Mad Crown Moulding Skillz

Nancy and I decided to take on the seemingly simple task of trying to put up crown moulding. The plan was to start simple, in the powder room, with its 90-degree angles and horizontal ceiling, and work our way up to the more difficult rooms. First, we had to buy a compound miter saw and 24 feet of crown moulding, which we did yesterday at our new home away from home..Lowe's. Nancy painted them yesterday so they would be dry by today.

After lunch today, we decided it was go time. We ventured out into the newly organized garage. The sweltering 120 degree sauna that is our garage did not deter us. First we decided to "practice" using our new saw on some of the scrap 2x4s from the house going up next door. So far, so good. No severed fingers or mangled limbs. Then, we decided to ratchet things up a notch and try it on the actual moulding, of which we had just a few feet extra. We had bought a nice little Do-It-Yourself Crown Moulding book at Lowe's, which I offered to go get from inside before we attempted this. "No", Nancy (the Geometry teacher) says. "The walls are 90 degree angles, so you just cut each end at 45 degree angles, and nail it up." I reluctantly agreed to the trial and error vs. read the directions approach, since this is typically my philosophy in life anyway.

We made the first cut, held the two pieces together, and...well, they would have fit together better if we had just wacked off the ends with a machete. Eight practice cuts later, and no closer to acheiving even the slightest degree of congruency between the two ends of moulding, we agreed it might be time to go get the book. A few seconds into thumbing through the pages, we soon realized this wasn't quite as simple as we had envisioned. There were charts, that took up three pages, to determine the cut angle of the saw and the tilt angle of the saw, which all depends on the angle of the corner, the angle of the moulding (all crown moulding is not created equal), the relative humidity, the phase of the moon, and application of Newton's 45th Law of Thermodynamics.

Five more practice cuts later, and long since having used our "extra" moulding and halfway into what we had planned on actually using, we finally figured it out, with the help of our trusty chart. The "simple" angles of the cut and the tilt respectively, are 31.6 degrees and 33.9 degrees, by the way, for a 90 degree corner. I'm sure we would have eventually figured that out ourselves.

We took some notes while trying to figure it all out:

In the end, after an entire afternoon of sawing, nailing, sanding, painting, and cussing...we managed to finish the 5 foot by 5 foot powder room. Thanks to Nancy's mad caulking and puttying skillz, it even looks halfway decent.

I think it will be awhile before we tackle any of the other rooms in our house, with all their vaulted ceilings and non- 90 degree angles.

If my Dad has said it once, he has said it a million times: When all else fails, read the directions.

Lost desk parts, Chinese furniture, and a magical cordless TV

It's like magic. I leave at 7 am, put in another day's work saving the puppies and kittens of Greater West Houston, get home at 7 pm and something in the Ol' Fitz looks entirely different. Nancy has been hard at work this week finishing our office, painting the powder room, and painting the kitchen. That is all after a busy weekend of sewing and hanging curtains with her mom (Okay, she didn't do much of the sewing or hanging, but she is a damn good supervisor). I'm just afraid what she is going to do with her time off this summer once all our projects are done, when every room is painted, and every curtain is hung. I fear she may turn to drugs or even worse, Oprah, to fill the hours of the day. She's been very busy, and the house looks great...but I really haven't done a thing. Well, I did help her organize the garage, and I do water the grass on occasion, but all in all I have done about 1% of the work since we moved in.

Here is the "window treatment" (that is a new phrase I learned) in the master bedroom that I forgot to show you last time. Her and her mom used some pillow shams (I think) to make this.



Here is the powder room, complete with elongated toilet, that Nancy painted this week.



She also painted the kitchen today. No, the laundry detergent and trash on the island are not permanent decorations.





Here is a random picture of our formal dining room.

Oddly enough, I think the office is the thing Nancy is most excited about. The pride she exhibited when she first ordered this desk is something comparable only to the birth of one's children. The problem is, she hasn't been able to properly organize the office because the oh-so-critical corner piece was lost somewhere in UPS purgatory before it ever made it here. They never did find it, but they did send us another one. The original, according to the ever-so-accurate UPS tracking system website, is still pending delivery. Of course, it said that three weeks ago, too. The office is not quite finished yet, but the desk is finally complete. It is very versatile, too. It can be used for bookkeeping for a one doctor veterinary clinic, or it can be used to seat a meeting of the United Nations, with room to spare for a few rogue dictators. Why we needed a desk that big is anyone's guess...but we got a great deal on it, and as always, that is all that matters.

We are very proud of our bedroom tv, complete with pre-wiring so that no cords are visible hanging from the tv.

Never mind that our cable box is currently propped up on a cardboard box in the corner, next to all the folded clothes on our floor. At least we do not have those unsightly cords dangling in plain sight. Hopefully, the cardboard box and using the floor as our dresser is temporary, just until our dresser arrives. Our original was damaged at the warehouse, and apparently the only other one like it in the world had to be shipped from China on a rowboat, only after being assembled by hand in a Chinese sweatshop by underpaid 8 year olds using wood harvested from African jungles and carried to China by camels, one board at a time. What I'm trying to say is it is taking a really long time to get here. We are expecting it right about the time that we have all our furniture paid for. Late August of 2011. Until then, we will have to just be content with our magical, cordless TV.

