From the Weekend: Cleaning

Started deep cleaning the kitchen. I kept saying to myself: this is just like The Cure. I can take the week. And then I'd remember--it IS The Cure.

(I've always done the "Whole House in Eight Weeks" version. This "All One Room in 22 Days" version feels very strange to me.)

I am not rushing it.

Style Cure 2014: Day 12 (Already?)

I am so tired from all the early morning and late nights of the ORC for the reveal this week, I can barely see straight.


However, The 2014 Fall Style Cure waits for no woman to catch up on her sleep. It marches ever forward.

Days 1-4 here.

Day 5: Focus on a floor plan.

I love floor plans and I would do this if it was possible to change anything. But it isn't, so it's kind of a waste of time, at the moment.

Day 6: Increase Colour Confidence in five minutes.

Been there, done that.

Day 7: Do a clean sweep and pick up paint chips.

I have paint chips. In fact, I've even decided on the colour I think I want to paint the walls. It's Ralph Lauren's Elgin Gray (RL 4343). I've been waiting for testers to show up at The Home Depot so I can try it out before I commit.

As for cleaning, I have the day off on Sunday. I think a thorough scrub is an excellent idea.

Day 8: What's your room missing?

Actually, my room is missing something that makes those fabulous cabinets I painted this summer look like they belong in the room. The fabric shades I've been meaning to sew would do just that.

Day 9: Dig in and Do research.

I have instructions for how to sew a roman shade in a book I've had, like, forever. I just need to read through and make a list of supplies I need.

Day 10: Make a list, Set a budget.

Here we are.

1. Paint.
2. Make Roman shades.
3. Possibly re-paint the chairs. That cobalt blue just isn't working anymore. The only thing holding me back is that they need thorough sanding--(best done out of the house) and we are hitting negative double digits next week. So. I do have the same chairs in black spread throughout the house. Perhaps the best thing to do is just drag those into the kitchen for now. That table cloth also needs to go.

Budget: $100.00

Day 11: Choose a date for a holiday get-together.

I want to have some of my daughter's friends over for a cookie bake off. December 12th might work.

Day 12: Shop and Gather Supplies.

Well, OK. Not for a few days yet, I think. I'd still prefer to test the paint colour I chose. But I can't wait forever. As for those shades, I could, possibly, start that. And do you think it is too soon after the ORC to ask my husband to sand those dratted chairs for me?

ORC Finale: It's Unbelievable.

I can't even....

I don't know what....

It's....

Where to start?

Before.

Here is where we were six tiny weeks ago:

And, Wednesday at three o'clock, we had this.

It's been five weeks in the making. The first three went very slowly and then things ramped up until these last two when with the incredible help from my husband and my Mom, we got most of the work done, some of it literally last minute. Here are the links if you care to go back and read all about it.

Week 1: The Befores, the Vision and the Punch List
Weeks 2 &; 3: Catching Up
Week 4: Barely Hanging On
Week 5: Tickety Boo

I kept a diary each day this last week, here on the blog.
Days 5.1 and 5.2: The Drapery Saga
Day 5.3: More Paint
Day 5.4: What I Did with my Free Hour
Day 5.5: Stylin' Shopping
Day 5.6: Photo Day Eve
Day 5.7: Photo Day

I will also be doing some follow up posts and I will link those too.

I am so grateful to Linda of Calling It Home for hosting this challenge--and especially to the professional participants as well. I read each of their posts every single week and they were so inspiring. Here's a link to their finales.

This project started out as an opportunity for me to finish up a few projects and then decorate. As the weeks progressed, I re-discovered all sorts of things I'd been planning to do or had thought about doing in this room for a long, long time. Finally, they're done.

First, the couch. When we started this, I had thought I wanted a navy slipcover.

Instead, we went with what I had on hand: an old off white one I'd ripped apart to custom fit my couch many years ago and abandoned.

Hooray for Mom finishing the job!

She also sewed up this cute zebra pillow cover for me on photo day eve.

I'd thought I'd recover our ottoman: but I couldn't find any fabric I liked. As well, I started lusting for something light and airy. The ottoman started to feel like a big black, light sucking hole. I saw lots of Vittsjo hacks--and the second my local Ikea got some in stock, I ran down and picked one up that very day. My husband created the wood tops. I stained them.

It comes in two parts. We finished the square bit and put it to use as an end table.

Mom also sewed up a new cover from some fabric I'd purchased some time ago for the Poang chair.

Isn't that great?

We didn't do anything to the old platform rocker on the other side of the faux fireplace: but I did buy a great big Nate Berkus pouf from Target. What a find.

The TV corner started out as one of those "finishing up" projects. I just needed to stain the top shelf.

So much better now.

Not  bad match, if I do say so myself.

That duck is named Ping. He's a member of the family.

The window wall also changed.

 Before: drop cloths on clips.

After:

I took this photo late at night as I'd forgotten during my photo session.

I'll be the first to admit a wall of drapery is rather underwhelming. And it certainly doesn't mirror the effort involved by even a tenth. We completed the moulding and I sewed up a pair of Euro pleated drapes from four old tab top Ritva curtains. Both projects were long outstanding ones--and I am very happy to be done.

