One Room Challenge - Week 3
Week three?!! Already?!! Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess? I definitely got more accomplished this week despite having less time to do so. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend I’ll have the other work in my queue wrapped up so I can power through the rest of this porch. The nicer weather is definitely a plus for outdoor projects and I’m eager to get it done so we can finally have an outdoor space to sit and take a breath for a minute!
The bulk of my time was spent stripping paint from the header while up on this scaffolding. Those who follow my account on IG @byrneburymanor know I was able to borrow this scaffolding from our local tool library. I’ve listed more detailed information about this invaluable resource at the bottom of this post.
I only had an afternoon to work on the porch this past weekend, but was able to get the vertical surface of the header stripped of the many layers of paint. I originally planned on priming and painting it white, but as I started stripping, plans changed. It appears it was originally stained wood! It’s color is exactly the same as the deck stain I chose for the bead board ceiling. Instead of painting it white, I’ll be sanding and re-staining. It’s completely protected from rain and snow so I don’t suspect I’ll need to add a top layer of shellac or poly.
My next task it to strip the paint from the bottom side of the header which is going to be a little more difficult since it’s not a flat surface. I’m not sure if that’ll be stained or painted since it’s visible from the street side and will have to match the outside face of the header which is definitely not going to be stained.
Now for some of the fun-for-me stuff I got to do! Gardening! Well, no actual gardening beyond planting the fern and begonias into a planter. I purchased the plants I’ll need for the hanging baskets which won’t be planted until the header is painted/stained and ready to go. I also went to an estate sale and grabbed a couple of pieces of furniture for the porch. I’m not sharing pictures of those until the end [insert evil cackle here].
I created a mood board before this challenge started but decided not to share it. Lately, it’s pretty evident my vision for how a space should look changes as I progress through a project. Sometimes drastically. How this is going to turn out is going to be only slightly less of a surprise for me as it will be for you.
That’s all I have for you for this week, but definitely go check out www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog for the projects being shared by so many inspiring professional and guest creators/designers. It really is a fantastic community of folks!
University Heights Tool Library
When they first opened up a few years ago, I paid them a visit and they didn’t have a huge selection. Since they were starting out and initially relying on tool donations, a lot of the stuff looked like it was from “Grandpa’s basement”. This time around, I was blown away by the number and quality of tools they had. You would be able to tackle most project relying solely on the tools at the library. The annual membership starts a $20 and goes up from there. With their base membership, you can borrow up to 5 tools at one time for up to a week and can extend it another week with a phone call to the shop. Tools available include building, plumbing, electrical, and lawn/garden tools. They have a list of their inventory on their website. (Listed below)
I highly recommend making use of this resource if you’re in the Buffalo, NY area. If you’re not, try to see if you can find one in your area, or maybe start one if there isn’t. Having a resource like this in your community is incredibly valuable to make the maintenance of one’s home and environment more accessible to folks of all socio-economic levels. The one over here is a non-profit who, in addition to lending tools, organizes and executes community service projects and run workshops where you can learn to do repairs and build all sorts of things. They are currently looking for volunteers! To find out more:
