How We Replaced Our Front Door

What’s in a door?  Well if you are like me, a habitual remodeler avid redecorator,….a lot!

Sometimes I feel like I live on an episode of self induced This Old House.  Did you watch it when you were a kid?  When I was growing up (did I just say that, man I’m getting old) all we had on our television was locals, no cable or satellite.  This Old House came on all the time.  That and The Joy of Painting with Bob.  You know him he had the amazing hair and painted trees and birds all morning long.  Loved him.  My free time was filled with the what about Bobs?  What were they going to do next?  All that to say I give credit to them for  inspiring my love of DIY and painting.

Now on to todays project.  This is the door that we put up on our house when we redid it in 2001.  Read more about that here.  Very pretty and VERY popular at the time.  It was originally stained wood and then a few years ago I painted it this dark navy blue.  But over the last few months I’ve grown REALLY tired of it and felt like it was “dating” our house.

So hubby and I sat out to find a new door and spruce the place up a bit.

Again.

Hubby found this door.  On Craigslist.  At 9:30 at night.  For Cheap.  Over an hour away.  I said call them.  NOW!  Let’s go get it NOW!  He called and went bright and early the next morning.  😉  LURVE him.

The only catch….it had been sitting out in the hot sun for months and all of the finish was peeling off.  So I spent a week stripping, sanding and refinishing it.  I’ll post about that sometime….after I recover!  Cause I’m not gonna lie by the time I was 3/4 of the way done I was OVER IT!  What is it about doing projects for myself that exhausts me?

Anyway finally the day came that the poly was dry and it was time to rip out the old and install the new!

Hubby made light work of it by removing the trim first and then using my Ryobi saw to cut the nails that held it all on all four sides.

Once it was out it was time to clean everything and install the new-to-us door.

The new door was a little smaller than the original with a different swing as well.  This actually worked out better than our original door.  Because even though we remodeled our house there are alway obstacles that we’re faced with.

You see the upstairs of our house used to be an attic.  In fact the man we bought it from (who was in his late 80’s at the time) told me that he and his siblings slept in the attic and he remembered watching the snow settle on his bed.  Seriously!

So naturally when we re-did the house we had to make the stairs more climbable.  Which caused them to come closer to the front door which, because I originally chose the wrong swing, caused a little of a traffic jam with the banister.  This new size and swing was just what we need to remediate the problem.

It took some additional 2×6’s and lots of leveling and shimming……

and then it was in!

After it was all installed, leveled and screwed in we trimmed it out with pine boards and then had the sides trimmed out to match the rest of the white trim around our house.

I love my view to the outside now because even though our other door had lots of glass, this one has clear glass and it makes all the difference in the world.

linking up at  Home Stories A to Z and Savvy Southern Style