I’m participating in the One Room Challenge (ORC) put on by Calling it Home.  I am linking up with them as a guest participant! Check out what everyone is doing in week 5!

Week 5! We finally finished the last step of the tile install – sealing it. After that, most of our energy went to starting the lockers…yay! The first thing we had to do was decide what to kind of wood to use. We need the wood to be sturdy and durable, look nice, take paint well, and also fit into the “budget.” We ended up choosing maple. We could have gone with MDF, but Parker felt like the maple would be sturdier.

I say “budget” because we have increased the budget about 25% and will probably go over that. We want to do this right. We don’t want to be disappointed at the end or have to redo things later or have regrets if the room isn’t working the way we want it to. We tend to do this with budgets – adjust as we go. I’d hate to spend a significant amount of money and feel like the room just didn’t turn out right. I’d rather spend a little more and be ecstatic at the end. Of course, this is all within reason. We aren’t going to spend money we don’t have. We aren’t going to do crazy extravagant things. We are just going to try to make decisions that leave us with a room that we are happy with – a room that works and looks good. We plan to live here for a long time, so its nice to be able to approach projects with that in mind rather than an impending resale.

Anyway, back to the lockers. They will be constructed in two phases, and the end result will look like this rough sketch:

This week, the lower sections were created. Behind the door to the garage, we intended to put one locker with a bench next to it. However, after seeing the bench in place, I decided that I didn’t want a locker there. The bench part would have been too small. The only reason we would need a locker there anyway is if we had another kid. That’s still a possibility, but we can always add that locker later if needed. Also, Parker works in dirt, so a lot of his stuff doesn’t make it into the house anyway. So we could always give him a locker in the garage if we end up being a family of 5.

And here is the other bench:

My favorite part is the detail that will be on the sides and on the cabinet doors:

Other things that happened this week:

1. We ordered the baseboards (which won’t be here until May 20!)
2. We re-met with the electrician to get a new quote that includes locker lights. I kind of had an aha moment right after I posted last week. We were going to wire everything with 3 way switches so that you could turn everything on/off at both doorways. I realized that this was totally unnecessary since the two doors are so close to each other. So hopefully getting rid of 3 way switches will save us some money and allow us to do the locker lights.
3. We’ve been looking at paint sprayers. This seems like the best way to paint the lockers. I’m afraid it would look terrible and/or take us ages to paint it otherwise. Right now, Parker is deciding between the Graco True Coat Plus II and the Graco Magnum Project Painter Plus. If anybody has feedback on either one, we’d love to hear it! We could also use advice on the type of paint. Semi-gloss latex? Cabinet enamel?
4. I did a craft for the mudroom!

By now, you’ve probably guessed that we won’t be done by next week. We won’t! But we hope to still have some exciting things finished and hope that you will check back in for the reveal a few weeks late!! I promise you won’t be disappointed! Check out how far we’ve come if you are new to the blog: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4. You can also follow me on twitter, instagram, pinterest, or bloglovin’. All of those links are in the sidebar. See you there!

Jalene