Now that we’re spending 24/7 at home, I can see and can’t stop thinking about different house projects to do at the cozy cottage in quarantine. Based on what I’m seeing on social media and the internet, I know I’m not alone in that thinking! And while there are a couple of major renovations we still have left to do (I’m looking at you, kitchen), three areas of my home in particular are irking me. So I thought I’d share the project that I should have done by now, the project that I wish we had the budget to do right now, and the one that I’m actually starting to work on while we’re in quarantine.

The Project I Should Have Done by Now

We use one of our bedrooms as the office/library/guest room and I have said so many times that I want to make it more of a cohesive office/library instead of a mishmash of old Ikea furniture that doesn’t contain all the stuff we have in here. We also need better lighting and I wish it were a more comfortable and better organized space. And I was thinking all that BEFORE we started working from home and spending so much more time in here! You can read about the office here and here. This is the project that I wish I had done by now. I actually was thinking about doing it for the spring One Room Challenge but decided to save the money to help us keep saving for a future kitchen renovation. And while deciding to save was smart, this room could be used so much better.

Daniel uses this office as his space now and we trade off watching August, which means the baby is playing in here a lot. The other day he ripped the back cover off of a paperback book. Even he is frustrated!

The Project I Wish We Had the Budget to Do Right Now

And I really do mean right now. We started hanging out on our front porch at the end of last summer and fall when we realized how much August like watching the rain, and people and cars go by. We had a mild winter so we were even able to extend our #frontporchlife through winter as well. But now we’re out there every day because it’s the only way to see someone else without having to use a screen and it’s so fun getting to talk to neighbors and people as they walk by (don’t worry, our porch is far more than six feet away from the sidewalk). We have a baby gate on it too so it’s become an easy, contained area outside for August to crawl around on. But one major issue we noticed is that the porch is falling apart. Wood is coming off, paint is chipping, nails are sticking out, it’s a hot mess. This isn’t something that can be fixed with a quick paint job or on a tight budget, but is an area that should be fixed to be safer for baby.

While replacing the railings may be a fairly simple DIY project that Daniel and I could do together, we don’t have time to do anything like that now that we are essentially working 24/7 in quarantine and just plain tired. In addition, while we both still have our jobs and a steady income, it might be helpful to be able to hire a contractor to come do the porch since their industry is taking a huge hit right now. We’ll need to figure out if this really is a project that we should hire out, whether it’s even safe to have a contractor come at this time, and whether we can actually even afford it.

The Project I Am Doing

I mentioned it here and here and now that we’re home all the time, I’m finally doing it: cleaning out and organizing our garage. It helps that the weather is getting warmer and I have started bringing out the outdoor furniture, which makes more room in the garage. But it’s just a huge, stuffed, mess and I can’t take it anymore. I ordered a shelving unit that I hope arrives soon so I can start organizing and hopefully get it to a place where it doesn’t make me want to cry every time I go in there.

Now that you’re home all of the time, are there projects you’re noticing you’d wished you’d done or can do in quarantine?