Valentin Not a floor expert here, but you bring up a good point that I have not thought of. My "soon-to-be" installed laminate is a dark walnut, and I could not find "laminate" moldings that I thought looked good. Real wood moldings are usually quite thicker than the laminate moldings. I found a local flooring store that makes laminate-sized moldings out of real wood and stains to match. This is the route that I will take. It is about $4 a ln.ft. But I think with all the other issues, and now this new one you brought up, I would look into that if you can find a similar store offering this service.

We had a similar situation a couple years ago when we hired my brother's friend and co-worker to build us a fairly complicated set of stairs/small deck. We chose materials (Ipe wood decking/vinyl railing) that the builder (who does this as a side job) had never used. There was a definite learning curve involved to using these materials. DH is an engineer and provided elaborate working plans, so I think the builder thought it would be easier to accomplish than it was. It took him forever, and we could tell he was getting really frustrated. However, he was a really nice guy and we totally trusted him to be at our house when we weren't around. He also hooked us up with the most fabulous stone worker who later installed the patio. When it was done we were embarrassed to pay him what he originally quoted us. DH and I decided to throw in a couple extra hundred dollars for his troubles. I also took lots of great photos of the finished work, both before and after the patio and landscaping were installed, and put it all on a disc for him. He was really thrilled with this, because he was building a website and these photos really showcased his work. Even though we didn't end up paying him what the job would have cost if he was more experienced and priced it correctly, we did acknowledge his efforts by giving him extra. I think it worked out well for both of us--he gained experience that will pay off down the road and we have a beautiful structure that another contractor wouldn't have considered building without a premium charge. The trade off for us was that it took forever to have it built--in fact we lost most of the useable summer season waiting for it. Most importantly, this guy is a member of the community we live in. He lives down the road from us and we bump into him all the time. We always have a friendly chat when we meet. I've learned that developing and nurturing positive relationships with the people in our communities/lives is always worth it! You never know when/how your paths might cross again. I like the idea of a gift certificate for your neighbor, and would add some pictures of the finished job so he can use them to build his business. BTW, Val, I think you have done the most spectacular job remodeling your home--both inside and out. I am amazed at your energy and patience! Hopefully it will all end soon so you can sit back and enjoy it all!

Thanks for your input. I will recommend she buy that book (and then I can also use it!). They have wainscoting in their year-round home and it does look great but with the dimensions of this room & wall interruptions with the windows she wasn't sure how it would look. I think white garbage bags taped up while she studies the book will help. The funny thing about this place is there aren't any curtain rods or even patched holes where curtain rods were removed. Did the prior owner just use those self-stick paper shades or live wide open - even in the windows that could be seen by the neighbors (the shower, at least one bedroom)? The nice thing is now they don't have any patching to do change the window treatments.

I would definitely expect there to be vertical frame members at every corner, with the size of each box varying to accommodate different wall lengths. In fact, I would expect there to be a vertical frame member on each side of each corner. The alternative of chopping up the horizontals to maintain a frame size that is unrelated to the dimensions of the room would strike me as silly. This is not wallpaper.