A Day In The Life Of – Renovating
Per your request, I’m continuing the “A Day in the Life Of” series! As I mentioned in the video Q&A last week, Emmett and I don’t renovate full time… we typically work on our house in the evenings and on weekends. This week has been an odd work week for me because we are behind– really behind on the guest bathroom renovation. In addition to my regular workload (blog content, interior design, styling, etc), I’m trying to make up for lost time and check some renovation tasks off the to-do list. My schedule is different every single day based on the nature of the projects I have happening, but this week I’ve been in full reno mode. Click through to see how a day in the life of renovating looks for me. There are also sneak peeks of the bathroom..
If you’re wondering what being “behind on a renovation” means or looks like, it basically equates to being behind schedule. Some room renovations or projects are on our own time, while others include sponsors or brand partners. I don’t talk much about sponsored posts because that’s really only a small portion of my business, but it’s one way I make money and keep the blog running. For sponsored projects, posts, or renovations that involve brands, a contract is always involved. That’s probably a good thing because it gives Emmett and I a hard deadline and incentivizes us to tackle certain projects in a timely manner. Long story short, sometimes it’s difficult to schedule or estimate how long a room renovation will take- because with construction, you just never know how things will unfold. It’s only the two of us, working side-by-side… we don’t have a team, we don’t hire contractors, we do things as efficiently as possible, but sometimes tasks take us longer than we initially guesstimate.
All of that to say- this month’s “A Day in the Life Of” is me playing catch up in the guest bath. I’ve spent the past few days at home, which is normal for my standard work week. The difference is, I’ve been staring at the tile saw more than my computer. It’s actually a nice change of pace and I enjoy tiling (and the bathroom will be gorg!), so I can’t complain. This bathroom actually has me VERY excited- the only stressful part is the looming deadline. As a small business owner, I always try to overdeliver and being punctual with projects is a big part of that. My type-A personality panics when the schedule veers off course. Immediately after the guest bathroom reveal, my family is coming into town (including my g-ma)… so the pressure is really on. I want to give them a beautiful bath to use and enjoy during their visit.
This week the focus has been tile. I like to plan out the tile pattern and make all of the cuts at once. The tile saw is set up in our garage and I quickly learned running up and down the stairs for each piece of tile gets exhausting quickly. The bathroom is on the upper level and those stairs are a serious workout! My legs were screaming after an hour the first day we tiled. Then again, I’m out of shape. Ha! I selfishly got Emmett this tile saw and stand for Christmas (knowing that bathroom was about to happen) and this is our first project using it- so far, so good.
In between buckets of mud, I give the tile a break, head downstairs to my office, respond to emails / social media, and prepare the blog post for the next day. Spoiler alert, tomorrow’s post is “5 Design Elements I’d Like to See More Of”, so I spent a good portion of the day drafting that. Sometimes I’ll schedule posts out a week or so in advance, but lately, between juggling the bathroom renovation and clients, I’ve pretty much been working in real time.
Honestly, it takes a lot of time and energy to share 5 GOOD (quality) blog posts per week, renovate a home, coordinate collaborations, keep my inbox in check, juggle a few design clients, and post on social media. I don’t have a lot of down time, but I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t trade the hustle for anything. Some weeks are crazier than others… this happens to be a really crazy one.
I also had to make an impromptu afternoon visit to the vet because Cash chipped off a big hunk of his tooth (surprisingly NOT playing biteyface). Argh. That is the good thing about working from home, owning my own business, and setting my schedule- I can run to the vet on a whim if one of the fur babies needs immediate attention. Don’t worry- Cash is ok and his tooth is going to be fine. The roots or nerves weren’t exposed- I wanted to double check and make sure he wasn’t in pain… after some googling, I immediately thought the worst. We’re going to keep a close eye on it… maybe no biteyface with Crosby for awhile.
Once I returned home from the vet, I hiked upstairs and got busy in the bathroom again. I finished tiling everything below the ledger boards on three walls. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to finish tiling the entire shower and Thursday will be a grouting day. It’s looking good!
IF everything goes as planned (and I’m hoping it will), look for the guest bathroom reveal, aka- the very first FINISHED room in our new house to hit the blog next week. I’ve gotta run! I’m off to Lowe’s to get more supplies, regroup, then join Emmett upstairs for more tiling once he gets home from work. If you want more daily life… check out my first post of the series, where I took you all thrifting with me! Thanks for following along on the bathroom renovation journey. You guys are the best and your encouragement means so much.