Trim Challenges and Victories!

I did a little overhauling of the building space this past week. It was starting to really bug me with pieces pretending to be in good spaces when, in reality, they've just been carefully moved out of the way to be discovered another time. For instance, here's a bag of trim ...

... for what, exactly? I honestly have no idea ... I'm not even kidding. But, when I need it, I have it!

It sits in its own place out of the way while I found homes for other things like all of the sanding supplies that are now in one, single space:

Sitting on the floor right below that stash is a bucket-o-trim:

And, now that I jump back and forth between different detail projects, which is precisely what made everything start to get mish-mashed and teeter on overwhelming, I cleared out a once, poorly used shelving piece to store all sorts of things:

This took me about an hour. An hour for a slice of heaven.

With that out of the way, I resumed work on the many white pieces I painted last week. I needed the trim for the windows on the lower level, but I went ahead and put them all together now. I even masterminded a guide to put the angles together accurately quickly:

I made this out of a few of the conservatory pieces I'm not
using. Sometimes, I amaze myself.

I was super excited to get the trim on the interior windows especially in the eat-in kitchen space. I remain super-happy with the color I picked for that space, but I chose it with vision of white trim really sprucing it up. It's good I was really committed to the vision, too, because that's what kept me going in the process!

The first challenge presented in the process happened immediately. I was so excited to start fitting and gluing the window trim until I dry-placed the first one and realized ...

Oh, for crying out loud.

... that I needed to paint some of the back side of the window! Now, I should have known about the window divider right in the middle (duh), but I didn't anticipate the trim not covering the framing right around the opening. *sigh* Back to the painting I went! It was all ready to go the next day, though, and I framed the windows and front door on the lower level:

Oh, but that wasn't all! The next challenge showed up when I forged on to tackle the baseboards and crown molding. Part of the issue is that the angles in the gable are somewhere in the ballpark of 22.5 degrees. My Dad had a miter box with that angle, and that was super-useful, but, as I'm not a carpenter, there are still clearly tricks of the trade I don't understand to fit things just so. The baseboard is still pretty easy to tinker with and make work, but the crown molding. Ohhhh ... the crown molding.

The above picture represents a few hours of my life which followed a few days of giving myself some space from thinking about it all. 😵 My mission during the days of distance was to maintain the, "This is totally doable" mindset. And, when I got back to it, that is the exact mindset I needed. Between figuring out the angles and even finding myself making a custom angle cut (three times; don't ask), this became quite the undertaking! I can't even describe how I did most of it, but I can explain that I have a tube of paintable wood putty on hand, and I'm ready to implement it as needed!

This project was enough that, as I persevered, I also gave myself permission to blow off the idea of crown molding in the room directly above this one. (Whether I do so or not remains to be seen, but permission has been granted!)

But, it finally worked! Check it out!

It's not a perfect job, and some touch-up is needed. But, the newly articulated rule is that if you look too close at my work, then you're not allowed to play in the house.

The next step is to finish the trim work in the family room, but that is going to be much easier than this! Also on the docket is second floor painting! I finally decided on a color scheme, so I'm excited to dive in! I'll be back soon!

Project Conservatory

There are so many different things that need attention, and to which I want to give attention on this house, that I often find myself feeling really busy but accomplishing nothing. Even with the success of the interior paint, there have been too many loose ends hanging around for the Conservatory, aka: Dining Room, that I just wanted it finished! So, that's been the focus this week!

It was not only my desire to check off the room as finished, but it was also that I just knew how beautiful the end product would be! So, I wanted to see it in real life rather than just looking at it in my mind's eye!

Here we go!

Knowing this room needed interior trim painted, I gathered all of the rest of the window trim (I think), and I got busy:

Why do some when I can do all?

That task wasn't as tedious as the divided windows, doors and railings. Just sayin'. With that left to dry, I moved back to the house! I was ready to get this going! First, the outside needed painting:

It's back to the scrumptious exterior yellow!

