Cutting cornice trim - and other trim issues

 I seem to be spending hours on this house with not much to show for it so far.  The window trim is finally ready, after handling each individual piece six times: filler, sanding, primer, sanding, and two coats of emulsion.  However when I went to try it out on the windows, I discovered a few things:

- I hadn't realised when apportioning window trim that the middle kitchen bay window is actually wider than the two flanking windows.  This means I was short one wider hood trim and a wider windowsill.  I had a wider hood in the unpainted spares pile, but I've had to cut out a new wider windowsill (because I thought I had one extra, and had already cut it down to make up the missing narrow windowsill, sigh).  So I've had to start again with the filler etc. on those two pieces.

- the pre-cut oval trim that I have prepared for the oval tower window openings, as it turns out, is not the same size as the openings punched in the house.  Luckily it was actually bigger, not smaller.  So I've had to break out the Dremel multitool and carve all three tower window openings to individually fit the trim pieces (which are not all exactly the same size either).

- dryfitting the trim to the windows, I confirmed that the exposed  exterior around the windows is going to be very slim - too slim to apply siding in the gap.  So I think it will just have to be a painted finish around the windows.  To that end, I've glued in some square strip wood to finish the grooves between the tower and bay side pieces and have started applying exterior colour.  I love the blue colour I've chosen, which is a Johnstone's tester pot, but the paint is incredibly thin.  I've done about five coats so far and it still looks terrible.  Also the grooves weren't all at the same angle or depth, so the strip wood trim is not uniform. Hopefully once it's all finished, it won't be very noticeable.

Cornice Trim

In between dealing with window trim, I've been preparing other trims such as the cornice and skirting boards.  I cut and installed skirting in all the first floor rooms, so it was time to deal with the cornice.  I had bought two different types: a fairly wide, flat trim for the ground floor 'best' rooms, and a more conventional triangular moulding for the first floor rooms.

I tackled the dining room first, with the flatter trim, to get warmed up.  That was fairly straightforward to miter the corners. 

I can't do the living room yet because it will have a built-in fireplace/staircase wall, so next was the study on the first floor.  The triangular moulding is not symetrical so it has a definite 'up' that always has to face upwards. I haven't cut moulding for a long time so it took me three or four bad cuts before I worked out the complexities of cutting the correct 45-degree angle when I'm right-handed so can only hold it into the miterbox with my left hand.  I tried my chop saw, which can be set to a 45 degree cut, but it wasn't wide enough or deep enough.  My razor saw only cuts on the pull, so it's a bit laborious to make the cuts.

The method was to mark the 'ceiling' side of the moulding with a long wiggly pencil line, and always cut with that side downwards in the mitre box.  Then whether it is an inward corner, or outward corner, has to be roughly marked in pencil so the correct slot can be chosen where I can still hold the moulding with my left hand.  Got there in the end, though the bedroom with its more complex cuts, did end up with some minor gaps which I've had to fill with a little decorators caulk.

Study, which is pretty much finished now

Hallway (finished)

Bedroom - there will be carpet on the floor but I'll 

leave that out until the end so it doesn't get damaged.

I decided life and skill was too short to attempt cornicing up inside the bay window, so I've just applied some narrow trim from my stash to cover the gap at the top of the walls.