i.need.a.holiday...[part.three]

[monday | day.three]

so monday morning i was a bit groggy as i awoke to the sound of the sander going... i looked at the time and it was only 7:50, so its not like i slept in, but obviously the folks had to be leaving for the airport early and were ready to get to work. so i quickly got dressed and staggered downstairs to review the situation. karen was working on sanding the trim we'd gotten finished on the shelves the day before while allan was getting read to start cutting more trim and anne was already working on more crown touchup. maybe i had overslept...

anyway, i jumped into the action and soon allan and i had gotten back into our routine for measuring, cutting, and attaching the shelf trim. by this time we were getting pretty comfortable working side by side, holding boards for each other to hammer or screw in, anticipating what the other would need next... [this will come back into play later in the story... thanks for that mom.] well the day seemed to go by pretty fast in general. i dont know how long we were working on the shelves but it certainly seemed to fly by and before we knew it we'd finsihed the remaining trim and decided to get started on the doors. the more important being the backdoor in the shop. so we got all of our materials and tools together and made our way up to the shop to get started. first we had to remove the plywood covering the opening and then the much more difficult task of removing all the existing trim and door surround that was starting to rot in some places and was going to have to come out either way if we were going to fit the new pre-hung door into the opening. well after double checking we discovered that the masonry opening was only an 1/8 of an inch larger than the new door assembly so we took a sigh of relief and got started on the demo.

first we attempted to remove the door frame on either side of the door, but were having some difficulty getting it out. soon we realized the threshold was locking it in place, so we removed it first. the threshold came up with no effort at all - im still not entirely sure how it was even attached, i think we found one nail in the whole thing... after getting it out of the way we were able to pry the frame out on either side much more easily, however we were still running into some issues with the frame header locking them in place at the top. after trying a few different approaches we were able to pry them out on either side however we started running into some snags. as we pulled the door frame away from the masonry opening, the brick and mortar behind it was starting to just crumble away. apparently the door frame wasnt the only part of that opening that had gotten some damage over time...well there wasnt too much we could do, but we attempted to minimize the amount of brick we were loosing from the wall as best we could. by the time we got the frame out on either side we'd started a nice little pile of rubble, but the majority of the opening was still intact. however, at this point a new problem had arisen... how exactly were we going to mount the new door in this opening?? im still not entirely sure how the existing frame was attached on either side, again i saw no nails to speak of as we were prying it off, its almost as if the whole thing was just wedged in place. how secure... anyway, there were a few places in the opening where we found that there were blocks of wood set into the brick and mortar but they were randomly placed and pretty limited in size, not to mention about 3-4 inches inset from the edge of the opening as it were. those blocks of wood were our only real option as far as we could tell for mounting this thing, so we'd just have to figure out how to make it work later. at the moment though, we still had the header of the frame to remove and it wa being a royal pain in the ass.

it turns out after we started looking at this thing from the outside that this was definitely not the original door. in-fact, we could now clearly see that the original lintel for the door was much higher than where the frame stopped... someone had "shrunk" the opening at some point along the line and the actual opening was 8ft tall! we could have bought the cheaper/taller door at home emporium after all! grr... well we debated the option of returning the one for the other at this point, but decided that time had past, and we needed to get this door in place as fast as we could. well soon the girls emerged from whatever it was they were doing downstairs and announced that they were going to home depot to return the vent cover [it hadnt quite fit the opening once we got it up there] and asked if we needed anything. by this time after a lot of effort and some creative circular saw tricks by allan, we'd managed to tear out most of the header mess of the door and were getting the girls input on whether or not to remove another piece of wood that was creating the old doors actual structural header. after a little discussion we decided to remove it and told the girls we didnt need anything and they were off on their way. well, as they started downstairs i second guessed myself and remeasured the masonry opening - and its a good thing i did! we were now at about a half an inch wider than the new door assembly after removing the old frame and we were going to need something to shim the gap. well we had some door shims, but even a shim on either side of the door was going to leave a lot of empty space so i raced downstairs and caught them just as they were leaving. i asked if theyd get us some 1/4" hardboard to put on either side of the opening to shim it up and also give us a much cleaner surface to work with and gave them all the measurements for the cuts id need them to get. they agreed and were on their way as i returned up stairs and allan and i started to remove the remaining member and cut the lathe and plaster on the interior of the wall that was covering the top of the opening.

