Week 4 of the Overdue Office Overhaul is here…whaaat??? Holy cow, I’m going to be working out of this office space soon!! Full disclosure - it’s likely not going to have all the pieces I wanted finished, but the bones and a lot of the pretty will be in place. AND, Lord willing, there will be NO MORE SPIDER co-workers! PS If you don’t know what the One Room Challenge is, or you want to get caught up on the super embarrassing BEFORE pictures, see our ORC Week 1 HERE. and the progress reports in ORC Week 2 HERE, and the introduction to my ‘co-workers’ in ORC Week 3 HERE.

Special thanks to Linda Weinstein of Calling it Home, creator of the One Room Challenge and to media sponsor Better Homes and Gardens for the kick in the pants to get this done. It HAS been a year now that I’ve been procrastinating on the major clean out and repairs required. It will be glorious to have a home office to call my own that functions perfectly for my needs!

This week the cleaning out has reached NEARLY the end, at least by the time this publishes to the ORC site, it will be all done and clean and ready for paint. It has been quite the archeological dig…I found writable DVD’s, unopened ink for a printer we no longer own, a video camera that can now be described as vintage, catalogs from 2014, and a whole slew of expired fabric books I haven’t had time or inclination to sort through for the last 5 years. I’ve amassed enough junk and recycling to require several trips to the dump. Yes, we have to take our stuff to the dump, excuse me, transfer station (since the landfill is full and they haul it away in container trucks now we get to call it a transfer station…fancy). For you folks that live in civilization where trash removal comes to you, we get to perform the ritual of hauling our trash, recycling, and stinky garbage in our car for a road trip. And we get to pay for the privilege of this extra added community bonding activity.

Yes, the office is still not painted…I DID buy the paint, which should count for something LOL. I’ve vacuumed and washed down nearly all the walls and woodwork, pulled up and untangled the morass of cables and wires, many of which are no longer relevant - we’re looking at you, fax line and coax cable - and am ready for some spackle and sanding.

Also this week the replacement light fixtures arrived…some assembly and a bit of fiddling required, but the price was right and they will totally work for the space.

I also got the fabric samples I posted about last week and they are ALL so pretty - even the one I almost didn’t order because I was on the fence about it is stunning in person! I’m still pretty sure I’m going with the neutrals and these are the options I really like.

I already had a black and gold desk chair I’ll reuse, and I have these massive mahogany bookcases that I've just about finished cleaning out. These will become a room divider to divide the sample room area from the office and presentation space. They are getting a bit of a makeover of their own which I’ll show you next week if all goes according to plan (what I need is supposed to arrive tomorrow with the wonders of Amazon Prime). Most of the rest of the furnishings I’ll be able to shop for from my staging collection :)

I’m planning to cover the inside back of the bookcase shelves with a grasscloth to lighten them up and add some pretty texture. The shelves will store office supplies, client binders, catalogs, and baskets of loose samples, but be organized and pretty enough to work well as a zoom backdrop.

We are also, I am happy to report, having a visit from the exterminator on Friday…time to have the “it’s not you, it’s me” talk with the spiders…I know that spiders are our friends and they do good things to control other pests, I would just prefer they do it elsewhere. Like outside. Where they belong.

Check in next week to see how we are doing, what has arrived, and IF we can get any of the workmen needed to actually show up in time for the final photos!

Also, check out what all the other ORC participants who are MUCH farther ahead are doing HERE!