Finishing the Hat...

The corner of the door was sawed off at an angle to fit the angled door frame Joe made when he was making the closet. The door, which is hollow, was topped off with a bit of insulation and then Bill put a bit of quarter inch...wood of some sort (I've forgotten) over the hole, evened out the edges with wood putty, and then sanded it smooth.

This is the exterier view of the closet door frame...

And this is the very-difficult-to-photograph-because-there's-now-a-built-in-shelf-at-the-level-of-my-head view of the door frame from inside the closet. Bill raised the level of the door frame on one side, and then at this extra corner area, he filled it and patched it with pieces of molding and wood putty. It's hard to really see, but he did a great job. And then sanded it nice and smoooooth. All ready to prime and paint.

This is the molding or baseboard (I seem to use the terms interchangeably, though I know I shouldn't. It's the rebel in me.) in the hall. Before Bill put all that in, the area was bare, with a space between the right-most section of the wall and the floor boards.

He also finished Alex's room yesterday, pretty much, so I started in on the priming and painting.

Now, as you may or may not remember, Alex's color scheme is basically sky and flora. Blues and green.

I'd done the whole blue thing back in June, and Alex has very patiently been waiting for the grass and the trees and so forth.

So that's what's happening now. Keep in mind that I took some of these before I put the second coat of paint on the baseboard, so it looks patchy and poorly done. (Perhaps you'll feel it still looks patchy and poorly done when I'm finished with this whole project. In that case, I worked hard to achieve that look, and I'm sorry but I can't tell you how it's done, because if I gave away all my interior design techniques, then where would I be???)

So here, first, is the view from Alex's doorway. He hasn't been able to sleep in his room for the past two nights because all of his books and many of toys and...stuff...were piled on his bed.

Off in the distance, you might notice a bit of green peeking out...

This is an example of the sort of fun I get to have at this point.

Here's another view of it:

Fun, fun, fun. I'm painting with one of those little foam brushes, by the way. I think it's a 2" width. In case you were wondering.

This next one is in a corner of the closet. Sorry for the blurriness.

I have no idea what this or any of the other plants are that I've created.

Here's a look at the edge of the closet doorway from inside the closet.

And, the other end of the closet:

And, the little corner just outside the closet...

And yes, I've been saving my favorite parts for last.

This is one corner of his room...

Oh, and because I know you're probably wondering...

That's a picture of Scratchy that Julia drew for Alex.

Anyway, after I'd painted that corner, and finished another coat on the baseboard below, I put a bit of furniture back in the room...so this is the final look for this corner:

I'm happy with it. But even better, Alex looked at it and said, after a moment, "Not bad." That's Alex's version, at times, of doing handsprings. He also referred to me as "a great artist," which makes all this well worth the effort. He's a sweet little guy.