after a couple of attempts we got that done well enough, and had a fairly clean masonry opening to work with. so after collecting our thoughts and assessing the situation with the wood blocking we decided our best option was going to be cutting down some 2x4's to fit and then shimming them with whatever plywood we had available so that they would fill the depth and be flush with the opening edge. well.. after a couple of tries we found a method that seemed to work well enough and got 2 of the new blockings in place... and this is where things went a little awry... the 2x4's we were using were basically crap scrap that was laying around and they were very knotty and rough. also we were using both scrap 1x3 and some 3/4"mdf scrap that we had lying around the shop to fill the gap. well we'd figured out a method of pre-drilling so as not to split the 1x3's and then i had some 3.5" galvanized deck screws we were securing each layer of blocking back to the wall with. well on multiple occasions this assembly method had been giving us some problems... as i said the wood was knotty and crap and the screws didnt want to go in nicely... we had to force them. well, as we were working on the 3rd board allan was holding this time round while i was trying to drive the screw and for either the screw being obstinate or us hitting a knot, the stupid drill jumped on me and went smack onto my father-in-laws finger.... ef. it got him right in the cuticle between the nail and the flesh, so im sure it hurt like hell, but he didnt make much of a fuss other than obviously wincing when it happened... so anyway, he went to clean the wound while i dug out our band aids and ointments and then he dressed his wound. it didnt look too bad, but im sure it didnt feel great [hence my mother-in-laws comment about the finger splint in post No. 1... i sure hope its nothing serious!]. either way, we quickly got back to work, hoping to finish up the blocking before the girls got back. and as it turned out we did. but only a couple of minutes passed before they showed up with our hardboard and we got right back to work.

about 5 minutes went by and we got the first piece of hardboard screwed in place when the girls came and stole my drill to screw in the new vent cover. so allan and i relaxed for a few minutes and then a few more and decided to see what was taking so long. well, they were having some issues so i stepped in to help them finish up and get us back to work. a couple of minutes later we had the vent in and allan and i started screwing the other piece of hardboard in. soon after that we were ready to try putting the door in place and moved it into position and started removing all the packaging. now id like to say that the door went in with no problems at all, but if youve been following this story, im sure you know thats never the case... well we were able to fit the door in the opening, but the hardboard on both sides was wedging it and it wasnt going to open like that. so we quickly removed the hardboard from one side and tried again. well it wasnt wedging anymore, but there was still a sizable gap and the door was quite wiggly. soon the girls showed up to investigate - having finished whatever it was they were busying themselves with - and to make us aware of the time. it was getting dangerously close to time for them to be getting ready to leave so we better hurry it up. well with their assistance [possibly a few too many hands?] we eventually got the door into a "good enough" place and put a couple of screws into it. after a lot more messing with the thing and the shims and what have you, we managed to get it securely in place and opening smoothly. its still a little skewed, but its in better shape than i would have expected [better than our other doors, haha!] and while we will have to drill out the lock holes in the frame a tiny bit, its in pretty damn great shape! =]

satisfied with the door situation they were leaving us in, the in-laws quickly got themselves ready and gathered their things and before i knew it we were hugging and goodbye-ing. at this point i also discovered what else the girls had been up to that day. they had finished all the molding and then had moved on to the shelves as well. they had sanded, filled, and even painted all the face trim and they were just drying now - and looking pretty awesome! outside, theyd also picked up a bag of mulch at the depot and had prettied up the bottom tier of the planter with the flowers as well... ah those girls. ;]

well everything looked great, and while the in-laws seemed to think we didnt get as much done as we should have over the weekend, karen and i saw that 3 and a half huge projects on our list had been finished and we were greatly enthused and very thankful! [not to mention run ragged at this point as well...] so as we waved goodbye to the car we discussed how we were going to finish the door - which neither of us wanted to do right then. we were "too pooped to poop" as my mother says, and really didnt want to do anything the rest of the day. however there was still a gaping hole above the new door and tons of open space around the frame as well so we were going to have to address it in some way before the day was over... but not necessarily right away. i was pretty hungry and it was definitely lunch time, so we had lunch and watched a movie while we relaxed a little and got recharged to finish the door in some way.

