About two weeks ago my wife and I were sitting in our dining room when I noticed that one of our 45 year old original baseboards was cracked. I should have kept quiet, but I mumbled to myself, “Hmm, I guess I should replace that baseboard…”

The first pyramid was built when the Pharaoh’s wife asked for a stone bench to be moved ‘a little to the left.’ The rest is history…

My wife quickly replied, “If you’re going to replace that one board, couldn’t we pick something a little more modern?”

“I guess we could, but if I rip out these old thick baseboard some of the unfinished wood beneath might show.”

“Can you put shoe molding in here?” my wife asks.

“Sure,” I answered. “I can put in shoe molding and just end it right at the two doorways.”

“But aren’t we thinking about putting trim around the doorways?”

I sighed, seeing where this was going, “Yes… we’ve been talking about doing that for years, though.”

“So, why not do them at the same time you replace the baseboards?”

I could have but I marveled at how we had gone from the simple job of replacing a baseboard to replacing all the baseboards to installing shoe molding to putting trim up around the doorways. I had gone from a 20 minute job to an 8 hour job in a matter of second.

And that’s the project I’m in the middle of now: trim around the doorways, baseboards around the floor and shoe molding to finish it all off. The room already has crown molding, or I’d probably be doing that, too.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post photos and show you some of the tricks I’ve learned for installing all this interior wood. I’m no expert, but I’ve done it enough to know what to expect and how to get the basics up and done. After I’ve gone through all that I’ll back track and write up how you can install crown molding!