Home improvement over 7 years in the making

We bought our house new almost 8 years ago. We didn't build it. We just found it on the market new.  So, while most everything was new and complete, a few things were missing. 

This being one of them:

See that?  The entire hallway, living room and dining room had the same chair-railing.  Beautiful molding, expertly installed.   Except for this tiny little 6.5 inch section between Julie's room and the bathroom.

Seems easy enough to fix right?

WRONG!

It took 7 years to find a chair-railing that matched the custom-ordered stuff that was already in the house.  When I finally found it, I was so excited!  Of course to get 6.5 inches, I had to order 16 feet but that was OK with me.  I was just happy I found it.  So I did what anyone would do, I ordered it from Home Depot. 

Then I waited...
and waited...
and waited. 

Six weeks later, I found out that it hadn't even been ordered!  Turns out, they have to have $500 worth of orders from that manufacturer before they can order anything.  Nice of them to tell me that, huh?

So I promptly canceled that order, got my money back and reordered from a local hardware store. That store actually told me about their minimum order up front and how long I would have to wait for them to get those orders in.  And they didn't require money until my order came in.  So while I still had to wait another four weeks to get my much anticipated molding, I got much friendlier service and a more truthful company. 

Then it came in!!!  And we got this:

YAY!!!  It still needs to be caulked and painted, but it is up and that's what is important.  No more 6.5 inches of bare space in my hall!!

And...

Since we had to buy 16 feet to get our 6.5 inches, we decided to use some of that extra and add molding to our dining room as well.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm so excited!  I can't wait to get that stuff caulked and painted.  Pretty soon it will look like it's always been there and that's what I've been waiting for for 8 years!!!

We had more plans for that space under there as well.  Stay tuned and I'll show you that next week!