ORC Fall 2019 Project Coast to Coast Week 2: Losing My Mind

LOSING MY MIND

Well, my lovelies. I’m almost bald from pulling my hair out! I am losing my mind over here. There’s so much to do when you move and I while I’ve been attacking it with a vengeance, it’s like climbing a hill of sand. Every day I look around and think I AM LOSING MY MIND. Why would I commit to the ORC this go ‘round?? 

Because I think I may have already lost my mind, that’s why. And you thought doing three bathrooms in Project Get Clean would make me insane. 

Since there’s so much going on in the whole house, I might as well include some of what’s up in these Project Coast to Coast posts and maybe you can take away some useful info (or not). Yesterday, instead of working on the ORC room, I ordered several big ticket items for other parts of the house. I am getting two green velvet swivel chairs, as well as two sofas for the family room and one sofa for the living room. That was nerve-racking enough, because I am second guessing everything and nothing is going right. 

The frustration isn’t just “is my husband going to like these?” but the headache of the ordering process. Here’s the behind the scenes crap that those of you not in my business might not realize we have to do: we have to create a design for the item (sofa), then contact the custom manufacturer to see if/when/how much it will cost to build it. Then we have to source the fabric, get samples, and check stock for yardage that is long enough, and get the pricing. Don’t forget the shipping costs on that fabric.

But there’s more!

Next we have to make sure the freight trucks actually go to where you need it (the trucking company that delivers from NC to NJ doesn’t come to CA, of course). The freight company only delivers it to a warehouse in the area. That means we also have to find a local warehouse to “receive” the sofa, inspect it, blanket wrap it and then white glove deliver it to the client’s home. (I am starting with zero local resources here, so trying to find one has taken me several days.)

After everything is checked and lined up, we have to place the order for the sofa as well as order the fabric and send it to the furniture guys. Each step costs money, paid separately. Each step can have an error, causing a delay, or costing more money to fix. This is some of the monotonous crap that you might pay people like me to handle. I wish I was getting paid to handle this today.

STILL WITH ME?

What had me losing my mind yesterday was that the fabric company’s ordering system kept timing out before I finished placing the fabric order (61 yards of fabric!!). I called the company but of course now I’m three hours behind so they were closed for the night. So I had to start over AGAIN, and finally got it to go through. 

But guess what?? I woke up this morning and there were TWO invoices in my inbox! I called ASAP and they said that both orders have already shipped out, 122 yards heading to the furniture company in North Carolina. WHAT. NO. The lady on the phone was like, “just refuse one of the orders. I’m like, “you think the furniture company is going to realize this and do it?” I said I can try to call UPS to see if they can just reroute it back and she said she would try to do that and she would call me back. I still haven’t heard anything. Of course I just tried calling them, and they are closed (it’s 5:30 Eastern time, but only 2:30 here and THIS ANNOYS ME).

AND THEN…

Mac OS decided to update and it wouldn’t hurry the F up so I while I was waiting I hung drapery rods and panels in my living and dining room. Hello, why am I not working on the ORC room?? Anyway…

Just when I think it can’t get any more frustrating, I heard in one group that my blog was down, and then again from a devoted reader from Instagram. WHAT.

I need to write and post the ORC Week 2 by Wednesday night. My website people said it might be 24-48 hours before my site back, MAYBE. Seriously, WTF. It went down sometime last Sunday and now we are on day 5. Anyway, as I am sitting here writing these words in Notes because my website’s blog is down, I am feeling a little frazzled.

NOW YOU HAVE SOME IDEA OF WHY I’M LOSING MY MIND

Oh wait, did I tell you about the roofers that showed up today? Yeah, the owner of the house wanted to replace the roof but the permits didn’t come through until after we moved in. So this morning they got up there and started stripping these beautiful cedar shingles off the roof… and everything else. I mean there’s literally just sky now. I can see daylight right through all of the recessed lights, and debris was coming through all of those recessed lights (SO MANY RECESSED LIGHTS) and all over the house. COME ON NOW. Pine needles fell into my coffee while I was standing in the kitchen. Oh, and the power company is shutting power off to about a million homes this week to proactively ward off fires because the Santa Ana winds are coming through and last year so many homes burned to the ground. Safety first, kids.

