Fast forward to a few days ago and we had the tile baseboards ripped out and the not-for-us chair molding and things were looking much better.  Although painting the walls and the grout really, really helped things too.

But now that the trim is in place, our eyes can rest:

We decided to use the same 5′ simple-lined baseboards that we used in our guest room and family room  (and will continue to use as we update the rest of the house) and the 2 1/2″ version for the chair molding.  We had the baseboard leftover from our family room, but the chair railing only cost us $11 for the whole room at Home Depot. It comes pre-primed and I painted it with the same off-the-shelf white I used for the top half of the wall.

Here’s a shot of the space where the more ornate trim used to be.  It covered a pretty large gap.

And now with trim in place:

Huzzah! By extending it throughout the whole room, the molding covering the gap and the weird shelf (it is actually there because of our home’s foundation) seem less accidental.

Now we get to fill the walls and bring back in our washer and dryer and sink–which we’re hoping to get done today.  Full reveal tomorrow?  Fingers crossed!