"A Portal to Another Dimension..."

After we'd started on the closet demolition, my son said, "Dad, that looks like a portal to another dimension." Little did we know...

Yesterday, we installed the chair rail without much trouble. But the "picture rail" has been a challenge. There really isn't any crown molding in the house, but there is picture rail in most of the rooms. Except this one. We'd looked a number of places to find picture rail to no avail. Well, there are a few places that carry some, but it's either not the right style or it's too small. It's way too expensive to have knives cut and a short run of custom matching picture rail made for the little bit we need. So we found some casing that has a similar profile and we've installed that.

OK, so enough background.

First we tried installing it flush with the ceiling. The ceiling is so wavy we couldn't get any joints to match up.

Then we tried using a laser level to shoot a line around the room. For some reason, when we started in one corner and shot our way around the room, we ended up a half inch off. Now I know that gravity will bend light, but NOT by half an inch around a 12x16 foot room! Maybe this is a portal to another dimension...

Finally, we cut a spacer to measure down from the ceiling at each corner and snapped a chalk line down each wall so we had the appropriate quarter inch gap between the ceiling and the top of the molding in the corners. Everywhere else the gap will just float some.

Now this room is ready for paint.