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Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. You can literally cut corners on jobs like installing crown molding with the ingenious coped joint. Instead of calculating miter and bevel for all the angles in a room, save that for the outside corners, which you see most. For inside corners, you can cope the joint. First, install two parallel walls of crown without calculating any angles; just cut them square to the adjoining walls. Ensure a great fit by cutting those first pieces just slightly too long and springing them into place. After you ve cut the adjoining pieces at a 45-degree angle, coping the joint simply means removing the meat behind the leading edge so it will fit perfectly against the profile of the first piece. First, you mark the leading edge with the side of a pencil so you don t lose it as you re cutting. While a coping saw is the traditional tool to use, if you re having trouble, check that the blade is tight or try reversing it so the teeth face the wrong way. Or, here s a hot tip: Use a 4 1/2-inch handheld grinding tool with a flexible sanding attachment to quickly grind away the back of the joint. To clear any remaining imperfections, attach sandpaper with spray adhesive to a short section of molding, following its contours. Run this along the coped edge to clear any remaining obstacles to the perfect joint. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Bob meets with Steve Powers of Trikeenan Tileworks who explains how their artisanal tiles are created. The field tiles Powers shows him are created in an extruder that squeezes the clay out in a ribbon before they are hand cut into squares. The glaze is either hand-dipped or sprayed onto the surface of the tile. How they glaze takes and presents on the tile surface depends on the chemistry of the glaze and the method of application. Trikeenan also creates tiles that are stamped between specially manufactured dies to create hand-stamped tiles. The tiles Powers shows Bob have been glazed and hand-rubbed to give a varied appearance. Homeowner Jeanne Sanviti-Masher explains the layout she created for the bathroom space. She and her husband decided to go with a single color scheme, which gave them direction and focus as they perused the glazes, colors, and styles available. Powers lays out the tiles specified for the design to show the field tiles, pencil liners, accent tiles, and decorative tiles that will be used on the walls and floor.

Bob walks through the Manhattan Brownstone floor-through apartment with project manager Chris Vila, looking first at the ductwork that has been run in the ceiling for the forced air heat. He then joins John McEvoy of Thorough Construction for a look at the drop ceiling installation they will be using to hide the ductwork and mechanicals in the ceiling. This Chicago bar system allows the crew to hang a perfectly level drywall ceiling instead of following the uneven pattern of the existing joists. First an anchor is screwed into the joists. A pencil rod is then fitted into the hole in the anchor and bent to hang from the joist. A lasar level marks the exact position for the kelly clips that will hold the main stays or block irons in place. The Chicago bar is then clipped to the block irons with a spaghetti clip to create a grid for the new drywall. The drywall will be screwed directly into the suspended Chicago bar.