2021 Project List

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I’ve never been much of a “New Year’s Resolution” kinda guy.

I mean, if it’s too hard or too daunting to tackle in May, or August or October, what makes you think you’re going to pull it off in January?

Especially when it comes to weight loss!

Jeezum Crow, madam, half the country thinks that January is a good time to lose weight!

Every biological instinct screams for us to pack on the fat to stave off hypothermia and death! (Unless you live in Florida or Hawaii, in which case, s@#w you! You have no excuse!)

It’s like swearing off drinking in the middle of Mardi Gras or deciding Amazon Prime Day would be a fine time to start spending less!

New Year’s Resolutions are the cause of more misery, suffering and general unhappiness than oh, I don’t know…a pandemic!

Not only are the requirements of the resolution generally unpleasant (do you really enjoy eating that plate of alfalfa sprouts and tofu?), but the inevitable failure makes you feel like a…a…well, a failure!

I say NUTS to Resolutions, madam!

I prefer my new year to be free from all traces of stress and self-induced guilt.

*sigh*

But I’m married.

So that throws a monkey wrench into my plans, doesn’t it?

However much I want burst into 2021 firing off middle-finger salutes to all the suckers wheezing into the new year on creaky old treadmills, I have a wife.

And having a wife means I have a list.

And because we run this little thing called The Navage Patch, it means my list is long.

Long, madam, like the suffering and agony it promises for your poor, downtrodden author.

But lest you think it’s all gloom and doom, everything on the list is for the betterment of house and home.

Everything on the list will make my babes happy.

And there’s no better resolution than to do all the things possible to have a happy wife.

Beats tofu and brussels sprouts every time.

So let’s start with a look back on what we accomplished in 2020 since we moved to our new house in May.

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The Navage Patch Goals Accomplished 2020 List

There are a few things in that list that you haven’t seen or I haven’t written about and a few that weren’t on our original list, because we didn’t know we’d be needing/doing them. For instance, the dog feeding station is done, but I haven’t gotten around to posting about it yet. Look for it early in the new year.

Ditto Baris’s room – it was the first thing we finished, even before he moved in! But I just haven’t had the chance to write about it yet, and there are still some projects in his room and bathroom we need to tackle.

Most of the painting is done – all I have left is the foyer, the guest bedroom, and the master bath. But there’s still a lot of trim to do downstairs, and I really need to get going on the banister staining and painting.

The living room turned out to be easier than I thought, especially with my new extra-stable ladder.

New windows were never part of the plan until we discovered our original wood ones are starting to rot in some areas, are letting in rainwater in others, and have gaps big enough to allow entrance to any insect in almost every room. No wonder my babes was eaten alive throughout the summer, and even less wonder that our kitchen bug zapper hosted a thousand tiny carcasses every morning!

We started by having 4 kitchen windows replaced to see how we like these fancy new vinyl jobs.

Oh, but that threw our alarm system into disarray, because we lost the contacts in the windows, and if we drilled into the new windows, we’d lose our warranty.

So that meant getting our alarm company out here to upgrade our system and take it into the 21st century with touchscreen keypads and wireless sensors all around.

Yeesh, when it rains…

The basement is still a disaster, but that’s primarily because we have no storage room. So what to do?

Well, duh! Build a storage room! Here it is, half-finished.

In January, Handan and I will fill that room with stuff and build shelves to hold more stuff.

We have a lot of stuff.

Now that the boy is a fully-grown-and-functioning human being, he has become quite useful. Case in point: he made the task of installing 2 new garage door openers much easier than when I had to do it alone in the old house. Here’s a fun little time-lapse of the process.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJj-kw1EQds[/embedyt]

Oh, and one of the most important projects I accomplished in 2020 was to teach The Boy some lessons about being an American Man.

This should last about 15 minutes…

Anyway, we got a fair amount done, but not everything from our original list.

Here’s what we’ve either started-but-not-finished or haven’t-yet-begun:

Unreached Goals from 2020

Goals on Hold

  • Replace the ghost window
  • Rebuild and expand our rickety wood deck
  • Build lower patio
  • Finish the basement – kitchen, french doors to outside, movie room, etc.

Replacing the ghost window was going to be one of our first projects, but we diverted the funds to help pay for the kitchen windows.

Now that the reality of what Baris’s education is going to cost us has sunk in, that project and a few others have been put on hold for a while.

Besides, our deck is still standing, and as long as it can hold me, the grill and a plate full of meat, we should be able to soldier on for a few more years!

This isn’t snow…it’s graupel!

New Goals for 2021

  • Stain the staircase posts and handrails
  • Paint foyer walls and trim
  • Paint living room walls and trim
  • Paint living room built-ins
  • Change living room fan
  • Change foyer chandelier
  • Baris’s room-related projects
  • Laundry room remodel
  • Build small raised vegetable garden beds in the back yard
  • Build a TV stand for living room
  • Build a coffee table for living room
  • Build a bookcase for living room
  • Garage organization
  • Replace old hose bibs
  • Finish front yard landscaping
  • Build stairs down side yard slope
  • Guest bedroom makeover
  • Master closet makeover
  • Tame and organize the basement
  • Properly set up and organize basement workshop
  • Get the house ready for Christmas!

Only one of the projects listed above will be “contractor only,” and that is the stairs on the side yard. That area of the yard has been an eroded mess since we moved here, and it’s only getting worse. Every rain storm brings a flood of disgusting red clay into our back yard. Landscape stairs will solve the problem.

