I know some people don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. Some love them, some have a “word of the year”, and some have a list of goals to meet. I’m not one for resolving to drastically change my life for a new year, but I am a big planner and goal setter. I feel like a new year is a good time to reset, plan, and think about what I want my next year to look like personally and professionally.

However, this year is different than most. Since we’re expecting our first baby in April, a large portion of my year is going to be spent either extremely pregnant, having a baby, on maternity leave, or figuring out how to be a parent and a self-employed professional. Knowing that this year would be different, I decided to make my goals more attainable, and to not set any numerical goals for my business this year. This will be the first year I haven’t set financial goals, sales volume goals, or others specifically for my business. Of course, I’m me, so I have a general idea of what I have in my pipeline and a general idea of when certain projects and clients will be ready, so I’m not going totally off-script here. I don’t know if my little type-A heart could handle it!

In business school, I got into the habit of setting and keeping track of S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based). I’ve based prior years’ goals off of this model, and loved it. This year though, I’ll be removing timelines and measurability to allow more flexibility for myself. I guess that means I’m making S.A.R. goals, then. Not as catchy, but probably more realistic for this time in my life.

In no particular order, my loose goals this year are:

• Have a baby
• Start figuring out how to be parents
• Finish both renovation houses & sell them
• Build a carriage house/garage
• Finish the nursery

I’m hoping that the nursery portion will come before the baby, and that figuring out how to be parents will come after… I’m also hoping that by leaving things a little more ambiguous, I’ll allow more grace for myself and the people around me as we figure out the major life shift that is adding a human being to the world and our family.

I’m sure you’d rather hear about the projects portion of this post though, since this is the first I’m mentioning some of them here on the blog.

Both renovation project houses (Ruby and Bonnie) should be completed in the next few months by Bates Construction, Mission Real Estate Development, and myself as the designer. I’d love to get them completed, listed, and under contract before I have the baby, but I’m also trying to be realistic that that might not happen, since babies and renovation projects tend to move on their own timelines. You can see project updates here, and follow along on Instagram to see more behind the scenes.

Now for something new: the carriage house! When we bought our house in March 2019, we knew we wanted to build a carriage house (a garage with an apartment above it). Nearly three years later, we’ve broken ground and the garage is underway. In the next couple weeks, I’ll share more mood boards and plans with you all here, but for the moment, you can follow along here on Instagram. Once it’s completed, this will be a space for our family to come stay when they’re in town, as well as a short term rental/Airbnb. I’m most excited about the apartment design, and Jonny’s the most excited about the workshop he’s got planned in the 1000 sq ft garage downstairs.

The smallest project I have planned this year is the nursery. Remember when we did a quick budget refresh on our moody green guest room last year? Well, we’re about to completely redo it. Our house has two bedrooms, and so we knew that once we got pregnant we’d have to change the guest room into a nursery. I’ve been working on the designs, and I’m excited to share them with you either this week or next.

Even though I’m not planning goals in the same way that I usually do, this year is going to be huge for me and my little family. I’m glad to bring you along for the ride!

♥

Grace