Dining Room Completion Plans

I have to confess.  Sometimes when I come home from staying in a house that is 'completed' (not under construction) I get a little discouraged at our house.  There are so many little details left to work on that make me begin to wonder if we can do it.  Cleaning the house sometimes seems pointless because, though it is clean, it looks sloppy still from the exposed drywall and lack of trim, painting, etc.
So what do I do when I get like this..... I remember how you go about conquering big jobs...  piece by piece.  Piece by piece with our heads down we will keep working, trying not to look at how much is left to do but what we've finished.
Sooooo, the goal is to finish the dining completely.  Getting one room finished we think will be a morale booster.... then onto the next room... then the next.... and the next... until they are ALL done. :)

For MY motivation sake I want to share AGAIN a picture of the dining room when we bought the house-

So glad that light fixture is gone, I still have dreams about it.
Now-

Yay, just doing this boosted my morale.
OK, now I want to share our to do list and my silly mood boards to show you the plans.  I like sharing lists because its an easy way to share our progress as we complete items (since some updates will be small and not so picture worthy).  Here we go with the list:

• Fill and sand holes in trim
• Paint window trim white
• Paint window frames black- all completed in dining room, just wanted to share that!
• Put up baseboard trim
• Fill, sand and paint baseboard trim
• Sand off stain on walkthrough boards (or are we replacing?)
• Put up trim around walkthrough
• Fill, sand and paint walkthrough trim
• Make and install stair banister
• Paint and install heater end plate
• Make burlap roman blinds

Some pictures of these to do's-

Need baseboard trim and heater end plate.

Sand and paint existing boards in walkthrough, put up trim around walkthrough and baseboard trim-

Make and install stair banister, put up baseboard trim. (Need banister since baby girl is attempting stair climbing)

Here is a silly 'mode board' I put together.  This is what all the design blogs seem to do.  I can understand why as it help you visualize different materials, patterns, colors, etc. in your room.  Here's just have a few decor ideas and burlap roman blinds (any decor ideas and feedback would be appreciated during this process)-

I need help placing something on the back wall to balance out the china cabinet... nothing too bulky that will bury the wall.  Maybe hanging the old hay fork there instead of on top of the china cabinet?  Also need more color somewhere.  I don't want a rug in here yet with all the food that gets thrown on the floor with the kids, sweeping is just so easy right not.  Know that would be a nice addition though.

More pictures of burlap blinds if you are wondering what I am talking about-

Photo compliments of http://brookegiannetti.typepad.com/velvet_and_linen/childrens-study/

This one is cute, but think it might be hard to come by printed burlap for all the windows.

Photo compliments of http://allaboutvignettes.blogspot.com/2011/02/burlap-sacks.html

That's the plan for now.  Hopefully we will have some things to mark off the list and share with you soon.
If I am up to it I might share photos of baby girl's 1st birthday later in the week!!  Here's a peek (pretty much sums up the cake eating part, mouth constantly stuffed)-

Memories... sigh-