Back Porch Fix-up Complete ... Almost

When we last saw the hero of this story, Mr. Back Porch, he looked like this:

While he had a pretty new paint job and his trusty sidekick, 'Lil Light Fixture, he was still missing his one true love: Miss Trim. Without her, he seemed a little incomplete and lonely.

Well, I was only able to give him half of his lady love, since there wasn't enough space around the top to add trim. Ok ... this story is failing. Anyway, you can see that I was able to at least fill the gaps around the ceiling if you scroll from the picture above to the one below. So that was an improvement.

And then I was able to successfully add baseboards to the bottom, which looks way better. It's a lot more polished looking now.

Step One
The difficult part about adding trim to this little mini-room is that the corner trim is kind of out of control out there. In the picture below, you can see the issue in the corners.

Here's a close up of the mess. I started out by just cutting the trim pieces to fit the odd spots as best I could, then smoothing caulk over the gaps as best I could.

 

It wasn't as bad on the other side, near the door, but still not great.

Step Two
I painted over the trim with white, going past the trim line. I let that dry and then put painter's tape in a straight(ish) line, leaving the excess white paint above the trim exposed.

Step Three
I touched up the grey paint and then immediately removed the painter's tape. It was definitely better. Not perfect, but when you're just walking through this room to get into the house, you don't notice.

I've come to learn that in a crazy old house like the Capers, it's not really worth the trouble to go for perfection. Good enough really is good enough. And it's still way better than it was.

Ceiling Issues
I had originally planned to add a flat trim directly to the ceiling, so it would just cover the weird gaps and still fit in that tiny space between the window and the ceiling.

But since the ceiling drywall doesn't have wood behind it in all the spots, I knew I couldn't nail the flat trim in place. So I attempted something I figured probably wouldn't go well: glue. And as expected, failure. The metal lip around the ceiling made it impossible for the trim to lay flat against the ceiling.

At this point, Oreo came out to help me solve the dilemma.

But he ran out of suggestions quickly and had to go take a nap.

So once again, I fell back on the idea that this house doesn't need perfection, just improvement. So I caulked the gaps and let everything dry. Once it was dry, I had to touch up the grey wall paint first.

But then I had an accident ...

That's right. I spilled a gallon of paint on the wood floor. Sigh ...

So even though I was able to touch up the paint around the top, and the gaps were all filled and Sir Back Porch now had his fair maiden Lady Trim, the back porch fix-up is not complete. Now I have to figure out what to do about the wood floor ...

But at least the rest of the porch looks pretty.