This is the last week of the 8 week long room challenge which is an online event where you pick one room in your house and make it over. I’ve been posting every week, and you can find the other participants on the  One Room Challenge website.

When I tell you I’m so exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired before. As I sit here writing this blog post, I’m literally falling asleep. I think I bit off more than I could chew even though I made it to the reveal. Now, is it finished? Not quite, but there’s just minor things that need to be done, but I’m happy with it.

This week started off with me renting a wet saw from Home Depot and here he is showing me how to use it. I was in survival mode trying to get everything done within the rental time frame, so I started cutting the tile and totally forgot to get pictures.

Here is the finished fireplace. I love the tile and after that I jumped right into poly on the mantle.

Time to poly the nightstand. I’m so glad to get to this point, because let me tell you about these nightstands. I have a newfound appreciation and respect for furniture refinishers because these gave me a fit. I mean, I always knew they worked hard, but now I personally know. Besides being careful with the veneer, the sheer amount of sanding is mind boggling.

Here’s one of the nightstands with a poly coat on it.

Time to switch modes and finish up the loveseat.

My little Singer flyweight has never let me down.

Stuffing loveseat cushions.

I put the wood pieces back on the loveseat after stripping the old finish and rubbing some wood wax on it.

I made a template for the headboard on brown paper and then cut it out with my jigsaw.

This is the fireplace with the cement board. This is one of the easier projects but even with goggles and a mask, little flecks of what felt like metal kept flying out and hitting me in the face.

I rented a tile wet saw from Home Depot and this is the man who was showing me that it was working. For some reason, I did not have a picture of me tiling.

So drumroll please, here are the reveal pictures. If you check back on my blog, you’ll better pictures down the road, but for right now, I had my trusty Android phone and I think I did a pretty good job.

I loved this shot except for the lights in the tv and the mess in the hallway.

The fireplace with a side of chaos in the hallway.

The curtains add so much texture to the room.

A little table decor.

My dog was not very happy with me.

This will be my first night in my newly decorated room and I love it.

I know one thing. All these pictures of my projects are showing how bad I’ve been neglecting my yard. So that’s the next project. To whip my backyard into shape.

A few other things; don’t pick a lot of complicated projects for your first ORC, time management is your friend so pace yourself and make a realistic schedule and last but not least, try to have fun. I found myself stressing so much at the end.

Let me know what you think.

See ya next time.

Week 1   ||        Week 2   ||        Week 3   II        Week 4   II        Week 5   II        Week 6   II        Week 7   II