More Adventures in Crown Molding

Last week we finished up the trim in the boys' room and moved all the storage stuff back in there. I don't have a photo because the room still isn't in the shape I'd like it to be, but the number of boxes is finally dwindling as we purge, rearrange, and unpack.

We did make room in the boys' room for the elliptical/stepper thingy that Scott bought during the pandemic that has moved twice between the living room and the boys' room.

It's important to note that this was Scott's purchase as I am not delusional enough to think that exercise ranks *anywhere* on the list of priorities right now.

I'm kidding, of course, but the ONE time I tried to use that thing my thighs burned and my heart rate was over 160 before I was two minutes in. I hated all 120 seconds and promised myself I'd never hop on that god-foresaken torture machine again. I will wallow in my covid ten-ish with a smile if it means I never have to feel like that again.

If you're wondering what this has to do with our remodel, I'm getting there.

So, after moving the elliptical back until the boys' room Scott dutifully climbed on, and sweated and grunted through a 30 minute workout, feeling accomplished, and tired, afterwards. He noticed an awful lot of noise, so he decided to take a look inside to see if something was stuck. I won't bore you with the details, but the elliptical was stuck on the most difficult setting, refusing to budge, regardless of what you pressed on the control panel.

So, this doesn't change the fact that I truly am lazy and *detest* sweating for no reason (ie exercise), but it does mean I had good reason for hating the two minutes I was on that thing! So, while I'm not hopping on tonight, I'll count this as another win for Scott's handiwork.

In addition to finishing the trim, fixing the elliptical, and moving all the storage items back into the boys' room we finished up our shoe cabinet and attached it to the wall in the entry.

I love the coral pink of the cabinet with the teal of the floor, it's so fun! This was unused space, and now has a little personality and function.

Not too shabby for a cabinet made from scraps in the garage!

I also made the starburst mirror on the wall while we were still in the apartment. The wood pieces are actually shims cut to different lengths.

Saturday we took the morning to go to the Edison plant sale. In Fort Myers there's the Edison Ford Estates, it's a museum with gorgeous grounds complete with thousands of types of plants. We haven't actually done the tour they offer, but it's on my list. We went to the plant sale hoping to find some great plants for the front of the house, and we were not disappointed!

Below are some pictures of a fig tree from the property, yes, that's one tree!

We came home with a Barbie Pink Guave tree, a Barbados cherry tree, a bunch of small aloe plants (they were all in one pot, so we split them), crocosmia (a tall grass with orange flowers) and a Kalanchoe Fantastic (succulent). We also grabbed a couple pink flowers at Home Depot.

Sunday I woke up early to get the plants in the ground before the heat got too unbearable, but it was 85 degrees and 91% humidity already. We quickly planted most of the plants, saving the trees and tall grass for another day.

Did you spy the Oleander Caterpillar on the corkscrew passion vine growing in the bush? Google is a magnificent thing, I couldn't name the Caterpillar or the vine without a quick search!

After a dip in the pool to cool down we got to work on the trim in the guestroom, a task we've been putting off for a while.

We had a great system: Scott measured and cut the trim, I coped, he nailed, I filled the holes and taped the top for caulk.

With the trim up, I sanded all the nail holes, caulked all the top. And painted it once it was dry.

The crown wasn't nearly as easy.

Scott built a crown stop that holds the molding at the correct angle, similar to the Kreg jig we bought, but his is attached to the saw and doesn't need moved for different angles.

The crown was almost too much for us, we had to walk away at one point, and came back with a clearer understanding of where we were going wrong.

Eventually we got it up, tiny weird-angle wall and all!

I filled all the holes and caulked the top and bottom, as well as the seams before putting the room back together. Paint will come another day as we have another visitor this week, my cousin!

We won't have an update next weekend as we'll be relaxing with company, but we'll be back to work after she leaves next week.