Upgrading the hall

One of the dangers of blogging is reading other people's great ideas.  That happened to me with the hall.  I was reading Thrifty Decor Chic Molding Idea and thought it would be perfect in my hallway.  We have a long hall that runs down the middle of our house.   Here's the before pictures.  You're facing towards our "front" door (long story for another time).

Here's the view from the front door down the hall.  Kitchen is on the left, living room on the right, firepole is the brass tube you see on the right (another story for another time!).

Her step by step instructions sounded easy enough for me so I made a trip to Lowe's and bought everything I needed, including a nail gun which made life so much easier.  I wanted it done NOW but faced a few set backs along the way.  #1, a friend had borrowed our power saw and never returned it.  I decided to cut the molding by hand which didn't work so well so I had to do the ackward thing and call up and ask for it back,   #2, the nail gun did not have the correct adapter to fit our air compressor.  I found an adapter that would work and after much use of miscellaneous hand tools and frustration, got the adapter off another tool.  #3, our air compressor had a small hole in the tank which did not allow it to build up enough pressure to drive the nails.  #4, I'd already purchased a new air compressor for Dode's birthday and it was wrapped up in the closet.  I had to give him his present early.  #5, I was scheduled to get my one and only wisdom tooth out in two days. 

Dode was a great help but of course he came at the project with his male brain that wanted everything done correctly while I was willing to fake it.  I'd wanted the wall colors to be different below the molding and when I painted it was disappointed because there was really no difference, one the molding was up though, it looked much better.  Here's the big reveal.... before is on the left and after on the right.