Because this wood is whatever-it-is (I think it's just regular plywood) and not the milled MDF of the main house, which is synonymous with SPONGE, it only took two coats.

My next step was to secure the interior trim around the large, side window:

I was super-proud of this tape job! 😁 It's
actually pulling the freshly glued interior trim
up against the inside wall. Going through
 the windows was just genius in my head!

Then, I went back outside to adhere the only piece of exterior trim I wanted from all of the options that comes with the kit. If you look at a picture of the way it's designed, there are many:

Source

There are pieces near the roof, above the door and trimming the corners. (Ignore the foundation that you already know I ditched.) I decided to only keep the ledge above the door and front windows to give it a little character as well as to afford another place to put Christmas decorations. Priorities. The rest went in the "not using this/does anyone remember what this is for" pile of things.

To help it stick, I bought some emery boards to sand just where I wanted:

This was the perfect tool for the job!
I highly recommend!

I sanded both the house and the back of the ledge. Then, up it went!

And, after sitting for the night, ta-da!

Yes. You see a Christmas Tree there. Just you wait ...!

Back inside, the tape came off of the window moldings, and I got the trim around the front windows and door!

Now, here comes the fun part. Or, the part that almost made me cry. Really, it depends on the moment! BASEBOARDS and CROWN MOLDINGS!

Oh, yes ... Good stuff!

This is the part I was most excited to do because I knew how awesome it would make the room! And, as an added bonus, aka: reward to myself for all of the white trim I've painted, I bought pieces that are already painted!!

Sweet, sweet, pre-painted pieces!

I've never, ever used a miter box and saw, but I saw my Dad do it about a million times. So, I figured I must have learned something.

I simply measured the pieces by putting a piece of paper along the wall and marking it where it needed to be cut. Somehow, this is way, way easier than using a ruler/tape measure. It's much more exact for me. I even figured out which end of the board to cut so the already-painted end could be placed to face the back of the house which is where we look inside. I mean, I was thinking of everything!

After three, very simple and easy-to-figure-out cuts, the baseboards were finished! I mean to tell you, this girl was on fire!!

" 'Scuse me, but just what flavor of humble pie do you prefer?"

Yeah. Don't you know that the crown molding got me. I mean, really, really got me.

I measured the ceiling the same way I did the floor with my no-fail paper method. And, it did not fail me in this process at all. It was the rest of the stuff. I sat and thought through how to cut the angles and, more important, how to place the piece in the miter box to cut it just right because the piece itself is angled. 

Crown molding to the left; Baseboard to
the right.

In both cases, the position of the piece in the miter box is important, but, with the baseboard, there is a definite top and bottom. With the crown molding, you have to be a little more cognizant of top and bottom for the molding to position correctly. This is what really messed with me in terms of how to keep it steady in the box in order to cut it the way that made visual sense to me. That's the best way I can explain something that I, myself, don't really understand. 

I thought I had it all figured out. When finished with the cuts, I expected the end angles to face up. But, mine ...

... faced down. And, that ended up messing with my figuring out how to make the side pieces fit correctly. I'm saying I simply could not figure out how to make this happen. So, I cut my losses, no pun intended, and decided to use this particular piece to experiment and practice to understand just how to do this. 

However, I could not figure it out no matter how many times I tried!

This picture alone represents at least 11 cuts. And, a number of
sighs in between each cut.

After another umpteen cuts, somehow, I happened upon the correct angles! This took hours, by the way. Hours. And, a dinner break. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't really sure how I did it. But, I knew I did. I held the little sample up to the house, and it was perfect. So, I tried it on a new piece. I was so proud! But, guess what ... SAME ERROR OCCURRED!

Ugh!! No matter what, I was not finishing the room that night because it was Sunday, and Hobby Lobby is closed on Sunday. And, the pieces come in a 4-pack. I need three for this room. I blew it on two. You see the math.

