Category: Home Renovations

Now that’s a busy weekend

Mom and Dad came out Friday night so we could get an early start on Saturday.  Friday night Ryan and I got some of the wood off around the diningroom windows and got the room ready to go.

I set up the camera on Saturday to take a picture every 10 minutes of our progress and I made a short video of the window install.  We managed to get the 3 diningroom windows installed and the last livingroom window closed up before dinner Saturday.  I’ll let the movie speak for itself 🙂

(note these may only work in windows)
Diningroom Window Install – click for movie

Then we moved onto the front door project – again I set up the camera to capture our progress.  The door project actually went through dinner, then wrapped up for the night and we finished it up just after lunch on Sunday.  The door looks amazing and tonight I’ll get the sidelight and frame sanded and stained if I can get off the couch again 🙂

Here’s our front door video:
Click for Front Door Install movie

What an amazing amount of work we got done this weekend and we never would have gotten this amount done without Dad’s help.  It was great that mom and dad could come out and help with these projects, it made everything go a little faster with an expert’s help.   I am hurting now though, my feet can’t even hold me up and unfortunately a headache is rampaging.  Time for some tylenol and a nap maybe and I can get back into some work.

Porch furniture

I finished getting the teak oil on the new porch furniture last night, then I got the rest of the second coat of urethane on the front door.  One more coat to go on each side!

New porch furniture

We got a table with 4 chairs and a bench for the porch.  Since we don’t currently have a diningroom we can eat out here when we get tired of the livingroom 🙂

A coat of urethane

Yesterday I got a coat of spar urethane on the door, one side done in the morning, the other at night. If i can sand and do a coat per side each night I should be doing the last coat on friday.

Unfortunately the door frame itself is still not done (and side light). But I can do that after the door’s installed. I just don’t want to have to take the door of it’s hinges later.

First coat of urethane all done

I actually got home at a reasonable time tonight, got to the grocery store, cooked some dinner (and ate dinner for a change). Even fit in an hour of StarCraft 2 before bed. Unfortunately I then stayed up reading much to late and I’m paying for it today with a headache 🙁

The new front door

Another update since I just got the stain on the second side of the door and some teak oil on 2 of our new chairs. Did I mention the new front porch furniture we got last weekend? It’s teak – a table with four chairs and a bench. I’ll take some pictures next time it’s light out. I need to oil them up so I got one coat on two of the chairs tonight just as it was getting dark. Hopefully I can finish those up some time this week.

Anyhow – the story of the door.

When we bought the side door a year ago we picked out exactly what we liked, it was a wood door, it has 2 glass panels that take up half of the door (not too much glass) and we got it unfinished so I could stain it a red mahogany color. The idea was that a year later we could buy the same door with a side light for the front door replacement.

So back to Lowe’s we went – and they no longer make this kind of door! Nothing like it, nothing with 2 glass panes on the top (rectangle, not rounded). So we hemmed and hawed and finally picked out a different door that has a similar glass pattern but has a large 3/4 glass panel and one side light. It doesn’t clash with the side door and since they’re not side by side it won’t matter but all that effort last year to pick something we could match! All for nothing 🙂

Anyhow I think the new front door will look quite nice and a larger glass panel will let more light in even if it means less privacy (although we can see who is at the door which will be a nice change). Plus more glass means less wood to finish 🙂 Just sayin ….

A weekend away

We had a wedding to attend up in Northern NH so most of the weekend was spent up there however we made it back home at a reasonable hour Sunday and since our new door had arrived (we picked it up friday night) we decided to start finishing it.

First came the unpacking – the door was supposed to come with no casing on it – however it came with some small casing that we then had to remove. We were not happy about this but it would take a couple weeks to get another door and taking the casing off wasn’t that hard.

Then we had to get the door out of the frame for finishing which was tough, the door frame has a sidelight so this is a little larger than our last door. Finally the door was free and we got down to sanding it.

A few sore fingers and backs later we had a door prepped and ready to stain. There was no way we were also prepping the sidelight and frame today but I think schedule wise that’s okay, I can finish “finishing” it after it’s installed – I’d like to have the door on it’s hinges though so it needs to be finished first.

Finally I got a coat of stain on the first side:

new front door - just got stained

Time for a quick game of starcraft 2 and then I’ll stain the other side. Tomorrow I can start the urethane procedure, one coat on one side each night. By Sunday it should be done 🙂

A weekend home

We didn’t do much around the house this weekend, it was too hot and humid and we had a picnic to go to on Saturday.

Sunday we did manage a few small projects, first we hung the bathroom door!

Finally a bathroom door hung.

It still needs some touch ups (had to plane off one corner – which is very familiar since we had to do the same for our exterior door). And we have to put in a door lockset or a tiny handle on the current lockset. But the door functions which is a huge improvement!

After we relaxed during the hottest part of the day we decided to do some paint stripping on the trim for the tvroom. A lot of it had been stripped but the 4 pieces for the window sides need to be done still so Ryan got out the heat gun and I got out the strippers and we got to work. Until I cut my finger – then we called it a day.

Stripping trim for the tvroom

A couple more hours and we’ll have the trim for the windows all done. The trim for the exterior door is done already but can’t go in until we have a closet door frame and trim installed.

Out sick

In case you’re wondering why there has been a lack of posting lately – especially since I was on such a roll with the painting – it’s because I’ve been sick.  The sore throat started Monday – turned into a sore-throat/migraine tuesday and even though the headaches are gone the sore throat continues.  I am now on antibiotics and hope to be all cleared up and back to painting next week.  Sleep has been a good friend of mine these last few nights 🙂  Especially since food has not been a friend.

Home to see family for the weekend and then back to the regularly scheduled program.  Hopefully next week we’ll see the bathroom door completed finally and hung, and the Gym windows painted if the weather cooperates.

First coat of paint on the trim

After work last night I broke out the paint again 🙂  I got the second side of the door primed and then I put the first coat of paint on the window trim!  Of course painting at night comes with lots of little tiny bugs that can fit through the screen so there were some casualties and there will need to be some sanding before the second coat now 🙂

First coat of paint on the window trim in the gym