There has been a lot of indecision over othe past few months...I am going to do the ORC, I am not going to do the ORC...SUPRISE!! I am doing the ORC again! I love the ORC because it gives me a hard deadline. Without that, my projects generally take years...ask my husband, he will vouch for me because it drives him crazy. Designing for yourself can be paralyzing and my indecisiveness usually takes over and then the project just sits. So here we go, here is to having hard deadlines to meet!
I have decided to give our lake house's entry a major facelift. This project has always been something I've wanted to do forever but it just hasn't been a priorty. Due to this house being located in Arizona it also makes completing projects twice as hard. But I am finally ready to tackle this project. Truth is that I started working on this back in March of 2019. I started removing the nasty carpet from the front porch. All of the carpet is long gone but there is still a lot of the glue remaining. So the first order of business is going to be to finish removing the glue. Trust me, I am not looking forward to scraping the concrete more, I can promise you that. The glue is so stuck on and I have tried everything imaginable to remove it. Hand scraping has been the most successful (cringe!).
Because I didn't plan to do this challenge, my budget is $0. Now obviously I know that I cannot finish this project for $0 BUT my budget is extremely limited (because there is no budget) so I am going to be doing everything DIY and pulling from materials I already have such as paint, etc.. It really is going to be a "fly by the seat of my pants" type of makeover.
I have always envisioned a graphic black and white cement tile entry. My biggest concern is how the AZ heat will effect tile and because tile is a splurge that is definitely not in the $0 budget. To achieve the tile look on a budget, I am going to try a stencil. Also worried how the paint will hold up in AZ but at least if it doesnt last, I am only out time and the cost of paint vs. the cost of tile and labor for it to not hold up. I actually had a custom stencil made for another project years ago but I never finished it (suprise!). I never even made it to the stenciling part so I've never tried stencling. Once again, I am not a big DIY'r and I admire the women who are.
Another part of my vision has always been a porch swing but make it modern! I have had this porch swing tutorial saved on my Pinterest for years so it is time to try it. Once again, I am not the handiest person, my husband is but he wont be able to help me very much on this one becuase of his work schedule. I think I can handle the nailgun and wood glue though so we might be ok.
Operation Curb Appeal To-Do List:
- Remove the glue from the concrete
- Paint the rod iron
- Paint the concrete black
- Stencil the concrete
- Paint the door
- Replace the door hardware
- Refresh the doorbell
- Build the swing
- Hang the swing
- Find a twin mattress (hoping to score one on FB marketplace)
- Order everything (this should be interesting since lead times are insane)
That is it for right now but I am sure the list will grow once I truly start digging into this because I am currently in San Diego, I need to see the space before I can figure out everything else that needs to be done. Such as whether or not the lights will work or not. While this isn't going to be as big of a transformation as the last challenge, I am still super excited to spruce up our entry of our little lake house.