The crown molding chapter of our marriage.

So we've slowly been making home improvements when time, budgets, and skill sets allow. The latest project (and biggest yet) was doing crown molding throughout our home.  Duffy was the brains, and I was the cheap labor. He must've read 5 books from the library, watched tons of YouTube clips, and asked all his friends with experience in his search for the best methods.

We actually thought it wouldn't be too hard; we thought it was a pretty simple project. By the second room, we had the hang of it. But, when we were working on the first room (the smallest bathroom in our house) it was kind of a nightmare. Really frustrating and tiring (and I wasn't even the one making the cuts).  When we were working on that first room I kept thinking, "Oh no, what have we gotten ourselves in to?! We'll be working on this all year! Why did we buy all the wood for the entire house at once?" But - we finished!! And it only took about a month (many missed gym visits), and looks pretty great if I don't say so myself!

Here are the steps we took. I'll spare the details for length's sake, but if you're ever considering doing molding and you need some guidance, we have lots of tips!

• Measure (roughly) perimeter of all rooms you want to put molding in and add it all up. Now you know how many feet of molding to buy. Buy two extra sheets just in case. 
  
• Find and mark the studs in the room you're working on. 
  
• Measure (precisely) the length of the wall. It's easy on the first wall, but after that it's a little trickier since you're working with mitered edges. Duffy is the expert on this part. Call him if you want details. 
  

• Cut wood. For this you'll need a miter saw. It's the most expensive tool we had to buy (by far) for this project, but you can get a good one that's refurbished for a decent price. Also, check out the work bench that Duffy made with his bare hands! (I'm tellin' you, he's a keeper!)
  

• Cope one side. This is a term meaning you shave the back angle of the wood, so that the two pieces (since they have depth) fit together flush. I get it, but couldn't explain it concisely. Sorry.
  

• Hang it up on the wall and secure with a nail gun. Nail guns are def the way to go. 

• Fill in the nail holes with putty. This is also a good filler for any dents or imperfections in the wood, as well as seems that have gaps.
• Sand putty. (This part was the least fun in my opinion.)

• Caulk edges along ceiling (top) and wall (bottom) and any seams that need smoothing out. 

• Tape the edges of the molding and do two coats of high gloss trim paint. 
  
• Tape the molding off and touch up the walls beneath it. (You are supposed to do the molding before painting, but we had already painted the walls.)

Fhew! It was a lot of work. Duffy and I would measure together, then he'd cut the wood and cope the edges while I marked the studs. We'd hang it together. Then I would putty the wood and sand it. Duffy would do the caulking. I would do the painting and taping. That's pretty much how it went.

I was out of town last week (see Lauren's blog for details) and we had just one "room" left to finish - the entryway. We were also repainting the entryway from a dark stone gray color to this creamy color that is in most of hallways and kitchen of our home. Duffy finished it up while I was gone as a birthday surprise! Doesn't it look awesome?! Harper certainly thinks so.