Fall 2021 ORC – Week 3 – Finding Time and Spending Money

Finding Time is an Issue

Yep. I am struggling with finding time to accomplish anything with these two little nuggets. Even with help, my day job requires my time and attention. So, I’m finding myself running way slower than I usually do. Plus, have I even MENTIONED the shipping delays on all of the things? All. Of. The. Things.

This week I did actually get through some demo work. Let’s take a look back at where I’ve been this week.

Week 1 & 2 | Week 3

I DID Find Time to Rip Out the Baseboard Heater Cover

I thought this would be pretty quick, but it was actually kind of a pain in the butt. After running a utility knife to separate the caulk from the wall and the heating element cover, I thought maybe it would just lift up and off. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

First, I had to remove the front portions and then found several large nails that held it to the wall. Even once I removed all of that I still found it was stuck somehow. Turns out, there were even more nails hiding behind the actual heating element! I have no idea how they installed this. I probably should have looked it up quite a bit more than I did. Oh well. Here we are.

I ended up actually shearing those nails off with a hammer and a pry bar. It was loud, it was ugly, but it got the job done. From there, I had the worst time trying to remove the adjustable hangers from the cover and heating elements themselves. Between pry bars, hammers and flathead screwdrivers, somehow I got this thing off.

It was so nasty under there! I found cat treats, dog and cat hair, and more. Ha.

While I was completely winging this demo, I actually discovered after the fact that I removed the cover semi-correctly. That is my one win for the week! The rest of the week turned out to be full of delays, disappointment and discovery (of scope creep)!

First Up – Discovery

If you were with me over on Instagram, you saw me discover that the HVAC “Intake Vent” actually housed a big old drywall cutout in the ceiling! My theory is that our upstairs shower was leaking at the P-Trap, which they then accessed through the ceiling below to repair. Instead of patching their drywall, though, they just left it open and covered it up to make it appear as if it were an AC intake vent. We are finding these things all over our new house – by now we just laugh. There is just so much potential!

So that left me with another project to add to the list – drywall patching. It will be a new adventure for me!

Finding Time for Spending Money

Alright, so this last week I have spent browsing for the perfect additions to this One Room Challenge. You saw the table in last week’s post and you may have caught the rug I ordered on IG. Let’s just go through the list starting from the ground up:

Ruggable Sima Burgundy Rug

I love the warm, rich colors this rug will bring into that space. I plan to go with a very light neutral color scheme on the walls, so this will pull in some color. More color is something I started experimenting with when I created my home office/guest room back in Texas! Branching out and evolving in your personal style is a real thing and it’s awesome.

Ornamental Millwork Baseboard and Crown Moulding

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The quality of their products is incredible and the options that they have out there far exceed what I can usually find in a box store. You can find their products online usually at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or where I found them – Wayfair! I went with the same Victorian-styled baseboard and crown moulding I used in my home office because I felt it fit into the traditional dining room feel I am going for.

Victorian Floor Registers

Prior to moving into our new house I actually didn’t even know what these were. I had them actually suggested to me while I was checking out on Wayfair’s site. Our current ones are just as old and gross as our baseboard heat covers, so I am upping their game.

The Delays and Disappointment of My Chandelier

Here’s where my disappointment appears. On one hand, I found the perfect chandelier (below). On the other…. it will not even SHIP until November 30th. Which means I will completely miss the deadline of this One Room Challenge.

I get pretty obsessive when scrolling for things I am choosing for my rooms. So, when after weeks of sorting through thousands of chandeliers offered through dozens of websites, when this one called out to me, I knew it was meant to be.

Being a mother in general, you learn to relax about certain things. Now that I’m a mom x 3, one of the main things I have been working on is being more flexible with myself. Not being so hard on myself when I can’t make something happen the way I want it to. While it applies to kids and every day situations, it also applies to these room transformations! I would love nothing more than to make the deadline with a spectacular total room transformation. This time, though, it’s just not happening. I’ll still work towards the end game, but if my game takes a bit longer than the eight weeks, I’m cool with it. It will be worth it in the end!

Next Up

The next few things I will be working on this week include:

1. Removing remaining baseboards.
2. Searching for the perfect sideboard (I have a great plan for this if I can pull it off)
3. Learning how to patch drywall
4. Choosing paint colors

Will I get all of this done? Probably not. Finding time to get just one or two done, though, will be a win. The struggle is real.

In the meantime, hop on over to the One Room Challenge blog and see all of the beautiful people who will have the most inspirational reveals coming up! I know they are hard at work transforming their houses into homes.