measure twice, cut once...

remodeling seemed so much easier when mom and dad were visiting.

meg says, "let's paint the guest room."
mom and dad say, "okay."
then it gets done.

now that they are gone this is my reality:

i say, "let's paint the trim in the guest room."
no one answers.
this leaves one obvious option. i have to do it.

don't get me wrong, painting is relatively easy. but this is where it got more difficult: when the previous homeowner decided to cut out random pieces of existing baseboard to get her dresser closer to the wall. uh, dumb idea.
today i got to go to home depot and stare at a wall of baseboard trim. and although i thought i had measured properly, none of my figures matched up to the ones available to me. easy problem to fix, ask dad. good ole dad amazes me again, "just get 1 & 5/8 inch wood trim, preferably white, finishing nails 6d to be exact, and oh yes, you'll need a coping saw." oh okay dad, i can do that. but what the hell is a coping saw and what's matt gonna say when i come home with yet another tool dad says is mandatory??

well, i got home and went straight to work. i measured and cut the wood, sanded down the edges and painted the pieces. huh, easy. then i wondered how exactly to nail them in...i've seen dad drill the wood first. so i get the drill and make a hole. hammer away. bent nail. ?? so i drill into the wall. hammer away. bent nail. i'm starting to think i have too long of a nail. so i get a bigger drill bit, drill away, hammer, bent nail. what the heck, i'll just hammer harder. split the wood all the way through. that's when i called dad back and told him to come down here and help me because something was getting lost in the translation. that's when the laughter started...and you all know dad's laugh.

he told me to figure it out. so around the room i went, using smaller nails in some parts, and when the nails bent i drove them in and covered them up with putty and paint. and the piece of wood that split?? well, luckily i had a little bit left over so i cut the appropriate length and glued that sucker to the wall.

ha! no more bent nails.