I think of myself as a good guy. And my wife is an even better person than I am. I wonder though if there is something wrong with us. We have taken the time to meet with four different contractors, going over our needs for renovating our home and not one of them has given us a quote. This makes me wonder if we are off-putting in some way or the work we need completed is undesirable for some reason. With the first two painters, who came recommended to us by a real estate friend, we went over all the things we needed for our whole home, inside and out, from the roof to the basement. I think we scared the first two off. Or to better describe it, our job is not as appealing to them as the other jobs they can choose from. Which is part of the problem – there is more work for painters than there are painters to do the work, so they can pick the preferred work and pass …

After completing all the doors for my upper kitchen cabinets, the next step is to add crown molding (see all the posts in this series here). This is a step in this project I have been looking forward to because crown instantly improves the look of a project. Plus crown molding is the last step in construction for the upper cabinets. This cabinet design has a very specific requirement for crown molding. The available vertical space is only 1-1/2″ which is a tiny, tiny area. The first design called for a larger crown and smaller doors, but the doors seemed too small making the storage space behind them less effective. So, larger door openings means smaller crown molding. Most small crown molding available at the home center is too big for this space. I did find a potential crown at the Home Depot, but something I learned from my coffered ceiling project is this: a small crown molding looks less small if it can extend outward more than normal. After looking at the options, I …