Adventures in the Bathroom: Crown Molding Part Deux

When I was purchasing the crown molding for the original attempt, I had seen some decorative corner pieces that are sold individually. They're basically decorative blocks that go in the corners, against which you butt-joint the molding. Even though it's obviously used for those who don't/can't install the molding correctly, we were faced with no option other than to use them.

Here's what they look like(used without permission from the source...shhhhh):

The problem with these, we discovered, was that since we were using the oversized molding, the matching corner blocks made to fit were HUGE. The inside pieces weren't all that bad, but the outside piece was at least 12" square...WAY too big and obnoxious for the small bathroom. After some discussion, we decided there was a good chance(after seeing how much space the big molding covered) that we could get away with a smaller size of molding. We decided to try out the 3.5" stuff instead of the 5.5 stuff I had original bought. A nice side effect of this decision was that we could use a different kind of corner pieces than the really huge decorative ones. The second type is just a prefabricated corner made out of the same molding, with a slot behind it for the actual molding to be inserted. The effect is much more subtle than the decorative pieces...basically you end up with a double-thickness of molding in the corners, which when painted, don't stand out that much. Not a perfect solution, but definitely do-able at this point. So we purchased everything and off we went.

Luckily, we were fortunate that the smaller molding fit. That, combined with the "cheaters" corners, made short work of the task. All of the molding was installed within an hour. Whew....I wish I had tried this to begin with...it would have save us a ton of grief and the cost of the oversized molding, which was now useless. And I think it will turn out pretty decent.

After getting this up, I turned to installing the towel holders and finishing touches. All of these installed with no problems, and I got the doorknob on the closet.

We're on the home stretch now. Just a few minor details remain. I need to get a little bit of grout and touch up a few spots I thought would be obscured by trim that aren't. The joint between the tub and the wall need to be caulked. I plan on filling the gaps around the crown molding where the ceiling gets crazy with Spackle. Pretty much all of the nail holes are filled, but I have a little bit of scraping to do. I also have to install the cover for the heating vent that's in the room. After that, it's just another coat of paint and we're done!

I wanted to share a special thanks to my mother-in-law Linda for all of her help over the last few weeks. She did a ton of work doing a lot of the yucky jobs, like filling/sanding nail holes, re-hanging the door, fixing drywall, stripping old paint(and the whole door!), painting the chifferobe that's going to be the "cabinetry"...etc. Without her help we'd still be FAR away from finishing. Here's an action shot of her working on the furniture:

Oh, and here are the poor, neglected, mis-treated, abused, dust-covered, sad, lonely mountain bikes who've had nothing to do but hang around and watch everyone have all the "fun" these last few months. Don't worry, fellas, we're almost finished and the nice weather is on its way!