Watching paint dry (in an effort to guard against paw prints).
In order of importance, it’s books, baths and cooking.
My former study, circa 2000 (there are matching shelves on the other side of the brick fireplace bump out…at least there were when I sold it!).
That study served me well, and doubled as a hand-tool shop after 2010, when I finally built a bench for home. (Having a second-floor shop, though, that shared the room with my computer, was a major impetus for my move.)
I miss my old study most of all. So that’s what I’m working on now in the new place: A wall of built-in bookshelves and cabinets with a large worksurface that has room for my computer.
The top units aren’t quite as wide here, but they’re about 2′ taller, with two more shelves per. It doesn’t really matter…no matter how large, I’d still run out of room. Good thing I can now build more shelves myself.
The only photo I could dredge up from the old place was mid-work…which looks far better than the current bath state here.
That’s the next project here, writ large: rip out the current second-floor bath, put a door through to my bedroom, move some walls so there’s room for a shower and soaking tub, put in a floor heating system, then start building it back out. And simultaneously rough in a guest bath, because it will be easier and less expensive that way. (We’ll see what hubris and my pocketbook have to say about that next year, which, in my defense, is only about 1 year behind schedule!).
“Old” kitchen
It’s a nice kitchen, with fancy, self-closing drawers and plenty of storage. Too bad I never got to cook even one meal in it.
The kitchen here is worse than the old one at the old house (a former tenant seems to have punched a hole in a cabinet front, for example). I won’t be waiting 12 years to redo this one – but it will come well after the books then the bathroom(s), again.
And no…I still haven’t finished the staircase – but I realized in moving the large cases upstairs for the study that having a wide staircase with no rails is excellent when moving, say, large casework upstairs…and that’s an excellent excuse for holding off!
* Is there a synonym for “food” or “kitchen” that starts with “b?” (Alliteration is, after all, the mark of fine literature…)
Rude Mechanicals Press Blog 
I had a friend in high school who said that his favorite composers were the three Bs — Beethoven, Brahms, and Brokoviev. In the same spirit, you could describe your priorities as Books, Baths, and Breparing Meals.
Best wishes, David
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You can channel your inner Julia Child and make it “Books, Baths and Bon Apetite”
This is the correct answer. Alliteration with good cadence and a slightly PBS-crowd oriented pop-culture reference. Great title for a book too.
How about books, baths, and brasserie?
Lest you nit forget BAT exodus! Must be in the order of priorities.
They don’t seem eager to move. I’m on it again right after the “books.”
– Breaking Bread –
I don’t know how you find the energy to do all that–again!–but I admire you. I have projects I was going to do shortly after I moved into my house in 1995. Most are still on the to-do list. Sigh.
Oh…there are plenty of half-done projects in my house and office, and half-baked ideas in my head! (See: third floor at last house that was going to become a fabulous bathroom and tricked-out closet. It did not.)
Books, Bath, and Board (as in “Room and Board”)
Beer? Booze? Burritos?
Bread as a metonym for food?
Brinner would be my vote.