Even though the change to the couch was dramatic, I think the faux fireplace wall could take the win for "most improved."

Before:

Now:

 A little different.

It was all very last minute, painting the backs of the bookcases, making the new thicker shelf for the top and painting it. I had a blast styling the shelves with all the pretty things.

left

right

I finished painting inside the fire area black mere hours before I took the photos.

It's a piece of garden statuary and I paid full price and I don't care. Mr. Monk is the perfect tchotchke for us.

And so there we have it.

Why yes, that is a cover on our slipcover. And no, I didn't pay for that model, though I totally would have, she's so coordinated!

Now, please go check on what all the other linking participants have done. I am looking forward to it, myself.

Linking to: Between Naps on the Porch.

ORC Diary: Photo Day.

Day 5.7
Wednesday.

I get up early and get a coat of paint on the wood tops for the Billy bookcases and touch up the black in the interior of the fireplace.

I go to a physiotherapy appointment--I get a diagnosis. Rotator cuff tendinitis. Among other things, they put little electrode thingies on it with an ice pack and zap me, on and off, for about 20 minutes. It is very peaceful. I come home feeling a million times better.

Mom has waxed the end table for me and washed half my floor. Lots and lots of paint drops had made the going slow.

I plant the cacti.

Then, I begin to empty the living room. My son is feeling run down, so he's home from school today, so I ask him to help.

Mom starts hemming the curtains. I should have got a picture. We decided to use hemming tape and we set the ironing board up right under the drapes still on the rod. She puts the ironing board close to the floor, sits on a stool and hems up the first one lickety split.

But when we go to start the second one--I actually cry when we discover the dog has marked it for his own. It is yellow. And dried.

Mom is such a trooper, she washed them out and just got on with the job. She was amazing.

Then, she puts the slip cover on the couch and steams out a few wrinkles.

I mop the floor and we take a minute while it dries.
Then, the minute over, we find some towels and using our feet, slide them over the floor to dry it.

Mom has to leave in less than half an hour.

Mom and I lay the rug. We get it positioned--and she has to go.

I call my son and he helps me put the chairs and tables back into the room.

And then, with two hours of daylight left, I take my photos.

People, it is amazing. You will not believe it.

This is a low light plant called Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, or the ZZ plant.

ORC Diary: Photo Day Eve.

Day 5.6
Tuesday

(I think my numbering is off.)

Three things.

1) I am so excited. Today, the living room goes from looking like a bag lady stayed the night to an actual bona fide living room. The carpet goes down, and the slipcover goes on today, too. For the first time in six weeks, I'll get a feel for the finished room. I get to play with all the things I bought yesterday, too.

2) My house--my whole house is an utter disaster. Other ORC folks have mentioned it, too, so I know I'm not alone. But it's so bad, I am almost at the point where I want to tackle the mess more than set up the living room. I'm thinking that over the next to days, surely I will be able to do both?

3) This is hard to express. I have a hard time with tchotchkes. Ever since The Nester's accessory challenge in the summer of 2013, I've felt somewhat virtuous living in a pared down, minimal environment. But I have missed having pretty things. So, I have bought a few and I've tried to keep it all to things which relate to us in some way.

Busy, busy day.

**note: I wrote this this morning and then forgot to post!

The house is still a disaster, I've made 90% of my styling decisions, but I still have a project for my husband to do (and then I need to paint it), my mom is sewinga last minute pillow cover, and I have yet another painting job and the drapes yet to hem. Oh and a run to Target!

It is going to be a busy, busy night.

For obvious reasons, there won't be a diary post tomorrow.

ORC Diary: Stylin' Shopping

Day 5.5
Monday

I have the day off, though I was scheduled to work, because my right arm is giving me grief.

I start the day with a little priming and staining.

At about two o'clock, I leave with a small list in hand: I am on the hunt for a lamp, a shade, pillows, a throw, a tray, picture frames, you know, all the things that give the room that well pulled together look.

Except nothing is pulled together. I have two kinds of wood: bleached grey and cognac. For colours, I have two shades of barely there blue-green and black and white. For metallics--should I gogold--or silver? I can glam things up--or go organic. Target has a lampshade with leaves picked out in gold--organic and glam!

I decide: I am not making any decisions in the store. I will buy both kinds of wood, all the colours, faux animal fur of every kind--I even bought some plain flannel sheets thinking they'd make a cool blanket. I bought shiny things and rough pottery things and tall things and short things.... I went completely nuts and turned off my inner no.

I got home at nine thirty. Seven and a half hours of shopping. I spent a fortune--and you can bet more than half of this is going back. But it will be fun to play!

ORC Diary: What I Did with My Free Hour.

Day 5.4

Sunday

The clocks went back to normal time last night. For most folks, that's another blessed hour of sleep. For those of us in the ORC, it is another blessed hour for work.

Guess what I did?

Boo rah.

In other news, I picked up the last of the wood I need for the final two projects.

At this rate, I'll be squeaking over the finish line.....