I continued to whittle away at my test piece until I figured it out again. What's so hard about this? I don't even know. I really, really don't. But, I got it. Then, I made a little cheater model, if you will:

Isn't it funny how these look the same as the first one I
messed up? Have you cracked the code yet?

These show me how to cut to fit the correct angle. So, if I need an angle on the right side of a room, I use the arrow pieces. If I need an angle on the left side of a room, I use the unmarked angles as they are the ones that line up. (And, if these pieces are lost, someone gets hurt.) I literally put the model piece on the outside of the miter box and then make sure I'm cutting that direction.

My test run on another new piece of molding worked beautifully! I cut it to look like a pro did it! And, then, I used my little cheater pieces to make the side piece before letting the project just sit for the night before I headed back to Hobby Lobby. It was a wee bit painful to be that close to finishing!

Also painful? Literally, on my way to Hobby Lobby, it hit me: The first piece I cut, I actually cut correctly. The only problem was I tried to put it in ... wait for it ... upside down and backward! Simply flipping it over left-to-right and rotating it to turn the angles would have taken care of the whole problem from the beginning:

Same piece flipped and turned. I'm not even kidding.

The really good that came out of this, though, are my cheater pieces because, honestly, I don't really know how I cut the first angles correctly. I honestly don't, so I'm not certain I could repeat it with any consistency. This way, I have the back-up direction, and I don't have to remember how I did it in the first place! There's my silver lining. And, there are smaller spaces that need molding, so most of the one I thought I ruined will get used. Hooray! The moral of the story is to try all of the ways something will fit before assuming the first way is the only way.

So, that was a little painful. But, was it all worth it? Not even a question. LOOK!!

The stairs are just set in there right now as I need to figure out molding for the door from the kitchen first (no sooner would I put those in permanently only to find out uh-oh ... something doesn't fit!). Those are actually cut from the straight set of stairs that comes with the kit for the first floor which I replaced with a curved staircase (we're getting to that!). So, that was the solution there. I like that there's an open space behind them because I'm quite sure a kitty will hang out in there ...

And, remember the Christmas Tree sitting outside? I had to put it in here at least for a little bit:

And, how about we look at it in here from the outside!

I saw it at Target last weekend. It was an impulse buy at the register in the very back of the store where there was no impulsiveness whatsoever. Call this a Must Have. The star is getting a make-over, though, as I am turning it gold. The green glitter of it is doing nothing for me.

Before signing off, here is the before and after of the moldings. These pictures are above, but they're fun to see near each other to compare!

There are more things to accomplish on the house! I think all of those painted white pieces need to be nestled into their places ...!!

The Color Palette Expands!

After the success of the conservatory paint job, I was anxious to move on to other rooms. There's not a wall in my real-people house that has a neutral color on it, so it was starting to make me antsy to continue to look at the bare walls here! I love adding color to anything I can! Let my kind of games begin!!

To that end, I got to work on the family room! I already had a bottle of "Ivory" that actually has a good hint of yellow in it. Yellow is like my neutral. I love it and have pretty much decided it goes with everything (To me, blue jeans are to clothing what yellow walls are to a house). Anyway, after priming, I went to work:

Work space complete with kitty condo lamp table.

The yellow of the paint isn't showing up in the picture, but it also only barely showed up on the walls. So, it was back to Michaels for a little somethin' called "Churned Butter!"

Ohhhh, yessssss ...

I absolutely love this!

I didn't mix these two. I just put the "Churned Butter" over the "Ivory," and it ended up covering completely.

The kitchen was next on the docket! I started with the floor. I decided it should be light to let the darker floors on either side of it show off a little. I painted a coat of "Antique White," then it ended up needing a little sanding before coat #2 as the moisture of the paint made the little wood fibers stand on end:

After the second coat, I moved on to the walls! After much -- much -- debate about color, I went with custom-mixed shades of green ...

... and, I hated them!! Ugh!

