Doors And Mantles

I have a new bathroom door!

James and Beverly came over Saturday afternoon.  She did laundry, and he put up my new bathroom door and frame.

 I'm telling ya, it ended up being a much bigger job than either of us anticipated, but he got it done.  It looks so much better now than it did.

He did have a little oops where the frame didn't quite line up right -- old house and all-- and it left a little gap.

I got up yesterday morning and filled it in with caulk.

And I caulked around the rest of the frame, until I ran out of caulk, that is.  After my health screening for work this afternoon, I ran by the store and picked up another tube.  I made sure it was paintable caulk.  I figure once I get it even and smooth, I can paint it the same color as the door frame and no one will ever know.

I've also got to fix this.  It isn't an oops.  It's where the old frame covered up the drywall.

It kind of tore a little when he pulled the old frame off.  I'll just trim that edge and run some joint compound around it.  Once that dries, I can sand it smooth and touch up the paint.  Except that I forgot to buy a utility knife, so that'll have to wait until later in the week.

Even though it still isn't finished, it already looks so much better than what was there.  All day yesterday, I kept going back to admire it, and run my hands along the smooth wood.  I'm going to paint the frame the darker blue accent color, but I'm thinking about staining the door itself a medium oak to match my mirrored cabinet above my sink.  And of course, I'll be taking pictures the whole way and sharing this journey with you.

While James was working on my door, I borrowed his pry bar and pulled the rest of that edging off of my mantle.

And guess what.  It looks like these walls were once pink.  Go figure.

Anyway, I have a little patching to do on the drywall behind the mantle, but that shouldn't be too hard.

The weird thing is, there is a huge gap between the mantle and the wall on one end.

The other end is flush, and the board is the same width the whole length of it.  The only thing I can figure is that when they mitered the corner, they didn't get it exactly 45 degrees.  Or else my walls aren't square.  With an old house like this, that is a possibility.

I guess that's why they put the trim on there.  I still haven't figured out how the mantle is attached, but it isn't going anywhere.

Hey!  I bought me a triangle thingy!  Hang on a minute...

OK, so I ran in there and used my triangle thingy, and as best as I can tell, my miters are a bit off. Still, I'm just going to leave it.  Taking the whole thing down may just be a bit too big of a job for me.  I'll just replace the edge trim, and that'll hide the gap.  

Oh, did you see my mini hacksaw?  Isn't it cute?

Now, I need to go find some stuff to hack.