I spent six hours yesterday moving crap from one place to another.
You can't even call that decluttering, really.
The municipal electrical company needs access to my Mom's meter. Apparently, they are changing them out. When they arrived last week, this is what they found.
This is actually good. There used to be another shelving unit on the other side of the meter, too. Mom plans to have the porch re-built this summer, so we need to empty out this space regardless.
They told Mom she had a week or so to move the shelving unit so they could have access. We planned to do it Monday.
Mom was admitted to hospital on the weekend with pneumonia. As planned, I went over Monday. Without her there to declutter and get rid of stuff, it took me six hours to move this shelf unit which is loaded up with mostly paper--files, notebooks, note pads, stationary, envelopes, and compter paper. Heavy.
Why did it take me so long?
Because I had to find room for it in here. The garage.
It looks like there is space here, but there really isn't. I could have moved the hose (though I don't know where) but there's mold all along the bottom of the drywall all around the garage. So, I wanted to stay away from the walls, for sure, since we will have to cut all that out, eventually.)
Somewhere.
It took me probably a good half an hour just to figure out where to start (and I started with breaking down the empty boxes, as I usually do.) I finally settled on clearing out the entry way since I could hardly make it in there, anyway.
Fortunately, I found a shelf unit on the porch which I was able to assemble in the garage so I could get things up off the floor.
Several hours later, here it is to the right of the door:
The other, from the porch, faces it on the left.
There used to be a room inside the garage. The closet bifold doors are leaning against one of its old walls.
Without Mom to decide what to get rid of, I had to keep--and move--everything. Well, except for the dead bird I found in the corner and other bits of trash and garbage. Not a fun job--especially in 30 degree heat. (That may not seem warm to some of you, but remember we wear t-shirts when its 6 degrees and break out the shorts when it's ten!)
And so, the porch:
Those are a couple of dollhouses in a large wheeled laundry hamper. All will be donated.
And now, for a nice before and after, of the garage:
There's still a lot of work ahead. Just looking at these pictures makes me itchy to get over there!
This is my second kick at this particular can: you can check out here we started this Spring, here.
For the last eight weeks, my Mom and I have been working on the small powder room on her main floor. She had started before Christmas with ripping down old wallpaper and having new vinyl tile floors installed. I was working on a design plan and starting to order a few things when I decided to take this project and do it as a One Room Challenge.
In many ways, I wish I hadn't taken this on. The pace of the challenge eats up every spare minute. It adds stress to an already stressful situation. But heavens, what if we had not done this room as a one room challenge? I'd have quit somewhere around week four or five. And then Mom would not now have this:
Here's where we began in earnest:
The floor, sink, faucet, toilet and shelf are all that remain.
We aren't quite done.
We still have to finish the top edge of the tile with some wood trim, painted to match the bottom. Like so:
It will finish the room beautifully.
When we started the project, you couldn't get into the bathroom on the sink side. We'd put an old Billy bookcase in the doorway--it just fit--in order to create a "closet" for much needed storage. However, we needed more room while we were working and removed it somewhere around week three or four. Both of us loved it instantly.
The light fixture was my Mother's day gift to my Mom. Is that weird?
We discovered two things when we installed the light fixture two days ago. 1) The hole was a bit too big for this fixture, and 2) it was not centered over the sink. The solution to both of these problems wasn't something we felt we could do in two days!
Here is that wall from the other angle.
You can see the two pieces of art we chose from Minted.
Mom calls this one Venice: (That may actually be its official name.)
We bought this framed. I added the thin line of gold to the outer edge.
This one is The Long Road. (Officially.)
It's beside the Roman shade on the wall, opposite the fixtures:
It was really hard to get a good shot of this. Mom made it. She says the Waverly fabric is another "work of art." I totally agree.
I love that we hung it almost at the ceiling: we can see more of that fabric!
The mirror was a last minute find from Value Village. I could not resist it, even though installing it presented a huge challenge. It has so much character!
The towel rack was another value village score for $2.99! Bonus: it was already bronze--and acrylic! So old it's new again!
So, here are a few more pretty shots before I take a really long nap.
And that's a wrap.
Thank you to everyone who cheered me on these past six weeks. I really appreciate it. The featured designers inspired me each and every week to keep going and remain true to my vision. It was wonderful knowing that even the professionals experience setbacks and hiccups. You really should check out their works here.
And one of the reasons the One Room Challenge is so worth doing is the company of many, many others, just like me, doing the same impossible things at all levels of complexity and budget. Check them out here, too. I am going to try and get to them all.
And most of all, thanks to Linda for hosting this incredible event.
I had really thought this time would be different.
Because we started a couple of weeks ahead of the "official" start of the ORC, I thought that the powder room project would be done by now. The last thing I expected is to be scrambling to finish on time.
The day ORC 5: What, Already? was posted, I jumped into my car after work and drove quickly to my Mom's. We ran to a moulding store to see if they had anything to top our tile. It was fifteen minutes before close, though, so we didn't exactly have time to browse. We left empty handed.
In a frantic effort to keep things moving along, I decided to start painting the upper wall.
