Catch up:

8 weeks; 3 rooms. 4 weeks down, and all of our to-do lists are still bulging (see very end of post if you want the visual). Bring it on!

Pre Challenge Kickoff: First Timer & Kids’ Rooms Inspo Post

Week 1: Before Pics, Floorplans & Challenges: Aemelia’s Room (3 yr old); Henry’s Room (18 mo old); The Kitchen (92 yrs old)

Week 2: General Update on Henry’s Room Panelling & Paint Dilemmas

Week 3: Kitchen Floor Gets Some Heat & Stone!

I’ll be honest – writing these posts each week has to be one of the most challenging aspects of this whole challenge. And this last week, everything suddenly became rather overwhelming. That looming deadline of June 25th which seemed so far off a mere 4 weeks ago suddenly seemed all too close, and I feel like we haven’t got anywhere with the rooms in the last week. But then, I only had one day solo at the house since the last post and we only had one day there together, and all we managed to complete was finishing up Henry’s paneling and hidden plumbing door. That’s it!! But in the background, I’ve spent 3 days doing a hand rendering for a major designer, pulling together a quick rendering for Aemelia’s room to at least feel like I was seeing SOME progress and, in reality, got a lot of ordering and organizing done to hopefully get us through those last few weeks.

I think the problem is that we’re really not just doing 3 rooms – we’re balancing a whole house makeover and juggling the timelines that coincide with the One Room Challenge. For example, we’ve toyed with whether we wanted to get the hardwoods refinished and only last week did we decide that – yes, we do. So in order to get the hardwoods completed, we also needed to clear the parlour of all the storage that had accumulated in it, but that was a full day’s work which stole time away from the ‘real’ three rooms we’re completing for the challenge. In the kitchen, we reached a counter-top conundrum which I outlaid last week, but we need to make a decision, and ultimately if we’d be able to get them done by the end of June (maybe, but it’ll be tight) and so on and so forth. The lists just keep on coming and I’m having an AHHHHHH week mentally where it all became a bit much. And I needed a breather.

So here are the few quick updates on Henry’s paneling completion and then I want to talk about something totally different – ambition.

Aemelia's Alcove Rendering

The Parlour - Before Clean Out

The Parlour - After Clean Out!

Making Kitchen Decisions

HENRY’S ROOM “TUDOR” PANELLING & HIDDEN DOOR

It took us a whopping 6 hours to complete this tiny little door – but we managed it! This little hole is actually a plumbing access in Henry’s room to the bathroom behind, which is the guest room en-suite. Previously it looked like a cat door feature with it’s own trim and panel, like the other 3 main doors in the room – and it seemed wholly unnecessary. So we wanted to hide it more and while adding the paneling, used the measurements of the hole opening to guide our trim decisions. The result is now a “hidden” door that 100% blends into the paneling (or it will once it’s painted). It was a task that we thought would be fairly straight forward, but as we didn’t have a table saw to ensure straight cuts, our plywood was a bit askew, and we left the hole until last, which meant we were now lining up 3 sets of trim either side of the opening – no easy feat. Add to that, as we were screwing the platform (for the hinges) into the non-existent sub-floor, we also realised the hole was not plumb front to back either. The joys of old houses! So we’ve got the door about 95% of the way there and need to add two magnetic latches which will help fix the remaining gap – but otherwise we’re quite pleased with how it came out! Now to decide whether we add a little wooden knob handle… ?!

Henry's Room "Before"

Paneling Door Complete - Raw Stage

Hidden Door Put On Hinges

Door Test-Painted

Secondly, I filled the baseboard / cap gap that we had. As we were installing the initial 1x3 horizontal pieces, we learned that the floors were un-level by about 1.5” in certain places on two walls (side walls). This meant that the new base cap we were installing had to sit that same amount above the old 1” baseboard, and we needed to fill the gap somehow. Devising a double set of thin plywood pieces ripped down with a table saw, we matched the depth of the old original baseboard (a true 1”, not nominal measurement) with a 1/4 “ piece followed by the ¾” plywood ripped to the necessary height as it changed around the room. Not the fanciest of solutions, but it added a structural support which I then glued in with Liquid Nails and covered in wood putty to make it match the rest of the baseboard. Then after the wood putty dried, I sanded every seam and connection to ensure a smooth surface for priming & painting. It all sounds simple, but it was painstakingly tedious getting the right heights and involved lots of gluing and sanding to complete.

