This weekend saw some more work on the house, and more specifically, the final touches on some aspects.
One thing that has been lacking since the finishing of the trim in the kitchen, was a transition piece between the tile and the hardwood flooring. The transition ended up being more than a slight unevenness, so that meant that over-the-counter transition pieces you could pickup from a home improvement store just weren’t going to work. Instead, I purchased a piece of oak that needed to be cut out to accommodate the height difference. One that was taken care of, it was time to slap on the paint. Next I glued it down with gorilla glue, and after about 2 hours, the bond was as strong as it was going to get. Next up, finishing the trim in the kitchen, hallway and the living room. The problem…that difference in height between the floors!
What to do, what to do? This was exactly my dilemma. I was able to find a corner piece at Home Depot that I thought would work. Ultimately I needed something that the trim on each side could simply die into, avoiding having to match up the different heights of trim on the two different floors (which was never going to happen). The only issue was, the corner piece needed to have some more cut out of it. Thankfully my dad was able to do this using his table saw (cutting his wrist in the process!). Once those were cut, I painted them up and cut them out to fit over and around the transition piece.
With the corner pieces on, I could now finish the trim. Any gaps were filled with caulk, and there were more than what I would have preferred, but I am pretty happy with the final result. Using the corner pieces wasn’t optimal, especially since there aren’t any others in the house, but overall I think it turned out pretty well. The only thing left is filling nail holes and touch-up paint.
The trim wasn’t the only finishing touch that was tackled this weekend, we also tackled the half-bath window. Since moving into the house, this window essentially had a towel thrown up over the old curtain rod for privacy. When we tore the half-bath apart to redo it, that curtain rod went into the trash, leaving the window completely open for anyone to see in. When the bathroom became functional again, we didn’t immediately have a window covering…but we do now!
Meghan wanted the bigger faux wood blinds, so I was able to track some down at Home Depot that are chord-free (you just push it up or pull it down with your hand). We picked one up on Sunday morning and brought it home. I installed the brackets and locked the blinds into place…only to see that they were not the width indicated on the box. Turns out, someone had these blinds trimmed to size at the store and then returned them…and Home Depot decided to just place them out on the shelf again without any indication that they had been modified. So after some downtime riding the motorcycle and taking a walk along the Grand River in Grand Ledge, we headed back to Home Depot to exchange them (making sure they were the right length before leaving the store this time). When we got home, the installation was extremely painless, and they covered the entire window this time. Really happy with the final result!
There’s one more window I need to tackle in the house when it comes to trim (and them I’m finally done with trim!), and that’s in the full-bath. When the bathroom was redone, I never removed the old window trim at the time, because it already had vinyl blinds installed (and attached to the top trim piece), and I wasn’t ready to replace them at the time. Well, that time is coming soon. I have the new trim, now I just need to set some time aside to remove the old, and put on the new. The end is in sight! 😄