I didn't stop to check the condition of the walls. In a couple of spots, I thought, hmm, I should sand this down. But I didn't stop to sand. I just kept going. I was using Marquee, a paint which promises one coat coverage, so I knew that when I was done, I would be done.
I wanted to be done.
So I kept going...and ran out of paint at about 9:20pm. I decided I would buy another can in the morning and finish up then.
The next day, I walked into the bathroom with my fresh can already open and ready to pour,
--and died.
The walls were awful. Horrible. The paint had flashed all over our patches--and there were patches everywhere. The little dribs and drabs I hadn't bothered to sand were glinting. Mocking me.
I have never had a project with so many setbacks. Not even the dressing room was this bad. It's a small project, really. Install tile, a window treatment, and paint. Put up a few pictures, a towel bar, mirror, and a light fixture. How can that possibly take eight weeks?
I had thought the project well in hand when I decided to make this an ORC project. I'd just blog what we did as we went along. But, I lost a week because of work, and then the drywall repair took a while and then the cutting of the trim and baseboards turned out to be horribly complicated and the fetching of the artwork cost us a day (which was a total of 25% of our available working time that week) and so on and so on.
And then, I took a short cut which cost us even more time.
I took another run to home depot and bought the proper grit of sandpaper to sand down our patches. I repatched in some places. And then we primed, as we should have done all along.
I am not sure I will ever do an ORC again. The deadline takes what is normally a fun and exciting thing to do and turns it into a gruelling, and exhausting chore. There are upsides, too, though, so we'll see.
No wait, that water all over me is from using the tile saw. I said to Mom, "I'm pretty sure professionals don't get soaked."
Sorry, should have got pic. Here's one of my tile all laid out in the hallway, instead.
But whatever. It was Wednesday. It was hot. It was OK until it got dark and the wind picked up--but even then I really didn't care. The wet saw and I were buddies. I was shaving the tile. It was good.
Except the white I chose--and took two days to paint--is the wrong white. At least my gut says it is.
To be fair, we also re-trimmed out the window in those two days.
We put in a piece of wood. Then we took it out,. Then we put it back in again. This is how we renovate.
But, ugh. I did not expect to take two of my three available days to work over at my Mom's this week to paint half the wall. (And the two doors, both sides, and trim. But still.)
So, may repaint. May change the lightbulb and that just might be OK. We will see.
Light fixture in the proper finish arrived. Yay. Much more yellow than I expected. Boo. Forgot to get a pic, though.
Our fabric has been here for weeks. Finally looked it today. Not enough for drapes. I cannot believe it. I just can't. We will have to do a roman shade instead. Outside mount. Never done that before--but I have made a roman shade and those babies take time. And attention to detail.
So.
But you know what?
It's all good.
An entire city to the north of us was evacuated Tuesday because of wildfires. Seventy thousand people got in their cars and headed....somewhere else.
All I'm doing is decorating a powder room. Not threatened by wildfire.
It's more than good. It's freaking fantastic.
Please check out the main contenders and their progress here.
And check out my fellow cohorts and our progress here.
Will we be ready for the Big Reveal next week?
Honestly, I've no idea.
What we need to do (I have four days available.):
(eta) Grout! I forgot to mention I need to grout! (Yes, I am that tired.)
(eta) Trim. OMG. The trim we bought for the top of the tile is just not going to work. I don't know what we were thinking. Probably nothing. I do remember Mom wasn't feeling well that day.
*I am doing an on-line challenge to transform my Mother's powder room from meh to totally glam in just five weeks. There are a lot of us this year--about 250!. We all link up on Thursdays to share our progress, here. On Wednesday, Linda, at Calling It Home, the creator of the challenge hosts her own hand picked designers and decorators as they report on their progress. I love reading all about their adventures.
I was able to spend three days at my Mom's this week. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped--but that's the nature of the Challenge. It's quite the roller coaster of accomplishments and setbacks.
Up:
I returned the light fixture to Lowe's...
It was the wrong finish
They shipped the replacement Wednesday....
Up:
Our art from Minted arrived!
Down:
Mom had to go to customs at the airport to pick it up...
and then out to the FedEx office there, too.
(That ate up most of one of our three days.)
Up:
All the trim for the lower half of the room is cut...
and installed....
even the tricksy bits.....
Down:
But we still need a piece of moulding to trim out the window properly....
Up:
We removed the bookcase that was hiding behind this door....
The top part is missing the back. I had planned to fix that.
Down:
and we lost a fair bit of storage...
Up:
but we gained so much room! and light! and air!
Up:
I started painting....
Down:
but I absolutely could not finish....
Any advice on what we can do about that nasty black pipe? The sink cannot be moved.
Staytunedfolks.....
Down:
So much work to do....
So little time.....
Up:
But I am optimistic we can make deadline.
(and maybe delusional.....)
Mom and I started this project a couple of weeks ahead of the One Room Challenge. I am so glad we did--because even with a head start--we're falling behind--and if I wasn't so tired I'd be in a flat out panic.
Here's where we're going:
We've had our challenges.