That DirecTV dish was a satellite link to Nowhere, so I ripped it out, pulled the wires and tossed it in the bin. No more ET phone home!

It’s a project involving a lot of earth-moving, retaining walls and railroad ties. In the words of someone wise, “I’m too old for this shit!”

So I’m going to let someone else do it for me! đŸ™‚

The laundry room remodel will be a mix of contractor (our go-to cabinet guy, San) and Yours Complainingly.

While I don’t miss the overgrown Amazon Rainforest that passed as a garden at our old house, I do miss my hot peppers, garlic and German Queen tomatoes. This late-winter, I’ll be building a few small raised beds, so I can grow my babies again. There’s nothing better than home-grown tomatoes, fresh garlic and homemade dried hot pepper flakes!

I’ve already started some of these 2021 projects, like painting the living room built-ins. Before anything else, Handan had me paint the insides so she could display here blue and white porcelain.

But the exterior still needs to be painted, and I’ll hopefully be starting and finishing that early in January.

Well, listen, I’d love just to stay here and keep yapping with my fingertips on the keyboard, but these projects aren’t going to complete themselves, so I better get cracking!

I’ll be back on New Year’s Eve with our Laundry Room Remodel plan, so stay tuned!

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40 Comments

  1. Wow! You all have done a LOT since moving. While the remaining list is long, I have no doubt you will get it finished. Looking forward to your future posts.

  2. Awesome list from this year and for next! Looking forward to seeing and reading about it, oh and of course your YouTube videos! Now, if I could just get my hubby to quit telling me that I don’t have to remind him every six months of his honey to do list my list for him would shrink! Lol! Thanks for all the time and dedication it takes from you two to share all of this with all of us… Y’all are Awesome!

  3. I follow a few bloggers, but yours is the only one I enjoy reading all the way through. I always get a giggle or two. I’m looking forward to your projects.

  4. You have done an amazing job since May! Thanks for being among the handful of blogs that have helped keep me sane this year. I really enjoy your posts and (wonky) sense of humor. Looking forward to the future; Happy New Year to you and your family!

  5. Omg I got tired just reading this and I love your blog posts. I laugh out loud regularly. I love that you want to make your wife happy. happy wife happy life. I am also going to ask you if you know about rain gutter grown systems. Rain Gutter Grown Systems YouTube Video
    Larry Hall in Brainerd Minnesota started making these check it out.
    They are great on decks and make time for other projects because they are self watering.
    It is ingenious idea its just not that pretty. It grows the best tomatoes with little or no watering really. I just don’t like the look of 5 gallon bucket and was looking for a ingenious Navage Patch idea on how to upscale the look of the grow system.
    I really want you to add a video on your blog about how you made one of these self watering grow systems look good. You have such easy to follow instructions.
    I would be happy to share some of my saved seed of heirloom big juicy tomatoes , pineapple and German heritage tomatoes if you need seeds.
    I love all your decorating project ideas and can’t wait to see what you come up with for a coffee table.
    I am so inspired and I want to make everything you make for your home. You BOTH really do have a gift for great pretty DIY decorating projects
    Thanks and continue with the jokes and the inspiration
    Chris in Canada

    1. Hi Chris, I will be studying that video to see what we may do – thank you for sharing it! If there’s anyone who can devise a way, it’s Handan! đŸ™‚

  6. Greg,
    Thanks to you and Handan for inspiration and hard work. Love what you’ve done to your home and enjoy your commentary! Checking the dark spot on the inside of your left ankle….mole?
    Stay well, Happy New Year to you all

    1. Thank you, Phyllis! Not a mole – it’s a tattoo I got when I was 19 or 20. It used to be a yin-yang, but the ink has bled and turned it into a blob, lol!

  7. Love your quips . Enjoy reading them all but i loose so much time ! Keep up with what you do , it’s awesome!

  8. “Everything on the list will make my babes happy. And there’s no better resolution than to do all the things possible to have a happy wife.” Goodness! As the saying goes, “Do you have a brother?”

    Thank you for sharing both your list of accomplishments, and honey-dos. I’ve liked seeing the projects you’ve posted, along with the crafts. But, to be honest, I think it’s your writing that I like best of all! You have a gift, and I love your humor!

    Happiest of New Years to you three!

  9. Greg! Goals are not resolutions. I never make them. Resolutions or goals on the new year. I do set them for the year, but some don’t get done. And I’m the wife. LOL I don’t set goals for hubby. He sets his own. I guess. He’s not in good health, and I’m out either, but we aren’t dead yet! I’m gonna keep on going as long as I can.

  10. Hi..I enjoy reading your new projects as I did enjoy those of your former home. Yes,there’s always something to do. A house…home..is a living breathing entity,it requires attention and care to thrive and function. I am always amazed at old houses abandoned, or those uncared for and how they fall apart eventually. Yet very old lived in ones somehow stay holding together. Yours will feel very loved,but will always remind you….no sitting down Greg! ??

  11. Hi Greg. Hope you and the family have a wonderful New Year and keep safe and healthy – don’t work too hard and forget the diet – save it until the summer months!! Love your blogs – they always bring a smile to my face in dreary England đŸ™‚ Must make my other half a list of jobs for 2021!

    1. Oh don’t worry, Jayne – I forgot about the diet in late November, lol! There’s plenty of time for that later! Happy New Year to you and your family, and may you endure “Tier 4” with smiling faces! đŸ™‚

  12. Hi Greg – Happy New Year! We are moving to a new (to us) house in two weeks in the Great Pacific Northwest. Showed this post to my husband and he is salivating over your ladder. What is the brand and where did you get it?