What's next?

 The turning of the year resulted in some reflection, and now to some planning. What's next? What's left? Let's start upstairs (2nd floor):
• I need to do some research about what it's going to take to re-parge the chimney that runs up through the back bedroom. This was actually the last thing on my list to do over the holidays, but honestly, I ran out of steam. There's a masonry supply store around the corner that could have some clues, but that means being out with people. I could pick up the phone, but dealing with not a little bit of anxiety/depression sometimes makes placing that phone call impossible.

Still trying to figure out what to do about this without creating a tremendous mess.
Something tells me that will be impossible.

• I got in the hardware to rehang the last closet door upstairs, but it's not sized exactly. I have a good idea of how to modify the mortises to accommodate the new hinges, but I don't want to mess it up. I think I need to put the door into the space, shim it up so it doesn't drag (it dragged terribly before) and mark where the hinges should fall. They are bigger than the old missing ones, so hopefully I can avoid the old stripped screw holes. Then I get to put the reversed latch back on.

Downstairs! (1st floor):
Welp. I'm working myself into a corner, where the last of the rooms aren't going to be "easy" or cheep.
• Living room: Perhaps the easiest of the rooms left. I can't do much in there until I can open windows. While I'm toying with the idea of replacing the baseboard trim with new slab trim to match, the windows will need to be stripped to remove the blistering and alligatored paint, which means more hours with the heat gun, which means the type of ventilation that only open windows and fans can give me. I'll also investigate what the floor looks like under the carpet and either expose it, or eventually get it re-carpeted. The central light fixture should *probably* be replaced. It's been painted over, and 2 of the 3 pull chain lights don't function properly. (One only works if you screw and unscrew the bulb manually, one doesn't work at all.)
• Dining room: Would be easiest to refinish, but at the very least I'm planning on trying to carve a window between the kitchen and dining room to get a little more light in there (short of opening up that wall completely.) Needs a little trim stripping particularly around the bathroom, but other than that, wash/prime/paint.
• Kitchen: There's nothing easy about the kitchen, which by all rights should be gutted and reconfigured. It is highly likely I will not get to this room this year. The cabinets are in ok shape, and could be reused or painted, there's just precious few of them. Storage is a huge issue in the kitchen, and I'm not saying that in the way that everyone wants a 1k sqf kitchen these days, according to HGTV. I mean that in order to have canned goods and pots and pans storage I've taken an old tall bookshelf, slapped a curtain on it and called it a "pantry" in the dining room. I'm also considering dropping in a propane tank and converting the 80 year old range to a gas appliance from this century. I'm reluctant to do that before doing other work though, knowing how easy to fall into "good enough" and decades later you're still contesting with a kitchen that doesn't work for your needs.
Needs: new floor, little bit of trim stripped, prime/paint, new central light fixture.
Wants: Everything. The stove is in a terrible place. The space is used badly. I don't want to loose any windows because I watch the birds out the back and need light on that side of the house. It's a complicated space. I think I need a designer to really look at it to best determine how to most efficiently use the square footage. (Several thousand dollars.)
• Bathroom: I've had a few contractors come quote different levels of re-finishing the bathroom, and I can only laugh, and laugh, and laugh at the amount of money they want for what they claim they will do.
What should happen: it should be gutted.
What will likely happen: I'm going to strip everything, because every inch of paint is cracking and alligatoring. The walls that aren't tile are tongue and groove, and have been painted multiple colors. I don't mind keeping the green tile, actually - I think paired with a crisp white paint job, maybe with grey highlights to accent the vanity, it would look clean and calm. The ceiling is angled narrow tongue and groove. I go back and forth on just painting it, and framing in a flat drywall ceiling. This would serve to give space in order to put in a vent. Currently there is no ventilation in the bathroom, and the moisture it throws into the house every time I shower is an issue. I don't know if I'll get to this either, because it's bigger than me and I don't have the ability to throw money at this one, (which could be easily several thousand dollars.)
• Floors: I know the office, hallway, and dining room are narrow board hardwood. I suspect the living room is too, under the carpet. I don't know if I want to try refinishing them myself, as I think they will need color-correcting staining in areas to blend in shadows and fading. There's also an area in the dining room that needs replacement boards.
• Back door: The back door is fine, just needs a sand and paint. I'm thinking about attempting to replace two of the high interior panels with glass to get a little light into the room with the fridge and washer/dryer. I've seen it done, but that's a spring-time-outside-on-the-sawhorses project.

Those two little panels at the top? I want to make them glass.

 

Outside!
• I want to deal with the front step this year. It's a matter of throwing $ at it at this point to have someone haul a heavy flat rock to my house with a machine to put it in place. I'm sure it's worth every penny. I just need to save my pennies.
• I'm going to thin the woods near the front of the house. Most of the undergrowth is invasive crap anyway that will need to be squirted with a chemical to keep them from sending up more shrubby nonsense.
• I'm going to get in a load of topsoil and fill most of the front flowerbed which is full of poison ivy and largely shaded out.
• I need to keep thinning the hostas in the flowerbed near the backdoor. I might also reshape it a little to make mowing around it a little easier.
• I need to call Electric Guy Wayne and have him put in an outdoor electrical outlet.
• I'm going to see about replacing the exterior water faucet, or look into the packing. It's leaking unless it's shut off in the house.
• I'd like to reconstruct the little roof over the well into a trapdoor platform, and then put a little wishing well on top of it.
• Brush needs to be cleared from around the cesspool, and fill might need to be brought in to bolster that area up. I should really call the fire department and see if they can send someone out to tell me if there's anywhere on this property I can build a burn pile. Hauling stuff to the brush dump is no fun for anyone but me, and the hours are restrictive.
• I might rework my veggie beds into a different sort of garden near the backdoor. That's still in early thinking
• I need to keep clearing along the road, at least to the light pole. Sigh. Yay, poison ivy times!
• Someday, the "flower bed" in front of the house needs to be excavated and terraced. Right now it's  literal mat of poison ivy vines and flowers I can't tend because it's too steep. It's going to have to be done with some deftness because of how the house sits on top of the hill, where the well is, and where the cesspool is. I think that's going to need a landscaper or hardscaper to come in and give me a plan so I don't make more problems. (This will easily be several thousand dollars.)

Oh, and in the next few years, I need to put on a roof (several thousand dollars)

One bite at a time to eat the whale.