I had a lovely vision especially of the eat-in area being something of a gardeny-feel with some white wainscoting, but the color just reminded me of an elementary school chalk board, and it made my stomach turn. And, I like the color of the kitchen, just not for this kitchen. Besides, how is the red crock pot ever going to look good in there?! 

Fun fact: I have officially given up my efforts to choose any shade of green to paint walls. I tried greens in two rooms of our house, and both were way worse than either of the above outcomes. And, then, I couldn't even pick it well here. So, that's that. It's not easy being nor choosing green.

I let this dry not long enough before I created a new color pallet which I love!

"School Bus Yellow" was at it again serving as the mix-in to "Toffee" to create a warm, yummy caramel color for the kitchen!

And, in the eat-in area:

Looking into the gable

From outside looking in

The original let's-try-this-color inspiration to this room was the paint on the far right called "Autumn Leaves." I found that in my stash and thought it would be perfect! Sadly, I was wrong as it was too rusty colored and a little barfy. It probably looks awesome on a painting where it is just a small part of many Fall leaves, but, to me, it didn't hold its own on these walls and would likely give the home's residents a little case of indigestion. I used it, instead, as the start of my base and added the "Cardinal Red" (second from the left). To that, I added some "Red" (creatively named, far-left bottle) and a few drops of the "Royal Violet" to come up with the cranberry-wine color! I really, really like it!

Put it all together, and we have what my daughter noted as a Fall theme!

For the win! (The vertical, looks-like-it-wasn't-painted streak is
the hinge to the wall so it can open from the front.)

There is a divider wall between the family room and the kitchen, so it really doesn't look quite like this. But, it does until I put the wall up. I really just want crawl in there and wrap myself in these colors!

And, just as a supply note, I realized I needed to have something on hand to deal with the leftover paint I mixed. Try as I might to actually use something straight off the shelf, it just didn't work for me. But, mixing my own also backs me into a corner should there be a need for touch-up. So, we found this organizer in the jewelry-making section of Michaels:

I guess I can probably dump that green
one, hahahahaha ...!

I love the piece of mind it brings me when I rip off the tape job! Of course, I've not needed it as by best friend Masking Tape has yet to pull *any* paint from *any* part of this project! Regardless. I like having the touch-up options on hand!

Speaking of tape, after finishing these paint jobs, I have almost used all of the originally purchased four rolls of tape.

Number 4 is on its way out, and number 5
is poised and ready!

It's funny how I saw Aaron getting a 4-pack of masking tape back when we started this project, and I thought, "How are we ever going to use that much?" Joke's on me ...

More developments are in the works! Stay tuned ...

The Interior Wall Transformations Begin!

This is very representative of the week!

I won't even call it "controlled" chaos. It just is what it is, and
it seems to be everywhere!!

As is this!

Dear Inventor of the Foam Brush:
I love you.
Signed, Me.

The next step I took in the build focused on getting more details painted. The conservatory doors, front windows, trim and main house roof trim all needed the treatment:

Don't get me wrong: I really, really love clean, white trim. But. By the time I finished these pieces, I craved some color! So, I really started thinking and mulling over options. I really focused on the conservatory because the front windows are really close to the door, and I didn't want to have to figure out how to paint between them neatly.

At 3 a.m. one morning (You cannot control when inspiration strikes. Clearly.), the perfect color hit me! One of our trees is particularly spectacular this Fall, and that is the very color I wanted to bring inside the house!

So, I got to taping ...

... and, Aaron and I went to Michaels to see if the color I wanted already exists. We found "School Bus Yellow" which turned out to be close, but it has a bit too much orange in it. I let the first two coats dry before using it again as a base in which to add "Lemonade," and, BAM! It is PERFECT!

I just absolutely love it! Here's what it looks like from the outside:

It creates a perfect, warm, homey atmosphere. It's exactly what I wanted!

While this endeavor was ultimately a home run, other color ventures weren't as cooperative! Take a peek at the next entry to watch the painting saga unfold ...