Thursday, April 10, 2014

ORC 2: Moving Backwards

Oh Dear Lord.

What have we done?

On Day One of Week One, I happily bought some paint my Mom and I had picked out for her room, corralled my daughter, son and husband, a sander and some spackle and headed over to her house to repair her bedroom walls and get them ready for painting.

Here's my crew.





We left them to sand and spackle. Mom and I went shopping.



As we shopped, we talked.

Mom told me how she had originally designed the room so that the closet--which is on the outside North wall (floor plan below) could be moved, eventually, to the south wall--to act as a barrier between the two bedrooms upstairs.

She asked her builders to put the closet in so that it would be easy to remove.

It was one of the many things they did not do. (They also put the window in the wrong spot making the closet move impossible.)

South is at the top of the drawing, west on the right, east is the window wall, and north is at the bottom, of course. That line protruding from the North wall (and circled) is the wall of the closet. It held a light switch.


She currently uses a funny space outside the room as a dressing room, so, technically, she doesn't need a closet inside the room. As well, there was no decent wall for the bed. Because of the angle of the door, when the head of the bed was at the south wall, (top of drawing) the bedside table had to be impractically small. When it was on the west wall, she had to go around the bed to the closet. Putting it against the off centre window was too cold.

And then, as we talked, she fell in love with the idea of having the area in front of her window deliciously free for yoga practice.

So we decided to knock out her closet.

On Day Two of Week One, we arrived to find she had cleared it out and taken off the doors.


We knocked it out.


It took us (OK, mostly my husband) about 8 hours.



He was not a happy hubby that day.

On Day Three of Week One, we discussed how to deal with the electrical.



We realised we had to see what was going on behind the drywall, so we knocked out some more.

Why not? Never mind the fact that my hubs and I don't have a clue about two vital areas of home improvement. One. Drywall. We don't have drywall in our home, so we aren't familiar with it at all.  (The walls in our home are made from plasterboard.) Two. Electrical. It scares us.

Mom decided to call in a friend to help. So, when we left, we left the room like this:




After the first week--our to do list is now longer, not shorter! I think we've gone backwards.



Oh Dear Lord.

What have we done?


You can read the first post in this Challenge series here.

You can read all about what the other participants are doing here (the invitees) and here (the party crashers, like me.).




8 comments :

Linda @ a design snack said...

Don't worry, it will all work out. It always looks worse before it gets better. Besides, how can we make an omelet without breaking a few eggs!?

aquahaus said...

Seems to be a common theme, 2 steps forward, 1 step back, but it will pay off! Keep going!!

Linda {Calling it Home} said...

Boy, can I relate to the 'what have I done' comment. I agree with Linda, it will be fine, ugly before pretty. Good luck

Alana in Canada said...

Thank you ladies. Here's hoping we can get to the prettifying stage quickly!

kate@willowinteriors said...

Wow, major demolition! Can't wait to see more! You've got a great crew!

onshore said...

I think it already feels better! The stupid alcove is gone, well done. I think it's good you were bold enough to start a renovation, couple of decorative pillows would not just cut it :)

sheerserendipity said...

All the hard work will definitely be worth it at the end! Can't wait to see the outcome!

Colleen said...

yup- it is going to look great! Drywall isn't complicated- messy and irritating, but not complicated. Electrical I leave to the pros if it is more complicated that changing a switch, outlet, or light fixture. Can't wait to see how the room develops!

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