Barren Backyard

Moving into a new home is always exciting. It's a blank canvas for you to express your design creativity (if you've any). Everything is brand new, sparkling clean and working perfectly. But it also comes with a whole new set of problems, which we're grappling with now. We've pretty shelved all our "home improvement" projects till after the vacation and the list has quietly grown since we've returned. Here's our crazy to-do list.

1. Backyard. We need ours cleaned up, designed and done by year's end. Of course, I'd like it done before summer so we can actually use the outside space we moved here for. We've just started the tedious process of calling landscape companies for quotes, design concepts and I'm really not looking forward to the construction--much less the cost!

2. Work desks and book cases. Our makeshift office right now is a mish-mash of furniture from everywhere. And our books, unfortunately, are still in boxes in the garage. We need to figure out what would work best for Mikey and me since we share the office; plus figure out how to squeeze Kayla's play things in that room so I can do some work when I have to. Again, not a fun--or cheap--project.

3. Cabinets, cabinets. One thing I really miss about our old place is our cabinet space. I'd like a built in media center in the living room (but that'll have to wait since it cost money), an extra cabinet above our linen closet, as well as a cabinet (or at least some shelves) in our laundry room.

4. Kayla's bedroom. We need to paint it (the rest of the house can be boring beige for the longest time, but I'd like her to have a slightly more colorful and inspiring life than ours). But first, we have to figure out what colors! We need a dresser for her bedroom, a toy storage solution that'll grow with her, as well as a neat bookcase to house her ever-growing collection of books.

5. UNPACK. The garage is still half filled with boxes from the move. You'd think when you move to a bigger place that it'd be easier but for some reason, it hasn't been. Sigh.

We've our work cut out for us, but it's been hard trying to find time to do all this while trying to keep up with a very active 15 month-old, work, and a rather interesting search for a preschool for Kayla. (Preschool post to come.)

But the biggest challenge is balancing the budget so we won't have to eat eggrolls for the rest of the year. (kidding...it won't happen, we like our food too much). We'll figure something out, I'm sure, whether it means taking on a couple more stories each month or eating out less each month. We'll get there...we have to! :)