Oh boy...decorating

Now that we are all moved in, I have been diligently working on my Honey-Do List. I have been in charge of not letting our newly laid sod die despite no rain for two months. I don't think I've ever watered a lawn in my life, and now it is like a daily ritual. We may even get it mowed soon. We also stained the concrete on our back patio...which turned out pretty well even though Nancy and I had no idea what we were doing. (Public service announcement: when frantically rolling ACID onto concrete, it is a good idea to wear safety glasses. Some shot up in my eye, which caused me to dance around the back yard like my pants were on fire. Luckily, I still have two functioning eyes. I'm also glad we do not have neighbors as of yet.) We have gotten most of the odd jobs done by this point...except for the big one: organizing the garage. I have put it off so far, but I may actually have to buckle down and do it next weekend.

The current project du jour is interior decorating...of which I am completely clueless. Thankfully, Nancy's mom loves that kind of stuff, and the sewing that goes along with it...so she came down for a few days to make curtains for some of our windows. And she works cheap. Here are some pictures of what they have done so far.

Living Room Small Window



Living Room Big Window

Dining Room

Roman Shade on back door, open

Roman Shade on back door, Closed

I think everything turned out really well, although I am easily impressed. I was in awe that the curtains matched our couch. Turns out they planned it that way.

The shade on the back door is something called a "Roman Shade". It basically folds up like an accordion when you pull the string. Pretty cool, but I have no idea how one would even begin to make something like that. I guess that's why they just tell me to stay out of the way.

To keep me busy and out of their hair, they assigned me the job of creating an abstract painting to go over the fireplace. I think I got this job because I can draw. Only abstract art is not at all like drawing, and I can't recall ever painting anything abstract. So we'll see how that turns out. I haven't let Nancy and her mom see much of it because a) I like to wait until it is finished before anyone sees it, and b) I do not want Nancy to see the horrible mess I have made of our back bedroom. Let's just say oil painting is alot messier than I remember. Hopefully it will turn out decent and be presentable enough to actually hang up on the wall. If so, I'll post some pictures.

That's all the fun and exciting news for now. It's 2 am, so I probably ought to go to sleep sometime tonight.

More Pictures

We finally got everything moved in and semi-arranged. We still have alot of unpacking boxes to do, and some furniture assembly that Nancy is working diligently on, but most of the hard work is done. Now we just have a list of about 500 "projects" to get The Fitz up and running.

Today, they delivered our fridge, dining room table and hutch, tv stand, end tables and coffee table. We may be sending the coffee table back, as it is too big for our living room. And Best Buy forgot our bedroom tv today when they were supposed to deliver it with our fridge. That was the only thing I was excited about! Oh well, it will give me something to look forward to tomorrow after a long day of saving Houston's puppies and kittens.

We thought this house was huge until we got all our junk in here. How we ever fit all this stuff into a 1400 square foot house, I will never know.

Here are some pictures of how everything looks now. I say now, because I am sure Nancy will be making me rearrange it all three or four more times.

Moving

The movers are coming tomorrow, so this is the last night in this house. About half our furniture got delivered today, so Nancy spent all day at The Fitz waiting on several deliveries. We will not have a fridge, bedroom tv, coffee table, end tables, or dining room table until Monday.

We moved a couple of things today, and as you can see, Nancy was about as much help as expected. Had to get one of the neighbors to help me.

Actually, she has done all the work so far, bum leg and all. She has packed just about our entire house. She has taken multiple loads of odds and ends to The Fitz, and started unpacking alot of stuff. She also started putting together our study desk today. Evidently it took her three hours to put together a small file cabinet. I wonder how long the other seven pieces will take us?

Today, our couch, chair, recliner, bed, nightstands, breakfast table, and desk arrived. I got my recliner, which is all I really care about. I am afraid to sit in it, for fear I may never get up.

Here is our bare living room and bedroom with the new furniture:

Shelby wasted no time making herself right at home:

We've got a busy day tomorrow, so I better go to bed.

Makinley

She's getting big! (Not big enough to call Mount Makinley yet, although I have already told Laura that if she is chunky like Brynna, that will be my nickname for her)

I like this picture of her:

Makinley



Mount McKinley

Owned

All the interweb geeks out there use owned to mean, according to urbandictionary.com:

1. To be made a fool of; To make a fool of; To confound or prove wrong; embarrasing someone:

2. Total and undeniable dominance of a person, group of people or situation, to make someone your b**ch.

There are alot of funny pictures on the internet of people and animals being owned.

Here are a few of my favorite owned pics:

What is the point of all this, you might ask? I don't know. Except that, as of today, The Fitz is also owned. By us. But in this case, owned in the usual sense of the word.

Our closing this morning went off without a hitch. Nancy managed to not fall down at any point while entering or exiting the building, which is always a plus.

So, just 4.5 months after I started this here blog, we (more accurately, the bank) finally own The Fitz. It has been alot of fun watching our house being built from the ground up. In many ways, it has flown by...but in many ways it has also seemed to take forever. We now have the daunting task of removing all the junk we have accumulated at our house, and relocating it to our new house. And we only have three good legs between the two of us. Thank God there are people willing to move our big stuff for us (for a small fee, of course). Well worth every dime, in my opinion.

I'm soooo glad that Nancy is off work and able to coordinate all the logistics of getting us moved, i.e. transferring utilities, furniture delivery, blinds installation, sod for the backyard, movers, etc. She has also been a packing machine. I just go to work every day, and when I return, there are more boxes magically packed and sitting by the garage door.

I probably won't be blogging much in the next week or so, as I am sure I will be put to work arranging and rearranging furniture and accessories until everything is perfect. Wish me luck.