So yesterday, I got all of the baseboards installed in the foyer. For the baseboards, I used simple 1″ x 5″ boards topped with base cap molding. And then I cut and installed the chair rail molding.

I decided to skip that second coat of primer on these walls. I didn’t want to spend any more time gripping a paint roller because of my hand, but I also plan to paint all of the upper walls a dark teal before installing the grasscloth wallpaper. The main point of the primer was to cover over all of the unpainted drywall mud and drywall, and also to highlight any areas that needed repair/patching/sanding that I may have missed. So even though these walls still look like a mess, the primer served its purpose.

I did notice that I missed a spot on the ceiling, though. That will have to be primed because paint reacts differently over unprimed drywall than it does on primed drywall, and that spot will be obvious if it’s not primed.

Since the walk-in closet doorway is different from all the other doorways in the house (i.e., taller and just drywall wrapped around the jambs instead of trimmed out), I decided to wrap the chair rail around the door jambs. Since it’s different, I wanted it to be very obviously different so that it looks very intentional. I really love how this turned out.

On the baseboards, I did a straight cut on the 1×5 board, but on the basecap, I did the 45-degree cut so that it ended at the wall.

And then I did the same thing with the chair rail with the 45-degree turn that ends at the wall.

That will make the wallpaper installation a little more challenging in that area, but I’ll just have to be very patient and meticulous about it, and I think it’ll look nice.

In the areas where the chair rail butts up against doorways that are trimmed out, I just did a straight cut on those area. That’s how I did it in the music room, so I wanted those to be consistent. Once those ends are painted, they tend to disappear.

While I didn’t get any of the picture frame molding cut and attached yesterday, I did get all of the walls prepped for that. I know different people have different methods for this, but this is how I do it. I use a 1″x4″ board and a pencil…

And then I place that on top of the baseboards (on top of the base cap) and draw the line on the wall.

And then I repeat that process under the chair rail, and then on the sides to create the vertical lines.

Once I have that box drawn on the wall (I’ve enhanced my pencil marks in the image below), I measure each individual line to cut the trim.

The reason I do it this way is because I’ve learned the hard way that when dealing with an old house where baseboards might not be perfectly level and nothing is perfectly square, the finished picture frame molding looks a lot better if I follow the lines of the walls, baseboards, and chair rail rather than building picture frames that are perfectly square and trying to make those fit inside areas where the trim around them might not be perfectly square and level.

It’s a little more work to do it this way because every individual line has to be measured, but I’ve found that it produces a better finished result.

So today, I’ll begin the work of measuring all of these lines and cutting the molding for the picture frames. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get done, again because of my hand, but if at all possible, I want to at least get all of the trim in the foyer finished.

That includes the picture frames plus the rest of the crown molding. If I can at least get that much done, I’ll be very happy about the progress.

I hate that I’ve been slowed down by an injured hand, but that’s just how life goes, right? It’s definitely getting better, but it’s aggravating to be slowed down like this. I’ll just keep making small steps forward until I feel like I can move forward at a full sprint without reinjuring myself.

Our bedroom now has an exterior door, and I love it…kind of. This wall is on the front of our house, and it used to have a window that looked like this…

And the last time I showed it to you, it looked like this. They had done some preliminary work that included rerouting electrical wires so that they would clear the area where the door needed to go.

I’m so glad to have this door in here. I’ll sleep much better with the peace of mind knowing that I can get Matt out of the room quickly and easily in case of emergency. That peace of mind is worth much more than what we’re paying to have this door installed.

I can’t wait to see it all trimmed out on the interior, and then to see it “framed” with the teal draperies. I think it’s going to be so pretty.

Once again, I’m debating what to do about privacy on the door. I’ll definitely need to add something for privacy since the door is on the front of the house. I haven’t settled on a decision yet, but I have some ideas.

So while I’m thrilled with how it looks on the inside, what I’m not thrilled with is the outside. And the issue isn’t even that we now have to doors on the front of our house. Since this one is way over on the far left side of the house, I’m really not bothered by having two doors on the front. But what does bother me is how unlevel the house is. For some reason, it’s not too terribly noticeable on the inside, but it’s very noticeable on the outside.

This section of the house is lower in this corner where these two sections meet. It’s been like this since we bought the house, so it’s not sinking. The house settled long before we bought the house. It would have cost a fortune to fix it, and even fixing it would have led to lots of other problems, so we decided to leave it alone. Since it’s not continuing to settle, it’s best to just leave it alone rather than try to fix it and lead to other problems that would need to be fixed.

But it’s very obvious, at least to my eye. And having a level door inside an unlevel section of the exterior wall makes it even more obvious.

But all we can do is just press forward and hope that once everything is trimmed out and painted, and once the porch area is built (which will be level with the door), it won’t be quite so obvious.

Dealing with an old house where things are never perfectly level and plumb has been one of the biggest challenges for me. I’m a perfectionist, and these things used to really bother me.

I mean, I’d lose sleep over it during a project where I was having to deal with how to work around these issues and make adjustments to disguise the issues. But after 12 years, I’m kind of used to it. I still get disappointed when the issues are obvious to my eye, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I don’t lose sleep over it anymore. I just try to make the best of it and move on.

But overall, even with the imperfections, I’m so excited to have this door installed. I think once it’s all finished, it’s going to look great. And that peace of mind that I feel having a door in our bedroom is priceless.