ORC Week 2 | Power Tools Needed
Week two of the One Room Challenge is under our belts! We’ll get into the work for this week but I wanted to share a little more about our house. My fiance Paul’s grandfather built this sweet little duplex in the ‘60s as a rental property and it has served as such ever since. Paul’s family lived here for a little while when he was young and now we’re on one side and his sister is on the other so we all get together and check in on each other. It’s a pretty ideal setup and we are so very grateful! The backyard is a story for another time, but we’ve put some TLC into it and it’s become my happy place. You’ve probably seen it if you follow me on Instagram.
Okay okay, let’s get into this. My intention to keep the work for each week light and manageable is paying off because we accidentally doubled the labor for this weekend. We started to take down the mirror and discovered it was a medicine cabinet. Don’t ask me how we never noticed, I guess we never looked very close. We did uncover the sweetest wallpaper strip that must have gone in at some point before the cabinet and was removed later. Catch up on the design plan in week one here.
So, suddenly we needed to learn how to drywall. “But Aynsley why not just replace it with a new one??” Well, this house comes with what we very lovingly refer to as Gpa-isms (for Paul’s badass Gpa that built the house) which means some things are non-standard. “Standard” is also different today than it was in the ‘60s, I assume. For whatever reason, the studs are too close together for a modern medicine cabinet. I also just didn’t care that much about that type of storage in this bathroom. It’s a half bath so no one needs to store a toothbrush or night cream in there and I’m adding storage under the sink skirt.
Okay, so we’re back to learning how to drywall. Or hire someone to do it, but Paul and I were both born with the ”how hard could it be?” gene and felt pretty certain we could figure it out. A quick Google search and half of a youtube video later, we got to work. In just one trip to Home Depot (yep, just ONE) we had everything we needed.
It helps that we’re handy and Paul is a hobbyist woodworker so we had a bit of a leg up. Paul knew that we’d need to create studs to hold up the drywall patch and the eventual new mirror but so we cut down a 2”x4” and drilled two in with pocket screws. From there, we were able to trim down the drywall just by scoring and snapping along the scoreline. After sealing the seams we applied a few layers of joint compound, sanded it down, and the mystery medicine cabinet was gone.
To keep the project on track, I jumped right into scrubbing the baseboards and floors. Because we’re renting and keeping the budget under control, we aren’t replacing the floors. Although, just picture the final space with a penny tile and let me dream. I feel like we’ve tried everything over the years to get the caulking/corners of the floor clean to no avail. Because I know we’ll be re-painting the baseboards, we didn’t have to worry so much about scuffing them a bit so we bought scrubbing extensions for our drill. Those with vinegar and hot water got just about everything up. New motto: When in doubt, grab a power tool. We’re ready to paint!
Until next time,
Aynsley Anne
