The last of the molding goes in this week with me saving all of the inside corners and coping for the end. I start with finishing the chair rail because the coping on the chair rail seems trickier than the larger and plainer baseboards. I keep trying a few test cuts but it’s hard to ever get the profile of the molding to line up perfectly. I get pretty close with wrapping sandpaper around a piece of chair rail and using that to sand down the coped profile.

One problem from the way the chair rail is installed is a weird gap in the back of the corner. The problem is that the piece of chair ends at the beadboard, but the beadboard is providing about a half inch space off the wall preventing the chair rail from sitting flush against the wall. My guess is that I would have had to notch the top of the chair rail better, but I didn’t so now I need to make a small wood plug to get rid of the gap.

After the chair rail is finished, on to the baseboard. I start with the longest piece of baseboard that spans the length of the room. It’s tricky to get completely level because the floor is uneven. I get it cut and then start sizing out the other smaller pieces. For these I need to cope the wood to fit in the inside corners.

Coping the baseboard is easier in that there are less cuts, but there’s a longer amount of straight cuts that are hard to do with a coping saw. I tried a test using the jigsaw, but it ripped up the board too much so I stick with the coping saw. I get the baseboard pieces to fit, but it’s not super tight. I kind of feel this whole coping inside corners thing is a waste of time. All of the inside corners in the house are just mitered and they look fine. Oh well, too late now. But next time I’ll just use a simple miter cut because I’m not seeing much benefit to coping.

The other piece to deal with is near the vent pipe. This area is tricky because the wall bulges out a lot. I need to plane down the back of the board to get things to lay somewhat flat and not stick out too much. On the opposite end of the board, I have to use shims because that side of the wall is not lining up nicely with the adjacent baseboard. This part ends up being a bit out of square, but luckily this area is the corner with the toilet so hopefully it won’t be too noticeable.

Wrapping up after the woodwork, I do another pass on the floor to clean off more grout haze. I use a grout haze cleaner and I hope that it also cleans up some of the discoloration I found from the 501 Miracle Sealants. I also hang a lace curtain we picked up in Cape May.