after the movie we trudged back upstairs to assess the situation and soon after we arrived it started lightly raining... okay, its definitely time to do something. karen was really anxious to play with the special window & door expanding foam the girls had bought so she started filling the cracks while i thought about the big hole at the top where the transom will eventually go. after karen got to play with the foam for a while i decided it looked like fun and i needed a turn so she shared and i got to fill some cracks as well - and i think we both got enough of it on our hands to discover that this crap doesnt come off for anything... [it actually did come off two days later in the shower after the oils in my skin finally did their thing and loosened it up enough to scrape it off...] after foaming sufficiently and watching it grow the rain was starting to come down a little harder and i decided to just cut some mdf to cover the gap in the door and then screw in some plywood to cover the opening. well it didnt go exactly as planned - but close enough, and we covered up all the remaining gaps with some plastic and painters tape to try and seal it all up as best we could. after that we were definitely done with project-time and were ready to do as much relaxing as we could for the rest of the night in preparation for the week ahead. so we watched some tv, snacked a little, and passed out early.

--fini--

and thats the story!

hope you enjoyed it, and i hope you enjoy the pictures im posting on the album site as well!

click here to see them.

i.need.a.holiday...[part.two]

[sunday day.two]

id say we were all pretty wrecked from the work of the day before, but again everyone was up bright and early around 8am getting their coffee buzz and revving up for the day. obviously we were quite ambitious in our planning the day before [if you'll recall the list of anticipated projects...] and we didnt quite get to cross everything off our list on day one. so while we casually put some finishing touches on the projects from day one we discussed the "revised" anticipated projects for sunday and monday and assembled our lists for the store.

per revision our was starting to look as follows:

sunday. we were anticipating finishing the crown molding up for good after getting the little remaining additional length of crown from the depot, and then the girls were going to start caulking, filling, and painting all the crown. after the crown was finished for the guy part, we were going to move on to bookshelves. we werent entirely sure how quickly they were going to go, the first attempts that karen and i had made towards cutting and assembling the face trim had been very slow and very rocky, and i was expecting much of the same. given the lack of estimation, we werent sure how fast it would go, but we were sure we could get it done on sunday and move on to bigger and better things. additionally, karen had done some searching online both the night before and that morning and had found a few different options for fill for the planter and we were going to attempt to get a truckload of dirt to unload into the planter on sunday as well. then, after we'd finished those projects and still had all this energy pumping [hah. hah. hah.] we were planning to install the first of the two doors that needed replacing and that we were going to pick up at the home depot today - and at some point we were going to have to go to home depot obviously. then add in a few meals, and that should pretty well round out sunday.

monday. well the folks-in-law had to leave for the airport a little after noon if they were going to make their flight, and since we were going to get most everything finished on sunday anyway, it should be a pretty light morning anyway. so we were anticipating for monday to just be finishing up whatever painting still needed to be done and then installing the other door that needed to be replaced, piece of cake, no biggie. after we'd conquered that freaking crown molding, how hard could it be to install a few doors anyway? and allan had plenty of experience installing doors after ike's rebuilding, so this should really be smooth sailing. we were set.

