One Room Challenge – Week 2: The beach and custom beach towels

Posted on May 14, 2020

Its only week two of the One Room Challenge and man oh man I feel like we got a ton done, but there is still so much to do. This week was all about the prep. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying

“Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”

While we were not chopping down trees with axes we definitely moved a few this week, but I don’t think that Mr. Lincoln was really talking about the time it takes to chop a tree down, what really matters is preparation and with good preparation or “a sharp ax” the rest will follow. If you missed last week’s post about the plan for the bridge and what the heck it is we are doing, you can catch up here, or over on my Instagram account.

This week was all about prepping for the bridge demo that will be happening this week! Before the bridge can come down we had a laundry list of things to do.

This is what we had planned for the week:

~~Move log across the creek to create a walking bridge~~
Cut the top of the log flat
~~Move all remaining rock and garden dirt to the house side~~
~~Pick up lumber order for chairs and beach hut~~
Start building chairs
~~Clear blackberries from beach~~
~~Prep beach for new sand~~
~~Clear and flatten area for beach hut~~

We were able to check almost everything off the list except cutting the flat top due to it taking way longer than expected to just move the log and starting the build on the chairs because I realized I needed a better plan before I dove into the build. But let’s look at what did get done this week and what the plans are for the beach area!

What We Did This Week

Moving the massive log

While the bridge is down we need a way to get to the house, minor details. Last year PG&E took down several trees on our property, including a 100′ that was in danger of falling. When they dropped the tree we asked that it not be cut into small chunks so we have had a 100′ log just chillin in the yard for the past 9 months. Lucky for us we did, because that log was the answer to our “how do we access the house” question.

The only problem is moving a huge log is no small feat. Fortunately, Glenn works for a AAA tow company and they brought in the big guns also known as the Peter Built to give us a hand in moving the log into place.

I was on important video calls so I didn’t get to stay and watch the whole process but I set up a camera just in case anything crazy happened. It took some time (a little over an hour) to get the log into place, but dang it sure was nice to get it done and to know that I will not literally be trapped at my house while the bridge is down. I should probably do a good size grocery haul though so I am not carrying all of it up to the house. I did sneak out for a minute between calls and If you look closely you will see my super sweet conference call outfit, business on top and a hot mess on the bottom 😉

If you look closly you will see my super sweet conference call outfit, business on top and a hot mess on the bottom 😉

The log is so big that Glenn has to do some chainsaw carving work to make steps for me after I hurt myself stupidly trying to jump from one log onto the big log. I regret my choice but love my new stairs.

Clearing the beach

A few months ago when we had our last heavy rain, nature started to clear a small beach for us near the girl’s swimming hole but you could only access it by crossing the creek which meant there was a good chance you would get wet. So when we started this project I knew I wanted to not only make a way to get to the beach but to clear the area and make it a little bit bigger.

When we purchased the house 2.5 years ago there was probably over 2 acres of blackberry bushed on the 5.6-acre property, we cleared one side of the driveway to make the campground, but never really touched the side where the beach was. So Glenn jumped on the tractor and started making his way to the beach, this is nice for two reasons: one we can get to the beach, duh and two we will actually be able to pick more of the blackberries this year because it will not just be one massive field.

Now speaking of blackberries, they sound all sweet and such, but let me tell you if you have never removed blackberry bushes, don’t plan on doing it for fun. They are long vines that like to reach out and grab you with their razor-sharp thorns.

Once he cleared a path to the beach I started removing a plethora of blackberry bushes that were blocking access to the rock area downstream and I even built a little rock retaining wall which I am marking off as my weekly weight lifting.

Plans for the beach

Once I could actually get in and see the space we were working with I was able to finish up the plans for the beach this week. I am very excited about the two builds that I will be doing for this project. There are two fantastic trees up higher on the beach and I am going to build a little beach hut of sorts that will house storage for all of the girls’ beach toys and a place to hide from the sun when the summer heat hits.

One thing about the beach area and everything that we do here is that it has to be able to be removed in the winter. What?! Why? Well, let’s just say that this is a bit of a flood zone when we get heavy rain, which typically happens 1-2 times a year. So with the hut and everything we do, it is being designed to easily remove and store for the winter.

I also knew I wanted Adirondack chairs for the beach but not just any Adirondack chairs, they needed to have a little modern flair to them, which I could not seem to find one that we’re the perfect fit, some I figured why not just design what I really want, and make them. So that will be happening over the next couple of weeks. I still need some help on deciding on a color, so you will probably hear from me on that one.

The unplanned project 😉

Last but not least for this week, I had a bit of a crazy idea. You see I recently got a new iPad and have been playing around with some digital drawing tools. I thought that if I am doing this fun beach area we are going to need some fun beach towels, right?! So I took a few pictures from around the property and created abstract digital drawings of them. I then opened up a shop on Society6 and ordered some beach towels from my designs.

If you like the designs here you can order your own towels or you can choose several other products like pillows, stools, serving trays, and order them with these designs.

I am looking forward to getting the towels and maybe a few other things that ended up in my cart, to show you all in the coming weeks.

To wrap the week up, I also decided that I would put together a video recap of each week because if I told you about everything that happened in the week, like when my rooster chased me, this weekly post would become a short novel. BUT… if you are now intrigued and want to see my rooster hunting me, you can check out the video recap here.