ONE ROOM CHALLENGE (Week One): Annex Guest Room Makeover

Twice a year, in October and April, Linda from

Calling It Home

 and

House Beautiful

hosts a One Room Challenge. Over the course of 6 weeks, 20 select designers and bloggers tackle renovating or redecorating a specific room, and share their

 progress with weekly blog posts. 

When the April 2017 list of selected designers was announces, I was so inspired by how many of the participants are blogs and designers I admire. I knew I wanted to participate too!

The One Room Challenge encourages Guest Participants, so I'm joining the fun, sharing the magic of an Annex Guest Room makeover we have yet to tackle.

What's even more exciting, is this is a linked event, which means that all the Guest Participants will share a common link and you'll be able to easily surf through a ton of room transformations. You'll find that link at the bottom of this post!

Warning: The following "before" images are scary!

I often share this 'before' image with people who don't know the

state in which we acquired Content

.

I suppose this

Annex Guest Room

image was taken during the bank's repossession of the property prior to foreclosure.

Luckily, when we closed on Content in October 2014, the trash and junk had been cleaned out.

But, it always amazes me that just 5 short months after this picture was take, two knuckle heads (John + I) showed up bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and jumped feet first into the biggest renovation project of our lives.

Even though we've done a lot since 2014 (i.e. the blood, sweat and tears chronicled throughout this blog), nowadays the Annex Guest Room has mostly been used as storage.

Here's John and my Dad, likely discussing how I'm a closet hoarder of second-hand furniture. 

Over the coldest winter months, I did spend a few days replacing all of the window weight mechanics so all the windows now properly function.

People often ask, "How long will Content's renovation take?" Our honest answer is - forever! And that answer is said with love. We love working on old houses (ours + our home consulting clients) they're just needy! . We promised early on to approach every project with the motto "do it right the first time". . And this weekend we were reminded of that motto when a simple paint job required us to first pull off all the window casing to fix the double hung weights. We're pros at window weights these days!

A post shared by c o n t e n t + c o (@contentandcompany) on Feb 6, 2017 at 5:28am PST

Overall, the Annex Guest Room has awesome bones, just like the rest of the house. This space features a brick fireplace (which needs a mantel), exposed beam ceiling and four original, double pane windows.

The original wide, hardwood pine floors are still in this room. And the space has beautiful ceiling and baseboard molding too!

The overall goal of this makeover is to clean up the walls and ceilings with fresh paint, and create a "disappearing" guest room. Huh?

Stay with me... We refer to this as the Annex because it attaches to Guest Suite #1 and the Great Room. We think this would be the perfect space to provide friends and family, traveling together, with additional accommodations.

But we want to reserve the ability to remove the beds should the space be needed for a special event, in conjunction with the Great Room.

So far, I have a vintage camp theme in mind. I think this will lend itself well to the "disappearing" beds, as well as to a lounge setting.

I have a bunch of ideas floating around, and can't wait to see this fun, quirky makeover come to life.

Be sure to follow along with our progress and comment below with your thoughts!

KEEP IT GOING!

You can connect to all the

One Room Challenge Guest Participant week 1

updates here! #oneroomchallenge

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How To Restore Or Replace Old Window Sash Weights

How To Restore Or Replace Weights In Old Single Pane, Double Hung Window

Thursday's train ride into the city, for my other, not DIY weekend warrior princess, job goes something like this. Get on train. Check Instagram. Check Pinterest. Get inspired. Check Google for "How To's" in order to realize new found inspiration. This has been the case since we purchased Content. but there has been one ongoing project that may never entirely start or finish. Windows.

Google search: "Restoring old windows". In this instance, Google churned out a ton of This Old House articles and this is what I learned, 

"Single-pane double-hung windows from the 19th ­century don't have the best of reputations. They can be notoriously drafty, full of rattles, loose in the joints, or can simply refuse to budge. But as a number of studies have shown, when these windows are properly weatherstripped and paired with good storm windows, they can match the performance of new double-pane units for much less than the new ones cost."

Basically all I retained from that article was "for much less than the new ones cost". Amen. We're broke.

I l.o.v.e our old windows so much. I have time. Elbow grease is free. I can learn to chalk. Let's make these babies outshine the new, expensive stuff we can't afford anyway.

Then I remembered we have 50 windows, began to cry, curled up into a ball and slowly sank into a reno induced depression (which side bar, happens every 72 hours nowadays).

Then, my Dad showed up! Oh, thank god...

He told me I was not a cute crier and we got to work. He has spend his life painting and wallpapering (which will certainly come in handy over and over in this reno) but he's also a general know-how-to-do-everything type guy.

We started out simply trying to get all the bottom panels to open. Many had been painted shut over the years, and others had lost their internal weight, pulley system. Time spent just opening windows: approx 4.5 hours.

After that Dad, wanting nothing to do with fixing the weights and pulleys, left me and got started sanding and chalking. Alone again, I started to cry again. But then my sister, Lindsey, showed up! Oh, thank god... She told me I was not a cute crier and we got to work.

John handed us a crowbar, needle nose plyers, tin snips, 50 feet of metal chain, a hammer, WD40 and a box of wine. Phew! At least I know what to do with one of these items.

We played Clue for a couple minutes: "It was Mrs White, in the courtyard, with a hammer," then we actually got to work.

Fixing the weights was tough. We turned to YouTube, got our bearings and jumped right in.

First (said YouTube), you remove the window trim to expose the sill.

To do this we used a small crow bar, trim lifter and pry bar/scraper set which helps with removing the trim in one piece and without damaging the wall. Using the scraper set, score along the trim line to breakdown the bond of the paint between trim pieces. It may be necessary to use a hammer to get the crow bar between the trim.

I like a 15” crow bar for trim removal because it is easy to handle, but gives you enough angle to work with.

Then you remove the entire bottom pane and open the wall to expose the weights which hang or (in our case) have broken from their cord and sit somewhere in the wall.

Once you locate the weight and clean off 100 years of cobwebs; the old cord is removed, pulled from the side of the actual window and replaced with sash rope or chain.

We strung the chain, crimped the metal, and here's where it got tricky. You have to simultaneously feed both chains on the wheels to get them balanced.

Downside: We made some mistakes, only completed 3 windows, and wasted way more time than any professional would have.

Upside: We had fun, I cried far less with my sidekick and the total cost, so far, is only $40.

Who's volunteering to help me replace the sump pump... in the creepy basement? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller...