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.

Veggies

My little veggie garden experiment is in full swing.  I planted only 3 vegetable plants just to see how I did with keeping them alive (I’m not very good at watering plants).  The Roma tomatoes are doing great, one little plant has a ton of tomatoes and even some turning red!  The Patio tomato has only one tomato but it looks good and the pepper plant has one little pepper.

Green Pepper (it should turn orange eventually)
Patio tomato
Roma tomatoes

The rest of my gardens really need some maintenance.  Some weeding and trimming are definitely in order, maybe one night this week I can get to it.  Our poor lawn is brown and crunchy too, and starting to get scraggly because we haven’t mowed.

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

Well the weather out-smarted us!

We had NO rain today – despite forecasts yesterday for rain all morning and thunderstorms in afternoon.  All well – can’t complain about good weather however we had changed our weekend plans (my parents did not come out) because we expected rain.

So we continued to pretend it was raining and did indoor projects 🙂  First we did some shopping and ordered our new front door which will take a few weeks to come (and then I’ll have to finish it to match the other door).

Then we finally added the little bit we needed to the bottom of the bathroom door so it doesn’t have a big gap at the bottom.

Bottom of the door patched

And after much wood filling and sanding during the day (and more sanding, and more sanding), I finally ended the day with some priming!  I got the window trim in the gym all primed and side one of the bathroom door!

Top of the window trim primed
Bottom of the window trim primed
Bathroom door - one side primed

And this week I’m hoping to continue priming/painting the windows in the gym and the bathroom door.  Soon the bathroom will really be done!

Rainy Day – trim time

Hot, humid and rainy today.  We decided to stick to indoor projects.  First we started working on the crown molding in the gym again.  We got the first piece coped and installed and started on the second.

First piece of crown molding up
Coped molding

Crown molding was a little rough on my arms (holding up above my head) so we switched to working on the window trim that was all stripped and ready to be installed.  Since this window didn’t have the same fancy trim as the rest of the downstairs it had no window apron to strip and refinish.  So we bought a new trim to be used and Ryan coped both ends – it came out great!

Coped window apron
Window all trimmed out
Window apron

I got all the nail holes filled.  Maybe this week I’ll have time to prime and paint the window trim so the gym will look a little more finished.

Tomorrow brings another day – another rainy day.  I can’t wait 🙂

Weekend coming up

I love short weeks, taking Tuesday off this week, while I didn’t get anything done due to the heat and humidity at least made for a short week and the weekend starts tomorrow (or tonight!).

We’re up in the air about weekend plans. It looks like some thunderstorms might be coming which may convince Dad that he shouldn’t come out to help with windows 🙂 So we have two plans …

If my parents come out – try to get the 3 diningroom windows replaced
If they don’t – then we’ll board up the last livingroom window when it’s not raining and maybe work on crown molding in the gym when it is raining.

Either way we’ll get something done and if we don’t see mom and dad at least we’ll see everyone next weekend. We also have to order a new front door, they no longer make the door that we used for the side door (and we had hoped to have them match) so we have to either pick something similar or something totally different 🙂