TURNING POINT HOUSE: ORC WEEK THREE

How is it Week Three already?

Here I am, feeling a day late and and a dollar short for my Week Three update. Some good news, the good people running the One Room Challenge added my Week One post to their official week one roster so I’m now all caught up with them. Other good news? I guess it’s that I consider myself pretty good at rolling with it.

Supply Chain

I mean, really. What home improvement story have you heard in the last two years that didn’t have a bit about a supply chain issue? From that giant cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal to the lumber shortage to the… well, pretty much everything has been impacted.

And for those of you who think ordering “American Made” will help, consider that some parts they need down to screws and nails might be on a ship somewhere, as well as the tools they use that need replacing. There is also the issue of backed up freight deliveries ever since Covid (and some union issues) shut down the trucking business from coast to coast for big chunks of time. Your American made item is still going to take a significant amount of time. Those trucks are also trying to catch up to the loads arriving off those big cargo ships as well. It’s just been a really hard time to find anything in stock in the amounts one might need. Or at a price they can afford since everything has been marked up so much.

Pivot!

These problems have taught some of us how to pivot pivot pivot constantly. Design plans might have to be more fluid and clients (and I) have to be more flexible with options and/or time. Although I started planning the bathrooms early, it still didn’t matter. Plenty of stock on one day might mean zero stock the next day. Estimates of 1-2 week on a backorder could easily turn into 20-30 weeks. And even after all that, the order might simply be cancelled by the vendor or they will want to charge an exorbitant amount for shipping or extra surcharges to make up for their extra costs from the shipping companies.

Not Fun.

It’s been a real challenge in my industry. And in my personal life. Which leads me back to this bathroom. As you saw in my Week Two post, I mentioned I had to change plans on the tile. I really LOVED that penny round for the floor. I’m so bummed. But honestly, the back up plan works just fine. I can’t get mad about it. Just gotta roll with it. I went with a bigger hexagon marble tile. It’s 4″ instead of the typical 2″ mosaic sheet. It looks fine, right?

(Now I’m staring at the penny round with the blue edges and I’m getting sad again! Walk away, Kohut!!)

As for everything else, the light fixtures changed about 500 times and I ended up with curvy white ones that are coated in a rough white plaster-y finish. Click HERE to see some other white (or mostly white) sconces if you just happen to be interested.

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What else?

I had a similar issue finding an available bathtub that actually fit the space we had, but in the end I was able to find one that worked. I bought the wallpaper, the vanity, the toilet, the faucet and bath fixtures which I only selected “in stock” and was lucky that all of them were actually in stock and they are now here on site. Whew. Did I forget anything? Of course I did, but the big stuff is done.

Oh yeah, back to supply chain… I’m adding a window in there and that probably won’t arrive until the middle of June. That’s no biggie, right? Except we can’t trim out and paint a window frame that doesn’t exist. And we can’t wallpaper the room until that is done. So I’m starting to thing my ORC might not be finished by the June deadline! Nooooooooo!! The ORC is normally six weeks long but this season is eight. Since this is week three, I have five more “episodes”. Start praying the window arrives early and we don’t end on a cliffhanger.

What happened to the closet?

Remember now, this new bathroom is in what used to be a big dumb closet. Since I took a closet away, I needed to add one somewhere else in that room. Can you believe that there was also another closet in the room? I am seriously wondering if the huge walk in closet wasn’t something else before that previous owners turned into that wonky closet.

Anyway… there was a little closet (also wonky) that was two sections. I think it was a place for one of those old boxy TVs with a roll out shelf and lots of weird wires in the lower section. I decided to gut that little space and turn it into a niche with shelves in the back of a newly built closet that is plenty big enough- but not too big- to hang clothes for guests or a future kid who might live here.

That’s all for now!

Week Three is a wrap. Come back next week to see some more progress over here at the Turning Point House. I think you need to see some other progress too. Aside from this new bathroom, we are working on a new laundry room, adding another bathroom on the first floor, and updating two other bathrooms ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Check out other Spring 2022 participants by clicking below. It’s also pretty cool that Apartment Therapy is the media sponsor this season, the 10th anniversary of the Spring One Room Challenge!