Hate to See Old Doors Go
Work continues inside on a somewhat large project, and as usual, there are a couple projects in some form of completion (or incompletion if you're of the glass-half-empty bent). This post is about one of those projects that was partially complete for awhile, but in my defense - it's only been a couple months. The side door to 173 was ooooold. I'm thinking it may even have been original to the house. And as you know, if you've been reading this blog at all, we try to keep things as original as possible around here. In this case, that door had taken a beatin' for decades and it was simply time. The door frame had some rot, there wasn't much left to the threshold, the screen door didn't close completely and blew open with the wind (until I had the brilliant idea of putting a hook and eye lock on it), and the door itself had a large crack in it. All-in-all, there really wasn't much to keep the outside out, which was always more than a reality in the winter. |
| There goes the old door. |
So this was the year. I had looked at it for a few years, and as is my wont, I pondered and planned. The problem was the door frame's positioning and proximity to the rim joist and the foundation. I mean I really put some thought into it for some time, but quite frankly - it scared the hell out of me. I pictured me removing the door, the frame, threshold and all...and finding myself removing big chunks of foundation. REALLY not a pleasant thought. So this was the year, and the decision was made to recognize my limitations, humble myself, and hire it out, which has happened a couple time in the last few years (this couldn't possibly be age-related could it?). Here's what we got:
The other exterior doors at 173 had windows with a grill, so in keeping with that...and because we like the look, we went with this door from Lowe's. It's not the highest end door, but it met all the requirements, and didn't cost an arm and a leg.
Next was the storm door. Obviously we didn't want cheap, but we also weren't going to spend some of the prices we saw on other doors, so this one won out. The ONE requirement for the storm door was that it have one of those screens that roll down when you lower the window. The back porch storm had that so...
The fellow that owns his own home is always just coming out of a hardware store. - Kin Hubbard
Truth is, I put those pics in here because this blog is first and foremost a way of tracking what's happening at 173. So there's the boring part out of the way.
The guy that installed the doors and threshold came in the first week of February, in the middle of a serious cold snap here in the northeast. Kudos to the dude though - he did the whole thing in a day! Dang! he didn't even where gloves! Anyway, I had to wait til spring to do the caulking and painting, and today was that day!
Not a great picture, but you get the idea. Of course it had to be yellow! Maybe soon I'll do a post on the yellow doors at 173! Have a great day!