The Time Has Come: ORC Fall 2019 Project Coast to Coast Week One

The time has come for the Fall 2019 One Room Challenge (aka the ORC)! So many great ideas have already been shared this week, and I am already two days behind schedule in posting my week one. I hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come.

HOLD ON A SECOND

Before I get into the room I decided to work on, I should probably give you the back story. If you haven’t been following my adventures, I sent my youngest off to college in New York, said goodbye to my older two daughters, packed up the house in NJ and just drove across the entire country by myself with my dog, Ozzy, to meet up with my husband in California.

Ozzy and I left NJ on August 28th and got to San Jose six days later. I took an extra day to hang out in Lake Tahoe because why not?

While staying in a corporate one bedroom apartment, I had to find a house to rent, which was no easy feat. It was so depressing house hunting and seeing how much things cost out here- and many were pretty gross. I finally narrowed it down to 2 decent options in Menlo Park (if you don’t look at the rent price because it will make you puke). One house is a gorgeous two story, with a huge kitchen that had a giant marble island and a big-ass Thermador range.  

The other was a cute little ranch that has a quirky layout and some flaws (like a giant hump from the roots of a “heritage tree” in the too small driveway that makes speed bumps feel flat)  but the whole back of the house opens up to a pretty yard with a pool.

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOSE?

I loved the other house but I chose the one with the pool and signed the documents without even waiting for my husband to see it! I was pretty nervous about making such a  big decision without him but he was traveling and I wasn’t going to lose this one to someone else. Something about waking up and opening the door to the patio felt so good to me!

We got the keys to a place on October 1st. The movers came, and it’s been a whirlwind for the last 3 days. I finally found my toothbrush charger. I have to tell you, my Phillips Sonicare toothbrush made it from NJ in August to October 3rd without dying and I used it A LOT. That was impressive to me. If you want to get your own, check it out here: https://amzn.to/33e55tN

It’s been crazy here, which is why I haven’t even started my ORC until literally JUST NOW. And I’m not even sure I should be doing this since I still have a garage full of boxes to organize and get through and the rest of the house to put together. I spent an entire day just doing dishes and putting the kitchen in order. I had a giant stack of boxes blocking the shower, which I moved out of the way since I realized I hadn’t showered since September, I think. Peee-uuuu. I am happy to report the water is hot and the water pressure is strong.

Anyway, I signed up for the ORC, I chose a room, and now the time has come to get crackin’! 

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:

SO… WHAT ROOM AM I DOING?

I don’t really know why I chose this room, but I am going to tackle one of the bedrooms. It feels weird that none of my kids will officially be living with us. I am going to make one of the rooms over so that it’s comfortable and ready for my kids. Then they can figure out who will sleep in it. Right now I don’t think any of them will be fighting over this: 

I thought all of these built ins were kind of practical. Maybe I could stash all of my fabric and wallpaper books and samples in there! But in the end, after measuring the room, just the bed would barely fit, and that didn’t feel right. 

The girls would not need a desk like this and it takes up SO MUCH SPACE. So my nice new landlord (or landlady? Landperson?) said she would remove them. She had them installed when her son was young and it served him well. Now he’s married and in his 30s so he’s not going to need this set up anymore. I am so grateful she had them removed and painted the walls a couple of days before we moved in. 

Hard to believe that’s the same wall! And now it looks even smaller. Yikes. Then the movers came and this is where I’m at currently:

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT!

I am not really sure what magic I can do in the next 5 weeks that will make this not look so boring and plain. Rentals are kind of limiting that way. I can’t remove those shutters. I can paint but will have to paint it back to white when I move… and do I need that hassle? I can do temporary wallpaper… but do I want to spend that much money on a temporary space?

What I can tell you is that I am going to try to spend as little as possible and use a lot of what I have already. Moving is expensive enough as it is. I need to keep this budget low so I can afford the new sofas I want. PRIORITIES!

I do want this bedroom to have an extra place to sit for people who visit and need a place to chill. Of course, there will be a dresser, lamps, a rug, nightstands. You know, the basics of a bedroom. Right now there is only the bed, can you see it under all that? 

This isn’t quite as adventurous as my other ORCs, like the foyer in Project Shut the Front Door and those three bathrooms in Project Get Clean. Let’s just hope it’s at least finished at the end, ok? Set the bar reeeeeealllly low. I can’t even come up with a good name for it so I am going to go with Project Coast to Coast. That makes sense, right?

And now the time has come to wrap this post up so I can get in there and figure this out! Here’s a hint of one thing I’m considering: 

There are a lot of entries this time! Besides the 20 featured spaces, there are a lot of amazing guest entries to look follow. Click in the image below to see them all.