so after looking at the anticipated projects and deciding our course of action and after karen made a few phone calls to dirt people we decided the first thing on our list was going to be picking up a truck load of dirt, then home depot, then to the house to unload everything [which included the dirt and filling the planter with it] then on to all the inside projects for the day. so after a coffee refill and checking the directions we loaded up and headed out to pick up our dirt. can i just take a moment here to say again how awesome craigslist is? free dirt, can you beat that? haha, anyway, so we arrived 5-10 minutes later at this guys house and he was out in the front yard working and waiting for us and waved us in. after briefly telling me where to back the truck up and after a couple of tries to back it up without destroying the guys yard [he had nice grass, but the curb was pretty tall and the yard was inclined so the truck needed a little coaxing and tlc to accomplish this little task...] we were unloading the shovels and making our way to his backyard where he had a HUGE pile of dirt. apparently hed been cutting the front yard of his house for some 5 or 6 months now and where it used to be sloped up to the porch level hed been cutting it down to the base of the stairs and planting garden and bedding all the way around. so if thats too abstract for you, just imagine an "L" shaped area about 6 ft wide around the corner of the guys house and about 3-4ft deep. thats... a lot of dirt. he said he must have moved at least 50yards over the last 5 or 6 months, lordy... anyway he had tons of dirt free for our taking and luckily a few buckets and a wheelbarrow we could borrow to load with, so we dug in. well, it turns out this particular person was quite the gabb-er and quite friendly, so while we worked he jabbered our ears off about his house, his landscaping, his trees, his kid, his dog, his current lack of work situation, and im sure about a dozen other things i didnt overhear. i feel for anne... wow... she was doing the "easy" [as she put it, not me] work of shoveling and this guy was on her hip the whole time, while the other 3 of us took turns shoveling, and lifting the full wheelbarrow and buckets into the back of the truck for dumping. i cant say for sure how long we were there, but it didnt feel toooo long by any stretch. maybe a half an hour to an hour? i dont know, i was concentrating on sweating and getting dirty, not the time. so anyway after oh, 20-30 trips i guess, we'd pretty well filled the bed of my 8ft long-bed truck pretty well and i decided it was time to stop. i didnt want this dirt spilling out in an avalanche when we opened the tail gate at the house, so we'd hit our threshold for the load. after thanking the nice man and his son we loaded up and decided it was time for a quick lunch break on our way to home depot.

at this point karen and i knew where we were in the area and pulled over a few blocks away in a little shopping center with a half dozen food options and we decided on wendy's for lunch. as always it was a pleasant little meal [although they must have screwed up our order 5 times... lord...] and when we finished we had satisfied bellies and were ready to get a move on. next up was the depot, so we headed in that direction. although, before we got there we decided to take a quick detour to the home emporium to see about what the had to offer in the way of salvaged cheap doors. they did have quite a selection of doors although the vast majority of them were fixed doors [not operable isnt really what we were going for...] and the few non-fixed they had were about 8ft tall, about 6 inches larger that our opening so.... not so much. so we left there and made the short 2 black trip to the depot and got started on our list. this time around the home depot trip took a little longer, even though we split up into teams to try and cover more ground, faster. oh-well... seems thats just the way trips to the depot go. so at least an hour later, probably more, we finally departed the depot with both doors and necessary accessories [like hardware for instance - although they were pre-hung, so it was just doorknobs and locks for the most part], a replacement vent cover that wed had to remove to put the crown in, our additional stretch of crown, and a few other odds and ends [like some flowers that the girls decided we needed to pretty up the planter... dirt aint pretty enough for em??]. so we made our way homeward bound and before long arrived. at first there was someone parked blocking our unloading spot, so we temporarily parked elsewhere and unloaded as much as we could [home depot stuff] and then luckily the people with the vehicle showed up and relocated it for us [and we met some new neighbors apparently] and then i was able to back the truck right up to the planter. with the tailgate open we were about a ft from the edge of the planter so unloading should be pretty simple.