1. The tile.
At first we selected all grey toned tile. Then, when the fabric arrived, we quickly realised we needed creamy tones instead. We had to go to two different Home Depots to get it. But that was easy.
2. The trim.
Now that we had enough tile to go all the way around the room, we needed to find moulding to trim it out.
On the hunt, I discovered that my Mom and I make decisions very differently. I like to look at every last little thing to see what's out there and to make sure I choose the best of what's available. My Mom, on the other hand, looks only long enough to find something that will do.
We bought the trim doing it her way. It is solid oak.
This is the bottom half of the trim. I'm cutting out a notch to make it fit behind the door casing.
3. The Baseboards.
We need baseboards. I took a very quick run down to Home Depot and came back with sixteen feet for a room which needs fourteen. That's cutting it a bit close, I'd say! But it is sold by the eight foot length--so if we screw up, I'll have to buy eight more feet!
4. The Light Fixture.
I ordered it last week from Lowe's just to see what it would look like in person. It arrived yesterday! I was thrilled! But wouldn't you know it--it is the wrong finish, even though the packing invoice accurately reflects what I thought I was purchasing.
Ugh. Fingers crossed the new one comes just as quickly!
5. The Wallpaper
A paintable vinyl from Martha Stewart that mimics beadboard has turned out to be exceedingly fragile. As we've been struggling to get the trim into that room and on the walls we keep dinging it and it is gouging, badly. It is a nightmare. Mom's already replaced one section. I'm thinking she may want to redo the whole room.
The original "backsplash" tile came down easily enough. I made an absolute mess of the wall, but it wasn't anything a little mudding couldn't fix. Mom had to fix a hole left by a plumber underneath the sink, so it was no biggie. (She'd started, but hadn't quite finished when I took my little crowbar to the wall.)
But the ceiling was not properly finished.
Not only did they not bother to enclose the HVAC, but because they decided to install a drop ceiling, they did not bother to tape and mud any of their joints. Those black lines are actually gaps and they go all around the room and get worse above the door.
There were huge gaps where the ceiling met the walls, so my Mom used sticky mesh dry wall tape to mend it. I suppose it's all right--and a good choice in a situation like this...but it took a lot--and I mean a LOT of mud and spackle to get it covered up. And of course, a lot of sanding which my Mom should not have done. (Her lungs are in bad shape.)
Finally, the walls were ready.
Mom puts the wall paper up.
She measured it and cut it in a spare room, then pasted the back and then carried the sheet into the bathroom and installed it.
But she cannot do any more mudding and sanding and the top half of the walls are a disaster. So, it takes me two days to smooth things out. Mom buys a better mask and sands some more.
6. The Floor and the Baseboards
I enlist my husband's help. In trying to install the second baseboard, we discover that there is a high spot on the floor. It is so high, in fact, that when balanced on the high spot, the baseboard is a good quarter inch off the floor at each end.
My Mother is absolutely livid. First, at the bozos who built her addition twenty-five years ago--and now at the men who installed her brand new vinyl tile floor just before Christmas.
"Did you tell them to level the floor?" I ask.
"But, they're professionals." She says.
(There is also a spot where there was no floor at all and they ignored it and tiled right over it. Normally, it would never be noticed, but I'm in there installing millwork and need to step in that spot from time to time.)
So, my husband, who is recovering from a bout of vertigo which lasted these past three months is on the floor trying to sand down the baseboard. And we start gouging up the wallpaper.
Those green bits of tape on the wall are where we found some studs. Hooray for studs. We don't take them for granted at my Mom's.
It is as awkward as it seems.
7. The Trim.
Oh, I can't even. Suffice it to say, in the seven hours I was at my Mom's yesterday, I cut exactly three pieces of the seven we need to trim out the bottom of the tile. And I hadn't even got to the tricksy angles yet!
Tricksy angles. The tape is there to protect the wallpaper. There is a piece missing as it needed to be replaced. We should have put the baseboards in first, but Mom insisted that wall paper goes in first. That is the spot, too, where there is no subfloor. The vinyl is just sort of floating in mid-air.
This is my fancy wancy set up for cutting notches and curves and whatnot in the trim.
The moulding is clamped to a board which is on top of a plastic drawer unit (for height) and then the board is weighted down by two very heavy books--one on Raphael's paintings, in fact. He played a role in the last ORC!
Lord love a duck.
Good news:
1. We have a mirror.
2. I found a substitute for rub n' buff. Have not tried it yet. Cross your fingers.
3. We have ordered our art from Minted. It is supposed to ship--to ship--April 29th. Across a border.
4. We have a frame from Ikea for one of the pieces. (We wanted another piece of art from them...but...wait for it...they didn't know if they had it or not! The helpful fellow in the yellow shirt said it "might" be in the display area upstairs, in one of the living rooms. I was "welcome" to go have a look. Good grief. It was a Saturday. No. Just no.)
I need more time. (And maybe a valium.)
I am not the only one stressed out. There are my fellow linking participants--more than 200 of them! And then there are the featured designers: just stress with a bigger budget.
If you care to read about the previous weeks, here they are:
