ORC 5: Tick tock

Oh migoodness.

doesn't every body have a chop saw set up in the kitchen?

I will say this: if it were not for the  One Room Challenge-- this little bathroom face lift would have taken me a lot longer. And I don't think I could have survived it.

ALSO--It definitely would not look as fabulous as I hope it will in just one short week.
One week.
Actually less, given it has to be photographed and the post written.

Eeeek.

Here's where we are now:

Here's the vision (partly):

Here's how we got here:

ORC 2: Jumping in Relunctantly.
ORC 2a: Evaluating the Bathroom
ORC 3: Using Inspiration to Solve a Bathroom Design Dilemma
ORC 3a: Progress Report
ORC 4: Yellow Alert! Yellow Alert!

And finally, here's the progress on our various little projects.


PAINTING

I got two coats of my Hague Blue on the upper part of the walls when I noticed some horrible spots that needed smoothing. So, less than an hour after the second coat, Chris had the sander out.

Then we removed the old light (not as difficult a job as we'd feared. It came out quite easily.) and discovered at least fifty years of crusty paint build up. So, that got sanded, too. There was a sizeable chunk missing from the wall--and the new light would not be covering that up, so I repaired it.

I used wet and set. After it dried, it was spackled and sanded until it was all smooth.

And we sanded, spackled and painted for another four days. ("We" means my husband. Man, am I grateful he's so patient.) The Hague Blue is in semi-gloss--so it shows every dang spot and ding. But where it is smooth --oh my-- it's like a still, deep, magical pool. Gorgeous.

I'm now in the process of painting the window.

Yay--green grass! That's the first we've seen it since last year.

WAINSCOTING
All the horizontal boards are in. Working on the verticals.

INSTALL NEW BATH FAN
I've learned more about bath fans and venting than you'd probably ever want to know this past week.

We had quite the time installing the new bath fan. I'd picked it up at Lowe's about a week ago. But when we went to install it Monday, Chris noticed that the flap in the duct housing did not close all the way. I jumped online but I couldn't figure out whether it was all that important or not, but we hopped in the car and ran to Lowe's for another one anyway.

In my research I had discovered that flexible hose venting --like we had-- can reduce the efficiency of the fan by 50% Good grief. We also discovered that we really need to lop off about two inches off the bottom of the door so the fan can draw air when the door is closed. So, we will do that.

It took all day Monday to install the fan. After our trip to Lowe's, Chris replaced the flimsy mounting board with something substantial. He had the housing  up --but fortunately had not attached anything to it -- when I noticed it wasn't centered. He graciously took it down and remounted it for me. Then we had to figure out the ducting. He solved it most elegantly with an elbow he had lying around in the garage.

Whew.

LIGHTING
Worried it won't fit!

DRAIN PIPE PROJECT

The drain pipe from the wall: it shall not be moved.

I've had an awful time with the plumbing. In short, in order to get this drain pipe in the wall to attach to my pretty chrome drain pipe, I have to use an ugly thing called a compression fitting. I thought I'd found something to hide the ugly thing--- but just as I was about to spend $50 US to ship a $12 plumbing part--- I discovered that the part was not, in fact, the dimensions I thought it was--but something entirely different and hopelessly inadequate! So, so glad I discovered that before pulling out the credit card! I think I've come up with an acceptable work around. I'll be doing up a whole post on it later, when the ORC is over.



FLOORING
It's here. Waiting.


TOILET
Ordered. Waiting for us to pick it up!

WINDOW TREATMENT
My fabric from Tonic Living arrived. I ordered it Thursday and I got it Monday. Amazing. But it was not AT ALL what I was expecting. It's not as vibrant as it looked on my computer screen. I am disappointed, but it is still pretty and it will do.


THE MIRROR
It is going to be so wonderful!

I played around with the pieces today and realised I was making it far too complicated. It'll be easy. I just have to cut a gazillion little half chevrons (anybody remember what those are called? parallelograms?), stain them and then glue the whole shebang. I am going to wait until I have the actual mirror before I glue it. Oh --and then I actually have to hang it-- as a door!

I should have the glass in my hands Friday.


I feel like I should be panicking, but I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's just because I'm so tired I haven't the energy to be anxious? Mostly, I'm just having fun and enjoying spending time with my husband as we work on this together.

As it should be, I think.

Do check out the other participants: especially the select 20 which Linda hand-picked to wow us with their designs. Some are very close to the wire. Here's the link via Linda's site, Calling it Home.

Then there are those, like me, the guest participants. So exciting to catch up on a handful each week. See them all here.

Next week: the reveal!

But until then....