The bonus room makeover is officially starting. I’ve got all these interesting Pinterest finds that I want to incorporate into this room. It looks like Dad is all in on most of my project ideas, but I’m going to have to sell him on a few others later. We’re starting with crown moulding (molding????), which doesn’t seem to be all that difficult because I’ve watched videos and all you do is cut and nail up strips of moulding. That’s all…no biggie, it should only take a weekend. Oblivious could have been my middle name! Yeah, I really thought this for a couple of weeks until I started shopping for moulding and the tool list appeared. Dad says we’re going to need an air compressor, nail gun, and a really nifty Kregg Molding (Moulding???) Guide to add to our existing tools. Off to the store we go!
I think I made 10 trips back and forth to Home Depot and Lowe’s looking for the right thick piece of crown. We’ll just call it crown from now on because I don’t know which is the correct spelling. Did you know that there are a gazillion pieces of crown and a gazillion more of other moul….molding pieces???? And I also had a rude awakening at the cash register when the whole 8ft piece wasn’t $2.50. LOL, funny, huh. Ok, am I the only one laughing? I wasn’t laughing then because I started adding up how much crown I would need for this gigantic 18×14 ft room with an alcove and hallway. I’m starting to think this is going to be one of those projects that isn’t a low cost update like “they” said on pinterest! I told you in Part 1 that it almost never is as cheap as you think. I learned that in my Pinterest 101 class.
While I’m picking mo crown, Dad says we should start looking at air compressors. So, $199.00 later we have a Bostitch Combo Kit from Lowes’s which includes the air compressor, two nail guns and a stapler. Oh yeah!!! I can’t wait to use this puppy. Wait, apparently (Dad says.) we need some air compressor accessories, like a 100 ft hose. WHAT??? Are we hanging crown at the house across the street??? Ummm, ok. Now, we’re off to Harbor Freight to get compressor accessories. Have you been to that place???? It’s tool heaven and the prices are right for my budget. The shopping trip for that day probably cost us about $350 including our $30 Kreg crown cutter accessory. All that money and I still haven’t bought the crown.
So, the first day consisted of moving all the crap out of the room. Forgot about that. Then we had to gather all the tools and make a work area in the room for the saw. By now, we’ve blown the whole day and I still haven’t settled on the crown piece. However, I’m having fun unpacking all the cool tools that I’ll get to use for this project. Especially, the Kregg molding guide. I found a nice video explaining how to use it here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgJenWk0PLM. While watching I learned that we would need to install furring strips along the top edge to have a place for the nails to drive into. Ok, that seems like an easy task for Day 2.
Day 2 comes and I’m up and out early at Lowe’s looking for furring strips or 1″ x 2″x 8′. That was super easy and cheap. I’m starting to think I can get this whole project done in a snap again. LOL!! We threw those furring strips up so fast with the new nail gun it made my head spin. It really helps to have the right tools for the job. It would have taken us all day to nail it in with a hammer. How did I ever survive with a hammer alone???
Here are a couple of pics showing the furring strips attached and our new compressor. Pay no attention to Blue’s “prison”, he used to love his crate but now you would think we were killing him if it’s even in his presence.
The weekend is over and on one hand it feels like we got a ton done, but we haven’t even scratched the surface. Hopefully, I’ll pick the type of crown I want for this room in the next few days because I’m super excited to see some changes in here.
Check back to see my progress!