Backer piece in gap for depth

Gap filled with plywood

Gap completed & wood putty applied

Putty complete around room

Third, I caulked. I’d love to say this was super quick. But a) I royally suck at caulking, b) I only had 3 different types of caulk to use up which wasn’t ideal and one was strangely a bit melty?? and c) the trim pattern means that there were 12 seams to cover on EVERY SINGLE SQUARE. Aghhhhhhh! 4 hours later… I had finished caulking. Ugh. I’d love to offer tips here but even with a wet paper towel, baby wipes and my finger, it was all still a goopy mess.

And finally, the simplest and fastest addition was adding the 11/16” bullnose ledge again with a single layer of Liquid Nails to help me hold it on (as I was solo completing this part) and then nailed into the paneling. I really wanted a completely round profile for this, and somehow in our enormous tool set, we still have yet to acquire a router to have made it ourselves. So I had to custom order this piece from our local lumber yard, which technically came from another sister lumber yard about 45 miles away who had the profile in stock. It is the most basic round ledge, but compared to adding a basic 1x2” flat ledge, it just adds a little bit of je ne sais quoi and British style. While Henry is still a baby we will obviously fasten pictures and décor securely to the wall, but as he grows up it will be nice to use it as a picture ledge. (Couple pictures above of the bullnose installed)

So there we have the real updates. To do list update is at the bottom for those interested. And if you want a little philosophical thought for the day carry on reading…!

AMBITION

The other piece I wanted to write about was ambition. Throughout the initial stages of this process, I have had a lot of people say ‘you are completely nuts’, ‘completing 3 rooms in 8 weeks is insane’ ‘you are so ambitious’. So let’s start with the first two, yes I am probably a tad crazy, and yes 3 rooms in 8 weeks is a lot but just requires good project management, time and dedication to the work. I’ve done it before for a job, I knew I could do it again. But the last one always gets me… throughout my life and particularly once I started my real career (advertising), I’ve been told usually in a pretty negative way, that I’m “overly ambitious”. I always wonder in my liberal feminist mind if these people would ever have said that to a man? I highly doubt it. Ambition is one of those words where the root meaning is still applicable – coming from the Latin “ambire” to go around, it meant in those days literally the desire for honour or power. Today it takes on the connotation of also setting out to achieve something difficult, but generally the notion and embodiment of the word is that the goal is ultimately probably unachievable, often used in a negative description with sarcasm or diminutives. I’m not sure why it takes on such a pessimistic tone etymologically – but yet I haven’t heard it used in a positive light very often. That said, I still refuse to ever apologise for this quality of mine. I’ve taken every single one of those nasty mentions of my ambition and channeled it into proving there is no such thing. My “ambition” is passion, the pursuit of knowledge, a never-ending drive to achieve something improbable, and really, dedication to getting things done. After all, if you reach for the stars, then all you get is the stars. But if you reach for the heavens, then the stars come with it. (Mary Poppins) So if I fail, I still get stars. And I’m good with that. Food for thought: the founder of FedEx was told his undergraduate idea for the company was ‘infeasible’, Einstein failed high school maths, and Walt Disney was fired for lacking creativity. Some of the most successful people out there are “failures” but they don’t lose sight of their ambitions, continue to pursue the goal and never give up. There’s a whole other cliché philosophy about being ok with failure too which is extremely important when you are an overly ambitious person… with failure comes re-assessment, re-planning, analytics, and emotional adjustment. You have to know when things aren’t going well and you can pivot into another method, be adaptable and create a completely different overly ambitious plan instead. But I see no reason to ever NOT be ambitious, not to push yourself beyond those comfortable boundaries and drive toward something incredible. I don’t ever want to be predicable, or mundane, or blend in to what everyone else is doing. Will I get 3 rooms completed in time? Maybe, maybe not. But I will sure as hell try. And if I fail, I’ll be back in July with another ridiculously over ambitious plan anyway for the next set of rooms. And so to that end – I say be ambitious. Be overly ambitious. Go for it. And join me, we can create a club. #endrant

Love & Cuddles,

Lex

THE TO DO LIST VISUAL… LESS RED = PROGRESS!