BUT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE

Ok, ok, let’s get back to the ORC. That’s actually not stressing me out. Mostly because I haven’t had time to think about it! I have done SOME thinking, don’t worry.

First, in case you have no idea what this is, here’s the scoop.

WHAT IS THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE?

The One Room Challenge is a bi-annual event hosted by Calling it Home  showcasing 20 featured participants and many guest participants as they renovate a single room, documenting all of it over the course of six weeks. The One Room Challenge kindly shares all of the blog entries and the finished spaces at the end of the 6 weeks. Many of the entries end up being featured in places like these:

And this season, look who is the official media partner:

WEEK ONE || WEEK TWO || WEEK THREE || WEEK FOUR || WEEK FIVE || WEEK 6

AND NOW ON TO WHY YOU’RE HERE

_{I’ve included some affiliate links on some of the images and links below because I know you might want to check things out. If you make a purchase using the link, I may make a small commission but it’s at no extra cost to you so SHOP AWAY! FTC rules say I have to tell you that somewhere before I share the links, so here ya go.}

Obviously we need a bed. Maybe I’m not actually losing my mind?

I got rid of my girls’ full size beds in NJ and got queen size mattresses and basic frames. I feel like guests shouldn’t have to squeeze into a small double bed, ya know? Even if the new bed takes up a lot of the room! (One of the reasons for taking out those built ins from WEEK ONE.) 

Now in this room, I’m adding a simple headboard. I actually got it the day before the movers came, and I came early to put it together before they started moving stuff into the house. I also got a different one for the other bedroom. 

A rug would be nice.

It would’ve been nice if I had a rug BEFORE the movers came and set up the big-ass heavy bed. But that would’ve been too easy. I wanted something with a little color, but not as bright and colorful as this one I used in the other bedroom.

I really didn’t want to spend a lot of money in here but here are some options that I liked.

I narrowed it down to these two and I reallllly wanted the one I didn’t get. Out of freaking stock in the size I need AND it cost more. 

So I got this one:

It’s still pretty, it’s soft, low pile and arrived in a few days. You’re lucky I didn’t take a video of myself trying to lift a queen size mattress, box spring and frame while trying to unroll this rug all alone! Let’s just say I got my work out for the day. I got it done. 

The funny thing is, I might have to take the bed out of here to do the next thing on my mind anyway. So was rolling out the rug a waste time? Maybe.

At least I had half a brain cell left to know that I am going to leave the dresser and the little sofa that my husband was using in the little apartment in San Jose until I’m done with the next step. 

And that next step will probably take me the rest of the month. The stuff I need hasn’t even arrived yet!! Just this stuff:

Yup, I’m losing my mind.

In the meantime I have to keep digging through the boxes in the garage (after the roofers are done because they are making a huge mess). I need to find this brand new drapery rod I know I had in NJ. That and the still-missing patio cushion. How is there just one patio cushion missing? 

I did get some fun outdoor pillows though so that helped my mood.

MY TECH ISSUES ARE GETTING RESOLVED!

Although I’m two days late, my blog seems to be working FOR NOW and I was able to post this. My fabric duplicate order should be re-routed by now and the actual fabric should be delivered to NC today. My computer seems to be running ok, and the stuff I was waiting for has arrived but you’ll have to wait until next week to learn more about it! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for hanging in there with me and for following along this rollercoaster.

Be sure to follow along all the amazing projects happening in the ORC across the world! Over 300 projects! Makes mine seem kinda dinky, but whatevs. Click the image below!

AND HERE ARE THE TWENTY FEATURED PARTICIPANTS

At Charlotte’s House | Design Addict Mom | Erika Ward Interiors | Erin Kestenbaum | Girl & Grey | Gray Malin | Hommeboys | I Spy DIY | Jewel Marlowe | The Learner Observer | Making it Lovely |  Nicole White Designs | Old Brand New | Oscar Bravo Home | Place of My Taste | The Rath Project | Room for Tuesday | SG Style | Undecorated Home | Veronica Solomon 

Media BH&G 

I better just sit here and start writing Week Three before something else happens! Just kidding. I’m not going to be losing my mind for another week. Gotta got find it now and get to work on the “next step”. BYE!

WEEK ONE || WEEK TWO || WEEK THREE || WEEK FOUR || WEEK FIVE || WEEK 6