It’s Week One of the One Room Challenge Spring 2022 and if you are new here, welcome, I’m Sherry. I have been blogging for almost 10 years and my passion is creating a beautiful home without putting my family in debt. It can be done. My belief is that if we love our homes, we will want to spend time in our homes.

What is the One Room Challenge?

The One Room Challenge or the ORC is a challenge where participants get to show how they transform a space in a few weeks. Apartment Therapy is the media partner for the ORC. It is a bi-yearly challenge that will last 8 weeks. This will be my 3rd time participating in this challenge and I am the most excited about this one because of the space that I am creating.

Lake House Outdoor Space

I can’t wait to create an outdoor space. To be honest, we have been putting this makeover off until we were ready to spend the money on this big project. We have a lot of items to purchase for the space so we have planned out a budget.

Our Story

Here she is the day we found her. Ain’t she a beauty?

The above picture is the day we purchased the house.

I need to explain what we are working with. Several years ago, we purchased a major fixer-upper on a lake 40 minutes from our house. The house had not been lived in for a couple of years. It was in such bad condition that everyone who saw the inspection walked away. Let’s just say that this home was definitely in our price range. It was priced less than what the lot was worth. The home is on a beautiful level lot in a beautiful neighborhood. Our lake house was built in the 1960s and was originally a tiny fish camp. The older couple that we bought the house from did all the renovations themselves. Our walls are not straight, the ceilings are a little unlevel, but hey, it’s on a lake!

We first made the house livable with new sheetrock, plumbing, electrical, and other basic renovations. I am slowly decorating the home like I want it to be. The outdoor space is the last space to be done.

Where We Are Starting From

We want to do this entire space for the One Room Challenge but with the situation with the economy, we are afraid material prices will increase dramatically. The major work started a few months ago. I realize that this work will not be included in the 8 weeks. We hired the builder that built our boathouse from Lakeside Boathouse to do the job. Not only does he do beautiful boathouses, but he also does beautiful home construction. We replaced the roof and extended the porch 6 feet farther out. The concrete had to be torn out and new concrete is added creating a much larger space.