Nothing tossed. Lots gained.

My eyes feel gritty and like they're full of sawdust, even though I was using goggles like a good girl when we were using the table saw downstairs today. I wore a mask, too. No sense in breathing in minute particles of MDF boards.

We were able to install the rest of the crown moulding today. Feeling very good about that! We have gaps in a couple of places, because we didn't do mitered corners. Instead, we bought little corner blocks like these, because we were too intimidated to try to cut the right angles and such. The blocks we used were like the ones in the bottom two pictures. In retrospect, I think we could probably have done it, but we really like the look of the corners the way they are, so we're happy this was the route we chose.

The thought would be that we'd only have to make a straight cut, and push the moulding up to the edges of the blocks so we didn't have to do any intricate cuts. The only problem with this logic is that our walls and ceiling are so not square! As a result there are gaps between the wall and the boxes in a few corners and a few more rather large gaps between the crown moulding and the corner blocks. We'd measure. We'd measure again. We'd cut. It wouldn't fit. The piece would be too long. So we'd shave a little off only to end up with a gap in the end. We realized after most all of it was installed that it had to do with the corners being out of square, and if we slid them in at an angle we could have them match almost perfectly.

At least we figured out how to patch the gaps today. It took several cuts to get the right width, but we just cut some slivers of crown moulding until we got the right size to stick in place. Once it was smoothed over with a little wood putty and painted, you can't even tell where it was patched. Finishing things up with a little bit of caulking, and the crown moulding looks like it's been there since the house was built. Well...about a 10' section of it does. Can you guess what I'll be working on this week?

Our oldest came over today and helped out. She took the Christmas tree down and put the decorations away. The corner of the living room looks bare, though. It's the first it's been empty in 16 months. No. Between the flooding basement, sewer problems and illnesses I'm ashamed to admit that we had not taken the Christmas tree down in over a year. I am beyond thrilled that it's down now, though!

While we didn't get quite as much done as we were hoping for (the treadmill and the pull-up machine are still where they were when I blogged last night), I'm satisfied with what we got done. I'm actually quite motivated. I know I'll be able to finish up filling the holes with wood putty and the caulking this week on my own. If I can also stain the door before Saturday, we should be able to get that installed and finish the baseboards next weekend. We have to wait for the final cuts on some of the baseboards until the door is installed and the trim is up, but it's finally starting to look somewhat finished. We even hid the cable for the television behind the crown moulding and in a channel coming down the wall. I'll paint it the same color as the wall, and it won't be nearly as noticeable as an ugly black cable would have been.

I know it's supposedly a no-no to put crown moulding in a basement. It supposedly makes the room look shorter, but we don't see that at all. Our basement is only 7.5' tall to begin with, and somehow the crown moulding seems to draw the eyes up, and the ceiling doesn't feel as short. It's also supposedly a no-no to put anything but the short 2.5" baseboards in a basement. We say pshaw! We went with the 5", and it looks great! I'll try to post pictures when we're finished.

No. I didn't get the last few papers filed from the empty box. I was distracted by the work we were getting done downstairs. I will do it tomorrow for sure when I'm taking a break and getting reacquainted with my heating pad.

Please make sure to ask me, if I actually got them done tomorrow! I need the accountability! :)