I’d just installed a door where there’d once been a window. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but it was still a good bit of work, especially with my one day a weekend pace of late.

The door was was in, but the walls were in seriously ugly shape. I’d pulled a pea-wit move and kicked a piece of siding in. It tore out a big chunk of drywall, completely ruining my plans for a surgically neat installation.

KITCHEN REMODEL: EPISODE 34

I started the finishing phase with some freshly screwed pieces of drywall.

I taped and mudded the area with a few trowels full of drywall compound. I'm not a big fan of drywall work, but I managed to get decent application on there.

Deja-Vu much? There I was, doing drywall work on the exact same wall as about a year ago, before the first of the cabinets went in.

Stepping Outside

While the drywall compound was curing, I went outside and started trimming the gooshed out foam insulation.

I wrapped the seams with a peel & stick rubber flashing tape.

The Craftsman style trim I’ve been doing is just so stinking easy and looks good. The more I do, the more it ties the house together. For this, I use nice, finished grade pine board since I’m just going to paint it.

I put a couple beads of silicone caulk along the backside of the board and shot it in place with the finish nailer.

90 degree butt joints are super quick to install so I popped the pieces in about as fast as I could run back-and-forth to the garage to make cuts on the miter saw.

I finished the door trim in minutes and even added some furring strips along the edges of the new siding pieces.

One of the cool things about this door is the built in mini-blinds between the glass panes. The kitchen is going to be so much more comfortable in the summer evenings, with a double-pane window and blinds, compared to the aluminum, single-pane garden window that formerly resided here.

The drywall compound still wasn’t dry indoors, so I kept plowing forward outdoors. I filled the nail holes and sanded the boards with my cordless oscillating sander.

I picked up a cool, new paint bucket with disposal liners for these little jobs. It has a vertical surface to get paint loaded on the foam mini-roller I was using. I primed and painted it.

I wasn’t neat about the edges either. The I’m going to paint these walls anyway. I’ve even ordered a sweet paint sprayer, so stay tuned for that.

Back Indoors

While the paint dried outdoors, I masked off the edges of my wall repairs and blasted them with a can of orange peel spray texture.

I didn’t wait for the texture to dry when I started nailing the trim in place. Bad. Ass. Rebel.

I’ve really gotten to like using a Kreg Multi-Mark to set my measurements. I hold the trim off the edge of the door frame by a uniform amount. It gives an interesting reveal.

I pulled the same beefy, 1x6 base molding around from the other side of the room where I’d installed the board and batten wainscoting.

With that, the door is in and trimmed!

I primed the inside trim as well. I have some more trim to do in the kitchen / dining room before I paint the walls, but it’s getting close. We’re thinking about a warm gray, like in the family room.

Next up, lighting. I have to get the attic wiring done before the it gets too hot up there.