One Room Challenge – Green Kitchen Glamazon – Week Four

I’m gonna be straight with you—I’m exhausted!!! 😵 Frankly, I’m ready to fall asleep at this here keyboard rightabouttanow. When this Green Kitchen Glamazon is complete, I’ll be cooking for an entire week. Nothing else. If you need me, that’s where you’ll find me. Period.

When the One Room Challenge kicked off, I was feeling pretty good about the timeline. All of sudden, it’s week four, there’s only two weeks left and I’ve got quite the list of unfinished line items. I’d say this exuberant and enthusiastic happy-reno-train started to sputter off after about 75 days deep into renovation. #notbad

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA

• Grout backsplash
• Exterior trim work
• Poly and install four floating shelves
• Install fridge, range and hood
• Exterior stucco scraping, priming and painting (two sections)
• Install cabinet hardware
• Install light fixtures, wall plates and outlet covers
• Paint interior and exterior trim
• Paint interior walls
• Third and final poly coat on hardwoods
• Finishing Touches

Nottabigdeal, right? JK LOL 😫 Good lawd, give me strength. Thank the sweet renovation angels that my contractor was able to install the penny round backsplash. ‘Cause as of yesterday, those darned cabinet doors are finito!!! Holy balls am I pumped to work on NEW projects over the next two weeks. I seek that surge of DIY adrenaline. I miss it dearly.

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THE WEEK’S SMALL VICTORIES

The open poplar shelving is well on its way. Routered, ripped and sanded, my stepdad went full-on carpentertist (that’s carpenter scientist for those watching at home), creating a contraption so fierce it bored three, snugly-fit 3/4″ auger holes specially designed to fit these fabulous floating shelf brackets I found on Etsy. He’s on the fence about whether it’s going to work. I’m just ready to lube those steel tubes with some WD-40 and throw those tall drinks of water back with a mallet, ya dig? A little bit of poly and they’re ready ta go.

Speaking of augers …

The penny round tile backsplash is 87% complete. The small cuts were getting so tiny, I handed over some tweezers to help out the job. The stove side got beautifully installed on Monday. I opted for a clean finish versus a transitional/organic burst with gold bits. Not only did round pennies make the design more complicated than a geometric tile, that brass bar just speaks to me. Still might add some gold bits though … always gold bits. ✨

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IT ALWAYS TAKES LONGER

No matter how well you plan something, there’s bound to be a hiccup. It’s taken a lot longer to complete a few recent tasks—interior molding and trim work, vent installation, hardware install, etc.—for a multitude of reasons. Whether an item’s unexpectedly not in stock, hasn’t yet arrived, backordered, tradesmen scheduling conflicts or whathaveyou, just know that when you allot a week for something, it might take three. Or three days work could mean over one week.

ADVICE FOR YOU (AND MY PAST + FUTURE SELF)

When you renovate, you want to get the biggest bang for your buck. These major home renovations ain’t cheap, so having a solid plan is how to get yourself in the game and come out on top.

Print out 3D kitchen renderings prior to installation of the base cabinets. Make a list of where every appliance (even hidden things like garbage disposals), sconce, switch, outlet, open shelf spacing goes so there’s no question. Update accordingly.

Don’t leave it up to chance. Buy a dry erase markers and a whiteboard. Because visuals help time crunches. Also, design one that doesn’t look so 😒 ew.

Write out a detailed task list and rough renovation calendar for every tradesman. This will help keep small oversights from falling by the wayside. For example, whether this-spot-where-the-drywall-met-the-ceiling needed to be taped. If there’s a checkbox next to it, much harder to forget.

When you’re short on space, the home becomes the studio. My home is typically in tip-top shape. When in disarray and left disturbed for this length of time, it can be energetically exhausting. Enjoy the process the best you can and remember it’s short-term (and well worth it!!!).

Over the next two weeks, you’ll be seeing a lot of that frenetic renovation energy kick back in. Also, I wholeheartedly plan on kicking these guys out and restoring my home’s serenity as soon as humanly possible. In the most loving was possible.

Follow my One Room Challenge Progress!

WWeek One • Week Two • Week Three • Week Four • Week Five • Week Six

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