battle for the crown.

Quick nursery update - but quick for real, because even though I haven't posted in a couple weeks, I have to be at work at 6:30 tomorrow. That's A.M., folks.

Luckily, this weekend was pretty chill. In fact, I spent today outside weeding, since it was so nice: overcast and in the 60s. Perfect for weeding! And it got me out of the house, so I was spared from hearing the grunts, scrapes, and thuds coming from the baby's future room. Yep, today was crown moulding installation day...woo!

I alllmost had a last-minute change of heart with the crown moulding. Not whether to install it, but what size to use. When I looked at Lowe's, they only had one width available in the least-gaudy design - 3 5/8". I assumed that was standard (after a quick consultation with my favorite contractor, Mr. Internet) and picked up the five pieces I needed.

From here - although mine was NOT $17.99/piece! More like $10 each.

But when I got home and had J.J. hold up a piece to the ceiling in the nursery, my heart sank. It looked huge - really wide. We have pretty low ceilings (only 7.5' high!), and at nearly four inches, these were taking up some precious visual real estate. But I figured, hey, if it's standard, it's standard. (See how my anal retention can retreat when I'm not faced with choices?) With that, I set up shop in the garage and painted each pre-primed piece with off-the-shelf Olympic semi-gloss white paint (zero VOC, score!).

We had to wait until today for J.J.'s dad to come over and help with the crown installation, so in the meantime, J.J. installed shoe moulding around the perimeter of the room. It's been a few months since he's done shoe moulding, and although a couple pieces initially came out like this:

...he was able to re-nail the mistakes, leaving it more like this:

I spent an evening after work last week caulking and touching up all the base and shoe moulding. Major tip: Do a coat of paint on the shoe moulding before you install it! That way, you only have to touch up where the nail holes are. I caulked the edge where the shoe and base mouldings met, and I did a quick coat of trim paint around the entire room to ensure the base moulding was about the same shade as the shoe. And, pregnancy benefit: My belly got in the way of me getting the exact paintbrush angles enough times that I kinda shrugged and thought, well, screw perfection - I'm just getting this done the best I can. Anyway, no one notices slightly wavy paint lines where the moulding meets the wall other than me. So, win-win.

But back to the crown moulding. I swung by Home Depot last weekend (Tip #2: Do not go to Home Depot on Memorial Day, a.k.a. National Home Project Day, when you're hormonal, hungry, and have huge questions about a project) to pick up stain for the fence we'll be building this summer, and who did I see whilst there?

From here

Thaaat's right. Same design, but an inch narrower. AKA, exactly what I had wished for when I saw how wide the 3 5/8" pieces looked. Crap. I bought one piece to test against the wider option and brought them home.

I wish I had pictures to share, but as it was, the shots I snapped of J.J. holding both the wider and narrower moulding options against the ceiling featured him prominently - in his under-grundies. Wonk-wonk, breech of privacy, NSFW, etc. I tried cropping them, but you miss the full effect without the ceiling-to-floor view. But trust me when I tell you that the pictures made our choice clear: Wider was the way to go. The narrower version didn't look hefty enough; it was practically overshadowed by our nothing-to-write-home-about base moulding. It was something of a relief to settle on the wider moulding, considering I'd already painted all of those pieces and had little to no desire to venture back out to Home Depot for more of the narrower moulding...and then paint all of them. Ugh.

So after about eight hours today of battle (by J.J. and his dad) with the crown moulding pieces, tediously shaving each edge to make the correct angles, the room is lookin' good.

Or - well, okay, it's actually looking a little rough.

They have one more piece to install (the annoying piece over the door, where there are crazy angles because the door is actually on a separate fifth wall of the room). They'll do that tomorrow evening, and once they're finished, I'll go back over with caulk and paint. There are some other battle wounds I need to attend to as well - namely, scrapes on the walls, ceilings, and floor, all of which I'm biting my tongue about. After all, it sucks to install crown moulding, and I'm totally jazzed that (a) it's done, (b) it looks good, and (c) I didn't have to do it. Hopefully the scrapes aren't anything a little Magic Eraser (or, in the floor's case, Orange-Glo) can't fix.

And if the floor is irreparable? Well, it'll be mostly covered, since believe it or not, I made a rug purchase.

From Shades of Light, with a 10% off coupon

I'm kind of surprised I pulled the trigger on this, since area rugs seem to be a sticking point for me. We're still missing sorely-needed rugs in the front room, under the couches in the family room, and under the kitchen table (also in the family room). I struggle with size, shape, color, pattern...everything. I've ordered and returned probably five rugs for the family room. In four years. With no final winner-winner-chicken-dinner. It's a problem. Crossing my fingers that this one works out!

All of this means we're making progress on the Nursery To-Do List:

• Sell rug, glider chair and ottoman, keyboard, record player and receiver, desk chair, dresser, and bookcase (and, while I'm at it, the microwave, the toaster oven, the television, and the sink/faucet) DONE
• Organize the books, binders, and boxes; find new homes for remaining items
• Find nursery inspiration pictures DONE
• Choose a paint color DONE
• Figure out who's going to paint DONE
• Figure out how to fix the ceiling goofs from four  years ago DONE (crown)
• Remove the hanger bar and bifold door from the closet DONE
• Prep to prime: sand, scrape, caulk and spackle the window trim and the closet interior; remove outlet covers and heating vent covers DONE
• Prime and test paint possibilities DONE
• Paint the walls (not including closet yet) DONE
• Buy crown and shoe moulding (J.J. does install...sorry, love) DONE
• Paint moulding and window/door trim DONE
• Find color for closet interior DONE (Benjamin Moore's Jamaican Aqua)
• Paint closet interior
• Replace beige and/or painted-over outlets and light switch with new white ones
• Replace ceiling light
• Choose, order, and assemble crib, changing table, and glider
• Choose and order a rug DONE (hopefully)
• Install clothing rods and shelves in the closet
• Find fabric for crib skirt and curtains, including curtain for the closet
• Enlist someone else to make the crib skirt and curtains
• Hang curtains
• Buy/make art for walls
• Birthe baby who can utilize the finished room

My other task today was maternity clothes shopping. To be honest, I think I'd rather shave crown moulding edges. I'll wax poetic about how stupid maternity clothes are another day, but I better find something soon, because these girls - meaning me and the babe - are growww-ing:

21 weeks, 3 days

22 weeks, 3 days

And for the record, so much for a quick post. (An hour later...) Ah, well.