Crowning Our Creations

Building the boxes for the cabinets has taken us weeks of work, but we are finally at the point where we can start the finishing touches on our work.

We rejected the idea of using the crown molding that used to frame this room's ceiling because there just seemed to be an overwhelming presence of wood.  Today, however, we tried the crown molding on the cabinets, and we both agreed that using it to top the cabinets would work well.

Crown molding tops the cabinets that will hold items above
the washer and dryer.  Molding also frames the pocket door opening.

Kudos to Rick for figuring out how to cut outside and inside corners on crown molding.  That is not an easy task.  Even more difficult was maintaining the same reveal on the top frame of the cabinets while still reaching the ceiling when the ceiling is anything but level!  Rick actually had to cut a filler piece to make that happen, but the outcome is a bank of cabinets with crown molding at the top.

Crown molding also frames the tops of all the cabinets on the west wall. 

Rick spent part of this morning installing base boards around the rest of the room, and adding the woodwork molding around the pocket door.  We had to make a quick trip to Menards to buy some base shoe that we can install in front of the kick plates on all of the cabinets, and on the floor under the desk. I stained what we purchased, and tomorrow we will add sealer and varnish.  The base shoe should be ready for installation on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

In digging through the stash of wood downstairs, I actually found some laminate floor molding that we will be able to use in front of the washer and dryer once we have those two units fully installed.  That should happen late Monday afternoon.  Two Men and a Truck are scheduled between 3:30 and 5:30 to carry the washer and the dryer upstairs for us.  We will have to reattach the base drawers and actually install the units to the dryer vent and to the water lines once we stand them up and level them.

We cannot attach the final base cabinet until we get the washer and dryer fully functioning.  Leveling them and hooking them up with that last cabinet in place would be almost impossible.  I hope that by the time I go to bed on Monday evening, I will have a working, wonderful first-floor laundry.

Once the last base is attached to the wall, Rick also can install my Vroom central vacuum outlet.  I cannot wait for that to be functional. It will make clean-up in the laundry room and kitchen so much more convenient.

For the first time in weeks, we actually were able to quit working on the room before 4:00 p.m.  We accomplish a little bit each day, and we make slow but steady progress in transforming that room from a den into a multi-functional room that we both will be able to enjoy.