although things that should be simple, rarely are. not that the unloading and filling of the planter was overly difficult, just not as easy as we'd have liked. there was only room for 2 people to shovel at a time without hitting each other so at first we took turns doing that, then after filling the lowest tier of the planter the in-laws had a spark of genius. they decided that since the dirt was going pretty quick [although the whole process was going much slower than id hoped. filling the truck went pretty quick, but unloading was taking much longer... weird...] that we better come up with some other filler for the bottom back half of the planter so that we'd have enough dirt to finish the job [or at least get us close]. so in a stroke of brilliance they decided we should make a few trips to the backyard and fill the bottom of this thing with rubble from our still large pile in the back. it really was a fantastic idea, i dont know why we hadnt thought of it before! so we took a break from the dirt and started making a few trips to the back yard with whatever containers we could find to haul with [i.e. trashcans and our recycle bin, lol] and started filling the planter. well after about 10-15 heavy loads wed filled about a third of the back of the planter and decided we were done and it was back to the dirt. so for a while karen and i shoveled while the folks got to take a little rest, then anne started doing other yard stuff and soon allan relieved me and i got to take a little break. haha, and then the rain started.... at first it was just a little then it was a pretty good downpour of fat rain, but they were so close to finishing unloading that they didnt stop so i got quite a show from the porch as they shoveled the remaining mud into the planter, lol! well, by the time they were finished the planter was about 95% full had even planted their flowers in the mud, and mostly they were all very wet. so after rearranging the truck they washed out the back for me and soon enough we were all headed inside where they all found dryer clothes and we got started on phase 2 - the interior.

well... at this point, it was starting to get pretty late in the day, id say it must have been around 3? so allan and i decided to start with the remaining crown molding. after our experience from yesterday we were hoping it would go much faster today, but the last bit we had included the stupid rounded corner of our stairs and that was quite a pain in the arse to work around. after trying a number of splicing options and trying to figure out some way we could segment around the corner we gave up our attempts in sullen failure and decided to just make it a square corner and hope that the gap created by the rounded corner wouldnt be too unsightly. well, after we got it on there and finished the rest of the second piece of the crown all the way around we were frustrated as hell with all the pieces that didnt go our way, but we were very relieved to finally be done with the crown! woohoo! and while we had been working on that, the ladies had been busy painting the window trim for the two diamond windows in the stair and they were looking very nice [and im supposed to mention to my mom that they WERE able to clean the bottom diamond window from the outside and it looks a million times better now!] as well as finishing second coats of paint on the shelves and letting them dry and whatever other odds and ends they busied themselves with [im really not entirely sure, allan and i were just a touch distracted...].

by this time it was getting late and it was definitely time for dinner. so we started working on that. we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and the girls made annes famous baked beans and some potato creation of karens, and we had a very satisfying dinner indeed! i might be a little biased, but i thought that everything turned out quite superbly and i was very pleased with my dinner. =]

well after dinner we were all pretty exhausted but there was still daylight so we felt a little guilty not working and started working again pretty soon. the girls started doing their caulking, filling, and painting of the crown molding while allan and i got started doing the face trim for the shelves. after figuring out a few tricks to measure and cut these things we got ourselves in quite a pattern of assembling them and before we knew it wed gotten the entire left half done and a pretty good start on the second half for tomorrow. but. it was getting late, and we were all wrecked, so it was off to bed for all the workers and we'd tackle whatever we could monday morning before they had to leave for the airport.... and with that, day two is concluded. and since i promised i would, heres a few pictures for you to show off just a little of the work we finished on days one and two. ;]

...crap.... my internet is being stupid and its not letting me put them on here... so youll just have to go to my picture album website to see them... sorry =/

i.need.a.holiday.after.my.holiday[part.one]

so when i last left you all i was in the middle of the weekend. well a lot of time has passed since then and my memory of the details of sunday are foggy at best. the only real excitement i can recall is that our closet collapsed sunday night at about 11pm and i had to fix it on monday. it was quite an annoyance, but everything is fine now.

