedroom makeover! He is in a small space so it's time to commit to storage solutions that work for him and his room without taking up too much of a footprint. It's probably time to remove the baby decor, too (I write, through sobs about how they grow so fast). And finally, a small item on my list is to tackle the reading light situation in our bedroom. A seemingly simple problem to solve but I've yet to feel true inspiration for it. It's time to just commit already though as I'm pretty sure Harlan is about one hard-to-read book away from overriding my self-appointed veto power for all lighting options. 

What's on Alex's list for the coming year? 

Alex and Gareth have owned their home for a little over a year now. They've gotten to know how they use the home, what their immediate needs are, and what they can do to maximize impact on the space before undertaking major renovations in the future. They also have some updates that have come due in their home's lifecycle. Overall it's going to a be a busy year for their home as they really make it work for their family! 

Alex reports that the major to-dos are for the dining room and kitchen. Their dining room is a beautiful space that features a large window overlooking the Sound and the Olympics beyond. It gets glorious warm afternoon light and is a thoroughfare between their kitchen and living room. They're planning to wallpaper over the shiplap, replace the light fixture, and find the *perfect* dining table and credenza/bar for the space. Alex has been on the hunt for months and I've no doubt she'll find something that will truly do the space justice. She and Gareth also plan to build a custom banquette for the space --Gareth got new power tools for Christmas, so we know there's no going back now!

The dining room can't get love without the Kitchen getting a little something, too! Alex and Gareth are pros in the kitchen so they can't wait to make it more to their tastes (pun absolutely, unabashedly, intended). As we always say, no weekend-warrior project will have more of an impact on a kitchen than a paint job for the cabinets and hardware update. With that planned, they'll also replace the wall sconces and add open shelving. We love an update to both form and function. 

The Fotouhi home will also be getting a lot of love on the exterior. It's time for a new roof, and while that may not be the sexiest project to undertake we know it's a necessity for promoting the longevity of a structure. Why not make it a bit more fun by adding some skylights while they're at it! Sounds like a bright idea to me. 

Alex muses that she'd also like to remove some of the lawn in the backyard in favor of adding raised beds for a veggie garden as well as taking the pesky local moles to task by planting 10,000 flowers in the back yard. If you can't beat 'em, why not overwhelm 'em? 

We'd love to know what you have on your home resolution docket for the year! And, if you're calling in any experts don't forget to let us know: we always have a name or two of trusted contractors you can add to your call list.