A Hole In One

Kathy and I have been gradually trimming out the 3rd floor windows and doors. We've made really good progress over the past 3-4 weeks, but it's amazing (and a bit discouraging) how much there still is to go. There's so much fiddly detail work that it never seems to stop.

Most of the work has been with the new baseboards, and we'll post some pictures of that in a few days. We've also trimmed out every single door on the third floor, including closets, with our new/old reproduction molding. Just when we thought we were done, we looked up and realized we'd never finished trimming out the transom window above the bathroom door. And... say it with me now... as long as we're up here, we might as well finish off the oddball skylight, too. More tools, more paint, more cutting, and more ladders. It's a good thing we enjoy this kind of stuff.

In reverse order, here is the transom window that's almost (but not quite) finished. Perspicacious readers will recall that we built this window from scratch almost five years ago. There wasn't originally a window above this bathroom door, but when we gutted and remodeled the bathroom in 2012, we cut this in partly for ventilation, partly for light, and partly for appearances.

The window tilts outward, so you can open it for ventilation. It rotates on a pair of brass hinges that we got from an antique hardware supplier. And, since the window is right below the skylight in the ceiling, it lets much-needed light into the bathroom. We'd fabricated the window molding and sill back then, but never really finished it off. So this week, we finally trimmed, sanded, and painted it. Hooray!

The skylight in this hallway isn't original to the house, either. Somebody must have installed it in the 1960s or '70s. Maybe even earlier -- who knows? It's also possible that the opening was originally a hatch up to a widow's walk on the roof. It's nice having the sunlight come in, but the skylight itself was never very finished-looking. There were exposed roof beams and bracing visible in places, as if someone had left the job uncompleted.

This week we added some drywall and some molding to the skylight to make it look more regular, tidy, and finished. Naturally, the "square" skylight shaft is nothing of the sort. All the angles were a few degrees off of 90, which makes cutting and fitting the trim a chore. Lastly, we picked the hottest day of the year to stick our heads up in there to prime and paint it, so that added a certain sweaty charm to the task.