the real excitement happened over this last holiday weekend. as i mentioned in the previous post, the in-laws were comin to town for a visit and we'd been preparing for their arrival. so friday night after work i cleaned house some more and set up the 2nd floor bedroom for them so they could have a little privacy on the 2nd floor with their own room and own bathroom. [theyd still have to share the only working shower, but its a big step up from practically sharing the same room with us - see: the circus coming to town...] anyway i got things pretty well prepared for them and then after karen was finished with school we went to the store and got some window treatments for the room so that the room wouldnt be completely open for the world to see. we spent the next couple of hours putting those up - a task that proved more difficult than id have liked, and the heat in the house was not working in my favor either... [this is actually going to be a bit of a consistency for the entire weekend... it was HOT] well at some point we finished and snuggled up in front of the tv for a while and before we knew it the cell phone was ringing and the in-laws were at the front door. well it was around 12:15am from my recollection and this was actually a little unexpected. wed been informed earlier that day that their flight had been delayed at least an hour, and they actually showed up earlier than originally planned... so not entirely sure what happened there, but we exchanged hugs, showed them to their room, and let them retire for the evening after all their traveling.

[saturday day.one]
well we were anticipating getting some house work done this weekend [i believe we may have discussed in brevity what projects we anticipated the night before] so we were all up pretty early and getting ready to start the festivities. after everyone had their coffee and breakfast we decided on a plan of action and then started putting together all of our lists. the days projects were anticipated to include, but werent limited to: home depot/lowes for materials & supplies, the grocery store to stock up for the weekend and the week to come, finish the bookshelves once and for all, put up the crown molding [caulk, fill, paint, and touch up as required], and if there was time get started on painting a few small areas that were still in need of some tlc. anticipated items for day 2 were to include replacing two doors, getting dirt and filling the planter outside, and then moving on to more painting and landscaping in the backyard. day 3, to be determined.
well, obviously we were a bit eager and thinking we could get quite a bit done, so we soon set off for the depot to pick up the few items we needed.
at the depot we got a little side tracked looking for some items that they ended up not having, but we were pretty good about staying on the list and without too much delay left the depot and headed to lowes to see if they had the missing items. well, they did, however we ran into a little bit of an assistance snag [in that the guy assisting us was pretty well worthless] and resolved to let anne [thats mom-in-law] stay at lowes to finish up while the rest of us walked next door to biggs to get started on grocery shopping. soon we were filling the basket with all the usual weekly items and then allan [dad-in-law] pulled out the envelope of coupons that mom was insisting we use, and we worked on those as well. i cant tell you exactly how long it had been, but it must have been close to an hour when mom finally popped into the grocery store as we were getting the last few items and checking out. apparently the worthless guy had been quite an ordeal, but eventually shed gotten what we needed and mom and i decided to go get the car and bring it around while karen and dad finished up with the groceries and we could all load up.
soon we were in the car and headed back home, anxious to unload all the new goodies and get started on the projects for the day. after unloading and having a quick bite to eat we were ready to get to work and split up into teams for the weekend. dad and i would do most of the guy stuff - measuring, cutting, heavy lifting, installing, that sort of thing - and mom and karen would take care of the lighter [although still just as important and just as labor intensive] work - like caulking, filling, painting, doing homework [that was karen specific] and supervising the guys [obviously the most crucial and time intensive task]. well we decided to start with the crown molding for the guys while the girls took down all the shelves that still needed to be painted and got started on that.
we were pretty confident as we got started on the crown molding because, well, how hard could it really be? its a 45degree miter for a 90 degree corner, right? thats what it was on all the base molding, and that went pretty quickly when karen and i did it, so this should be just as straight forward logically. well we took some measurement and got our crown out, got the miter saw hooked up and decided that just in case we were off a little on our measurement or cuts we better start with the smallest corner. so we set the miter, measured out boards and cuts [not just once, but twice] and climbed the ladder to bask in our glory.... and thats where everything went wrong. hahaha, as we stuck the wo pieces together we soon realized that they werent just a little off, but in fact were a mile off. the angles didnt line up at all, wed totally forgotten about the crown tilting out and having to cut back. crap, these were going to be compound angles. not only were we going to need the 45degree between the boards, we