In another era I might wonder if I’m in the second trimester of a pregnancy, but no — my home improvement hysteria only means it’s time for New Years Projects.

It’s been awhile we did any note-worthy house projects, and my DIY fingers are getting twitchy. Here are my top 3 New Years Projects, which aren’t small in any way.

1. Master Bedroom + Bathroom

As mentioned in my 2012 Recap, it’s time to redo the master bathroom. Since we’ve lived in our house for 4.5 years and have done nothing to personalize our bedroom, it’s natural that it’ll get some paint and TLC at the same time. There will be lots more written about this, I’m sure. But first, what color to paint the walls and that weird tray ceiling? We have different furniture waiting in the wings; the bedspread will remain.

See the first picture in this post? That’s the guest room/office, which is under re-organization so my husband and I can habitate in there during all the MBR redo. It’s gonna get crazy up in here.

2. Kitchen Cabinets + Trim

I have a lot of kitchen cabinets, and this dark wood and trim makes everything feel very — dark (despite this sun ray that came in and washed the picture out and made me look like a bigfatliar). The trim is continued into the adjoining family room and I can’t take the ceiling cage anymore. It’s all getting painted a creamy white this year, even if I sand my fingerprints off in the process and we eat on the deck for a month.

3. The Pantry

For the love, if I buy one more box of elbow maccaroni, my husband is going to file for Irreconcilable Differences. I can’t see what’s tucked in the back of these deep shelves and there are half-boxes of eight pastas and several rice types long forgotten. If only I still lived in Utah, I’m sure my Mormon friends would never allow my pantry to exist this way.

Thank you in advance to my husband, who can plumb, wire, and carpenter anything. Thank you to my friends who will settle paint chip disputes and be called on to talk to me while I paint without rest (but I won’t ask you to hold a brush, because I’m awesome like that and want to keep our friendship). Thank you to HGTV and Pinterest for providing pictures to aspire to, but probably not arise to.

Stay tuned for updates! Thank goodness we’ve got twelve months to go.