That time I did what I said I’d do – ORC Week 3

Can we just take a moment to absorb…

I said that this week I would show you the completed buffet, and–Yay–I’m actually going to. Promise kept.

It’s been a busy week, for sure. My little Docious…

and Roland…

are settled in their new place. She and I went all “girl power” for the move…carried mattresses, sectionals, dressers, beds, boxes, big TVs etc, up to her second floor apartment, mounted her tv on the wall like a pro…and I enjoyed showing her little things about how the tools worked. No boys allowed.

Tonight she and Ro surprised us and popped in just after dinner. It’s “Dancing With the Stars” night and she missed us. I know she’ll adapt, as will we, but there’s definitely those onion chopping moments we’re going to have to survive.

Ah, the pressures of being an adult… Chronologically, I’ve been one for beaucoup annees. But maturity-wise, I’m somewhere between 45 and 12 on any given day. So perhaps I’m not alone in my surprise that the One Room Challenge has been a nice distraction from the completely vacated nest….AND has me teetering toward accountability!

More about why I signed up for the ORC here, but briefly:
“Beginning in 2011 with the desire to finally finish ONE room in her home, Linda had the idea to motivate herself and a small group of online friends by setting up a challenge to work along side one another with the goal of having one finished room.” 
~OneRoomChallenge.com

Clearly Linda and I have something in common,

However, as noted last week, I have a schedule and so far, I feel pretty good about it. Frankly, the difficulty isn’t room progress, it’s keeping up with the posting. It takes time to be this boring!

I’ve long noted that our dining room needed a refresh. In Week One of the ORC I tried to describe what I hoped the room would accomplish, but hadn’t actually displayed a mood board to help you (or Mr for that matter) visualize what that would be. (I created one, but didn’t want to share it until I had revealed the buffet. So, I’ve gone back and added that to the prior posts and have included it in this one. (Patience, my young Padawan, very soon.)

The first step of Week One was ditching our dining room cabinet. Mr and I both agreed we’d lost our original affection for it….but all that STUFF had to go somewhere. I started looking a while ago for a large buffet cabinet to replace it–keeping vigil on Craigslist and Marketplace–but couldn’t find one that was as tall as I wanted it to be.

How tall?

Taller than roving dog noses can easily reach.

Two of the roving dog noses at our house could make quick work of any plate of food left within paw’s reach at counter height. I was hoping for something a little taller….and discovered this big kahuna on EverythingButTheHouse.com:

I did something a little crazy and won it in the on-line auction. Mr and I watched intently and felt a little frenzied during the back and forth exchange. (FYI, we saved all our bidding for the last few minutes so as not to drive up the price early on.) There were 26 bids from start to finish, and we had pre-agreed on our limit, noting there would also be hefty transportation fees. “Hefty” as in doubling the cost of the buffet.

But victory was ours…along with the bill, and the buffet was delivered promptly thereafter. Much less promptly than it took me to attack it, as I’m sure you’d guess

This is the part where I will inevitably break hearts and create enemies. YES, it was crafted in a gorgeous cherry wood.

And yes, Kim Jong-Em painted it.

It will STILL be gorgeous wood underneath, wood that we can always revisit with a chemical stripper if the mood strikes. But after 35 years of “everything cherry,” we’re in an “anything but cherry” mode.

Look, if Mr and I agreed, and we did…that’s all I a girl can hope for.

By the time I started it, the garage was in full activity with mowers and dirt and shovels, so I just painted it right where it was in the middle of the foyer…(or “front hall” if–like me–you hail from Tonawanda and bristle when it’s pronounced “Foy-yay”).

• I removed all the dingy brass hardware:

• Lugged it out my front door so I could sand it thoroughly, then lugged it back in the Foy-Yay and primed it:

• Light-sanded and painted it about one-hundred and two times with both a brush and a velour roller until there were no visible roller lines. (Learn from my mistakes…only brush where a roller doesn’t fit and work a wet edge without skimping on the paint. Then you can probably eliminate 99 of the coats.)

• Meanwhile, test every method known to God. man and Pinterest to clean your brass hardware so you don’t have to paint it “Brass”. Gather lemons, vinegar, baking soda, toothbrushes. toothpicks, Cameo, Barkeepers Friend (in both the Spray+Foam and soft cleanser versions and GENTLY scrub the ever-loving crap out of your dingy brass.

Before:

After:

• Reattach all the hardware….and for the diamonds that I didn’t love…glue in stamped brass bumblebees!

I’ve been having a bee moment since I Cricut-ed my mailbox.

Anywho, here it is in all it’s foy-yay, bees on, cleaned brass, satin-black painted glory:

You know what WON’T be fun to write? The Week Four post if I don’t stop writing this one, return to the ping pong table (aka worktable) and get sewing! Don’t forget to check out this week’s IG post.

In the interim, for your visualizing pleasure and a clearer idea of where I hope to be when I finish the eight weeks of the One Room Challenge, may I present… my mood board: