In all of my busy-ness last week, I didn't have time to sing S's praises about this beam situation. He finished covering it last week, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the old husband. He was frustrated many times, but he stuck with it and did a great job despite a million unexpected challenges. Trust me, this was a way harder project than it looks, especially since neither of us is Norm Abrams. FYI there will be crown molding along the top, the small gaps and nail holes will be filled and it will all be painted white to match the rest of the trim.And what's that running along the floor there on the left? Baseboard? Why yes it is!
While we were snowed in on Saturday -- we got about 28 inches total -- we ripped the final row of flooring, caulked all the doors/windows and got the baseboard about 3/4 finished. We will be installing a decorative piece on top of the baseboard and quarter round along the floor to hide any unevenness as well as the strip of nails you can see on the final row (see photo above, left edge).
Don't be alarmed. The floor does not dip in the middle as the above photo would suggest... Trust me, I went downstairs and checked it after seeing this picture! Fortunately it's just the camera angle. Whew!Anyway, we're so close to being able to paint, which is really the last major step. Here's what we have left to do before tackling the painting:
- Finish installing baseboard
- Install decorative piece and quarter round to finish baseboard
- Find an inconspicuous way to cover/hide the center seam in the beam
- Install crown molding along beam
- Putty cracks and nail holes in beam and baseboard
- Spackle/sand 2 little spots that need patching
- Wipe down walls
That's it! That's practically nothing! We're hoping we can get it all done this week, but that may not be realistic depending on how busy things get at work. Regardless, I am starting to feel really encouraged by how close we are to having a living room. SO CLOSE!
It's looking GOOD!
ReplyDeleteit is looking good - thats great progress - keep it coming!
ReplyDeleteThat is such hard work, but it looks great so far. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Wouldn't you want to paint before installing the baseboards? So much easier in my opinion. At the very least, I would paint before installing the decorative parts of the baseboard. Anyways, it all looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteGood call Jenny! When we renovated our upstairs, we painted the walls before putting up the decorative piece, like you mentioned. That worked out really well, and we may actually do that in our living room too if we decide on a "real" paint color soon.
ReplyDeleteI know I will probably get some flack for this, but we MIGHT be just painting everything white and leaving it that way for awhile until we feel the urge for color, if ever. (I happen to like white on white!) I want to see what it all looks like primed first before I decide... but if we go with that plan, the order won't really matter as far as ease goes!
Fortunately I've become a champ at cutting in over the past year, so whatever order we decide will be totally feasible. I can be a total glutton for punishment sometimes :-)
Emily Kate:
ReplyDeleteNice work you folks are doing. Your base looks like 1x6? I've done the finish both ways too. (paint before/ paint after) Are you not tempted to stain the wood work? So where have you been keeping all your stuff during this fix-up?
Mel
Mel! I owe you an email - I haven't forgotten! Yes, that is 1x6 baseboard, which we've done throughout the house so far. (My dad has always stressed the importance of consistent woodwork throughout a house!) S wanted to do 1x8 but we restrained ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWe have been tempted to stain the beam, but we were afraid a darker color would make it feel even more intrusive in the room. The baseboard is pre-primed finger-joint boards (which we sanded well, so most of the primer is gone) so those wouldn't be conducive to staining. I am still considering staining the beam white -- which seems to be kind of a popular look in some circles, from what I'm seeing in magazines/blogs and stuff. S and I are going to have a little strategy meeting today to see what we think will look best. (He is stranded at home with me today because of the blizzard!)
Our stuff is stored upstairs in our future master bedroom, which is in the original log section of the house. Part of it is also in the garage. We really don't have a TON of stuff though, because we moved around a lot and didn't want to cart it with us.