Planned Projects for 2016

As I sat down with my calendar and notepad in hand to plan out this year’s DIY projects, my list was dictated by one object.  One very annoying and pesky varmint.

Not the most flattering thing to have to reveal to my audience, but seems to be common knowledge to those that live in a home older than 100 years.  Our house has all kinds of nooks and crannies for those pesky squirrels to roam and run.

And it Drives. Me. Nuts.

Pardon the pun, but this is true.  And our poor ceilings.  They are loaded with pock marks from me pounding a mop handle at them, trying to scare the squirrels away.

We’ve tried almost everything.  Moth balls.  Steel wool.  Wire mesh.  Have-a-heart traps.  But those dang squirrels are out-smarting us.  Just when we think we’ve found their entry spot, they show us otherwise.

And I feel like Bill Murray from Caddyshack.  For those of you whom haven’t seen that movie, Bill Murray’s character desperately tries to get rid of the gophers that are tearing up the golf course.  He was so desperate that he put dynamite in every hole and ended up hurting himself. Those gophers kept out-smarting him.

In the picture above, Sean so lovingly photoshopped my face on to Bill Murray’s from a scene in Caddyshack.  That is how obsessed I have become with trying to beat the free-loading squirrels.

So here is my list of larger scale DIY projects that I vow to complete for 2016:

*  Gut the den down to the beams.  Close up areas of varmint entry.  Install insulation and then install wood plank walls all the way to the ceiling peek.  Then of course, white wash the wood planks and make the room pretty again.

*  Tear down the ceiling in the kitchen.  Aye Aye Aye.  But it must be done.  I actually am looking forward to this project because the ceiling in our kitchen is a little on the low side and I have been wanting to open it up and expose the old beams.  Here’s hoping that doesn’t turn into a can of worms.  Once the ceiling has been opened, we hope to install a vent over our stove, add recessed lighting around the perimeter of the kitchen, and of course, plug up the unwanted entry of the squirrels.  Damn freeloaders.

*  Turn the pantry and walk-thru room to the den into a Butler’s pantry.  Our house did originally have a Butler’s pantry and somewhere along the line someone put up a random fiberboard wall and made it into two rooms.  I have longed to bring back a Butler’s pantry in our house and this is the year to do it.

*  Rebuild, remake, redesign our master bedroom.  Our current master bedroom faces north, and is cold and dark.  I want to relocate to the room facing south, tear down one wall to extend the room by 4 feet, attempt to try my hand at hanging wallpaper on one wall, and really make our room into a comfortable and magazine worthy retreat.  This vision has been 5 years in the making.  Enough already.  Design board forthcoming.

*  Tear out the dropped ceiling on our back porch and expose the beams and the height of the true ceiling.  And too, bid a “sayonara” to those dang squirrels.  Seal up whatever entries we find and do our best to not entertain any dynamite.

So this is my plan.  I have noted these projects on my calendar, though in pencil, and I am anxious to get started.  All of these projects will be brought to you both from my beloved blog, and from Brooke’s House & Home, which will be a weekly series starting soon.

And too, I will have a bastion of other fun, smaller scale projects, to fill in throughout the year.

So bring on the year, and a handy tool belt.  I’ve got work to do and projects to share.  Another year full of Be Fed Again!