were also going to have to cut back at a 45 degree so that they would lean out - right? so we tried that method. calibrated the saw accordingly, made our new measurements, cuts, and then climbed back up the ladder... nope. what? but its a 90 degree angle, and this is half of that and theyre tilted at the same angle, so why isnt this working?? well we were a little befuddled at this point and had no idea what was wrong, so i came to the conclusion that since they were tilting out maybe that cut the angle in half again, so it was half of 45, so 22.5. that makes sense, right? alright, we had a plan, wed figured it out, we just didnt completely wrap our minds around the geometry the first two times, no biggie, we were still fresh afterall, the weekend had only just begun. so we re-calibrated, re-measure, re-cut again [at this point having gone through 3/4's of a piece of crown] and back up the ladder to see our succe...s&%$. that wasnt it either. and there was no discernible rationale for what angle we could possibly infer as the difference between the two. well now that we were quite frustrated and scratching our heads [which between the two of us - a masters in architecture and a real life head of scientific research - is saying a little bit i think] we decided to find the d.i.y. beginners books that mom had gotten us when we first bought the house, lol! well when those didnt turn up [weve misplaced a few things in all the rearranging and moving things around, but im sure theyll turn up soon] we opted for the advice of the internet. after a little searching karen found some website that had a table listing the various angles necessary for cutting crown molding - none of which made any logical sense whatsoever from a 90 degree wall angle and a 45degree bisection of that angle, but... whatever. so we found the numbers we thought we needed on the table, set our saw appropriately, re-measured the cuts again and then.... no. still not right... wtf?? so we consulted the website and chart again and it turns out theres two types of crown, one tilts at 45 degrees, one tilts at 38 degrees [where did these people come up with this stuff??? why 38 degrees??] and we apparently had the 38 degree variety so that came with a whole new set of angles. so we went back to the saw and comically enough, discovered that the new angles were actually pre-marked right on the saw all along if only we'd known to look for them, lol! apparently these are the "typical" angles for cutting crown.... anyway, so we remeasured [now having completely gone through a whole length of crown] and got ready to install using our handy new air compressor and nail gun that karen and i bought some time back. we tested the cut pieces and this time it worked! woo hoo! we were in business! i still have no clue how they came up with the angles that make these things work, but i also have no desire to sit down and try to work the geometry to figure it out either. lets just say that a master carpenter somewhere along the line was way better at this stuff than i am, heh.
so we glued the pieces up and stuck them where they were meant to go and got the compressor kicked on until we ran into a little hiccup - we were missing the one little connector between the gun and the hose. #$^*@.... so we sent karen to the hardware store around the corner while we measured and cut the next piece in line and by the time she got back we were ready to install. after trouble shooting the nail gun and getting everything in place we shot the first couple of nails and soon we were moving right along. the first two pieces went up no problem and then the 3rd we ran into a little snag. it was an outside masonry wall and the nail gun was not going to cut it. so we resolved to cut and mount a nailer first, then after a little more work we had the crown in place attached to it. well by this time we were starting to get the hang of this and it started to go a little faster. measure, cut, glue, nail, countersink... we got into a pattern and before long we'd installed all of the crown on 4/5's of the entryway. however, we ran into a little snag... we ran out of crown after all that trial and error on the first piece, haha! so we decided instead to move on to the second piece of the crown [we were doing a two piece type, for those of you that dont know, floor and crown molding can be a variety of combinations of pieces and any number of sizes]. these were just going to be flat against the wall like the base molding and were a much more simple measuring and cutting situation after the insanity of the crown. well... while wed been doing all this, the girls had painted all the shelves and were letting those dry, then had moved on to installing some pieces of glass that were missing in our front and back door - to make them much prettier - and then had even started filling and painting the trim around the two diamond windows in the stairwell and priming the rest of the stairwell to paint to match the entryway. well around dinner time we were all pretty gross from sweating all day [did i mention it was HOT?!] and were pretty hungry, so we decided to go to the comet for some mexican food and some hot salsa we'd told the in-laws about.
by the time we finished dinner it was getting pretty late and we'd only gotten most of one project done, so a little frustrated with our progress the guys finished as much of the crown as we could without the extra we needed to buy the next day and before long we were all exhausted and called it a night.

sorry, but my lunch break is over, youll just have to stay tuned for pictures and the rest of the weekend!!