Hi all! In a post from last summer, I stepped-down from the One Room Challenge after acknowledging my defeat for getting the wallpaper stripped within the 6-week time period in Miss E’s bedroom (see the finished room here!).
However, I also hinted that there was something else “brewing” behind the scenes for us old house owners, but that I’d announce it on another day out of respect for the ORC.
As myself and a few others that I knew from the Instagram old house community took part in the ORC, we all seemed to share several common critiques about the challenge:
OLD HOUSES DEMAND MORE TIME
When you start a project on an old house, you’ll always end up with 10x more problems than you were expecting, and phase 1 of the project you were estimating would take 2 weeks quickly turns into 2 months (case in point with Miss E’s bedroom hehe).
WHERE ARE THE DIY PARTICIPANTS?
The people in the old house community are generally DIYers; the majority of the work is done by us, ourselves, and I.
A very common thing we were seeing with the ORC is that many of the participants had a design or vision, and then hired out nearly (or completely) everything…or used husbands. Same pattern was seen with the majority of guest participants as well.
Now of course this is in no way a bad thing – we all have our skills and talents. But I think that because many of us in the old house community are doing our homes with our own two hands, we’d like to see more of that from the participants as that is what truly inspires us.
WE STILL HAVE LIVES OUTSIDE OF REHABBING
We who are working on our homes have limited time each day to work on a project for our house because…surprise…rehabbing isn’t our full-time job. *gasp!*
…and in-between working full time jobs in the business world and/or as a full time parent, we like to also have a chance to still connect with our family and friends and have some down-time here and there like most human beings.
So we grab a precious 45 minutes here during our kid’s naptime…2 hours there in the evening before crashing for the night, or go into weekend warrior mode.
Therefore, with time restraints, doing most of the work ourselves, and the surprises and quirks of owning an old home, we need a realistic timeline for getting projects done.
So what blossomed as a result?
A challenge made just for our own old house community
A challenge in which you have 6 months, not 6 weeks, to complete a room (or two or three rooms – however many as you want!). You can also do your exterior, hallways, restoring all your doors or windows…whatever you want. This is a pretty low-key challenge that has the main goal of encouraging you to take action. :)
We call it: The Old & Slow Room Challenge ;)
So after an amazingly fun and rousing success with this challenge last year with many old-house peeps on Instagram making huge strides in their homes, it’s coming back for its second year!
However, I know that last year the hashtag was sooo long to type out, so to help make it easier, this year instead of it being #theoldandslowroomchallenge, it’s now going to be known as the:
#OSC2021!
…and there was much rejoicing! hehehe
When does it start?
This year for the Old and Slow Room Challenge, we’ll be starting July 19th! Completed rooms can start to be shown whenever they’re done, or by the 6 month mark at approx Dec 19th so you can enjoy the holidays…or you can take it out to the end of the year! We’re pretty chill here with rules. ;)
Your OSC Guest Host:
In our first year of the OSC, I had the privilege of getting to partner up with Stacy @blakehillhouse. Can we just pause and recognize that she did such an outstanding job and encouraged me to go thru with putting the challenge into action?! So very thankful for her and the way she stepped up to support me in so many ways! This challenge wouldn’t be what it is now without her! Thanks so much, Stacy! :)
For our second OSC year, in an effort to highlight more people in the old house community and to also not put pressure on anyone to stay attached to the challenge every year, we’re changing it up for who will be my co-host this year.
Get ready!
This year for the OSC may I introduce to you the lovely, very cool and fellow old-house enthusiast, Lee Ann, from @ladyonchestnut on Instagram! How fun?!
How to join the OSC?
Join by simply introducing your room tour and what needs to be worked on, what your plans are for it, and anything else you think is fitting, then tag me (Kelly) @livinginafixerupper and Lee Ann @ladyonchestnut and use the hashtag #OSC2021! Simple, right?
OSC Recap:
Starts: July 19th
Ends: Dec 19th or before the end of the year
Join: by going on Instagram and giving a room tour as a post or in Stories and sharing what needs done, your vision for it, etc. and tagging me @livinginafixerupper and Lee Ann @ladyonchestnut and use the hashtag #OSC2021 (or comment with your blog post with your room & updates in the comments below!)
#OSC2021
Can’t wait to see what y’all get up to this year!!!
