Replacing an Entry Door

subtitle: Why I missed church on Sunday.

We moved into a new home last month and there are a couple of things with the house that needed some repair. One of those things was the front door.

It’s hard to tell from this angle, but behind the grill, is a large white stain on the glass. It was caused by a broken seal between the panes of glass.

Mostly, the problem was the threshold. It was broken and air and bugs were coming in under the door. Also, water was slowly causing some damage.

It’d been previously sealed up and repaired with some Great Stuff, but one of my concerns in this house is the electrical baseboard heaters. I’m trying to winterize the home to cut down on some of our expected heating costs.

We found this door on the property. It was beat up, but I thought we could use it.

We figured with a free door and some purchased sidelights from the Columbus Re-Store, we could make it work. *Cue dark, foreboding music now.*

If you’ve ever tackled a project like replacing your front door,  you KNOW it is never that easy. Houses are crazy. You think you have a plan, but as soon as you have a giant, gaping hole in your home is about the same time your plans get shot to hell and back.

By the time we got to this point,

we knew we’d need another plan. The first problem we encountered was a severely water damaged threshold base.

All the wood was so damaged, you could flake it off with your fingernail. Hubs had most of it out before I grabbed the camera.

You can see that the space on the left where the crack was, the wood is all rotted away. Hubs was a little concerned at first about there being enough foundation left to fix this.

He cut out the damaged space on the floor joists to accommodate the new threshold. He also cut away the wood on the right to make room for the fix.

We found some treated lumber on the property and used that to fill the gap. We also found some vinyl that we wrapped around the foundation wood to act as a moisture barrier.

Once the new threshold was in and we could measure the rough opening, we knew that the free door was not going to work. Apparently, this had been a custom-made door. Our opening was only 80 inches high and pre-built doors are 82 inches tall. We needed another two inches.

The other problem was that the free door was 6” deep and our rough opening was only 4” (I’m rounding here. Rarely will you measurements to ever be exact to the inch). I didn’t want the door sticking out that far from the house, and Hubs thought the free door was just too sketchy.

Off we went to Menards to buy a new door we’d seen advertised in their flyer. Once we had a working door, it was time to frame out the opening for the sidelights and door.

Some of the wood we used in this project, we found on the property. This helped cut down on some of the costs. The sidelights are shorter than the door, so Hubs is installing a base for them.

I don’t have a picture of it, because it was a dirty mess, but Hubs had to cut down some of the header (the wood that runs across the top of the doorway opening) to accommodate a new door. Headers on a load-bearing wall have to be a specific depth to handle the weight of the wall.

Our header was taller than the recommended height, plus, we supported the header with two 2x4’s on the sides of the opening. This allowed us to enlarge the opening without compromising the structural integrity.

Before we got the framing complete, I had the boys bring in the sofa you see there. We couldn’t get it through the old door. It will go through the new 36” door, but I figured it was easier to get in the house while we had a giant hole there. The boys are convinced we just sealed the couch in the house forever!

Pre-built doors often come with the brick mold around the door. Because we were making our whole doorway larger than the door, I had to remove the brick mold from the new door.

With the brick mold off and the framing in, It was time to put in the new door.

Before we put in the door, we sealed up the gaps with some Great Stuffspray foam. That stuff really is great.We made sure all the spaces between the concrete and the threshold were sealed tightly with the foam.

Make sure to caulk the heck out of the bottom of the door and the bottom of the door frame before putting it in place. This is just another step to seal things up.

With the door in the opening, shims are your friend. We used the shims to adjust the door to make it level.

Once it was level in every direction, we screwed it into the frame.

Next, we put in the sidelights and trimmed them out. The trim around the sidelight opening holds the sidelights in place. Again, notice the shims to make sure the sidelight sits tightly in the frame.

We used quarter-round trim in the front around the sidelights. On the inside of the door, we ripped down some furring to use as trim on the inside of the frame. Furring is much cheaper than quarter-round.

With everything in place, the eleventy-bajillion cuts can be made to trim out the sidelights and doors. It was tedious. At some point in this project, one of us suggested that the other one should just let him work in peace.

I was okay with that. Sometimes, escape is the better part of valor. Giving my man room to work was not an issue for me.

This was a family project. The boys hauled things for us, ran and got tools out of the barn. Buddy took off the old door knob for me. Before I was kicked off the project, I measured, cut, nailed and cleaned. Hubs eventually called me back to help out.

Katie helped scrape stickers off of windows, inspected the work and even shot in a few nails into the trim.

She was very interested in the whole process, although she had to wear ear muffs to eat her lunch because the noise annoyed her.

It took us the whole day to get the project done-ish. Well, at least to the point where we had a working door and critters wouldn’t be able to come in at will.

For the outer brick mold, we didn’t have a nail gun with long enough nails to hold it on, so Hubs had to go old school. He pre-drilled the holes for the nails and hammered in finishing nails.

It’s been raining all week, so I can’t get out here to paint the door. Ditto for cutting the trim for the inside. I’m hoping we can finish it up this weekend.

I need to match the paint from the house, too. I’ve been debating the color for the new door, but the shutters are forest green and the old door was burgundy. We’ll void the warranty on the door if we paint it a dark color right now, so I’m thinking it’s just going to be white.

I have 30 days from the date of installation to get it painted to keep the warranty intact. I sure hope it stops raining so I can do that.

Cost Breakdown:

• Door – $119
• Sidelights – $50
• Wood for Framing &  Brick Mold – $88.40
• Shims, long Nails & Screws – $15.67
• Great Stuff, treated lumber, vinyl – On hand

Total Project Cost – $273.07

It’s going to cost more once we add in the paint and inside trim, but that’s a post for another day. Preferably, a sunny day.

Suesan

Double-Wide Dresser Redo

Hold on folks, this is one long post, but I promise it’ll be worth it!

On today’s agenda is this massive, Big Bertha of a dresser that Hubs and I inherited from his folks.

It’s a bad photo, I know. It’s the only one I could find of the before shot, though. It’s a double-wide pine dresser that was stained a cedar color. I’m guessing it’s from the 1940’s or so. It’s nearly as tall as it is wide. It’s 4’8” wide by 4’3” tall! It’s huge.

A move to our new home bumped this redo to the top of my list. I’d been thinking about what I wanted to do with Bertha for a long time. Awhile back, my youngest sister, Dani, had asked me for some ideas for her dresser. I created a pinboard for her, and I started collecting images of dressers I loved, along with other ideas for her home.

Imagine if you will if this dresser…

Source: kenziepoo.com via FrouFruGal on Pinterest

 

and this dresser…

Source: images.google.com via FrouFruGal on Pinterest

 

got married and had a gargantuan baby.

What would you have?

Ta Da!

I present my newest creation. Bertha became a total Betty!

Want to see the drawer pulls? They are monkey fist pulls.

I made them using regular clothesline rope and a wood bead for the center. I have a tutorial coming soon about how to make them.

If you want the details, feel free to read on, but again, this is a long post.

I made several mistakes along the way. Let me share them with you, so you don’t have to go down the same road I did.

Mistake 1: ALWAYS prime a stained piece with oil-based primer. I used KILZ.

I bought a couple of tester jars of Behr’s Premium Plus Ultra paint and primer in one in the color, White Fur. I happily painted it on (without having primed) only to discover bleed through.

Even though the Behr paint has primer in it, it is a latex primer and not an oil-based primer. It makes a difference when trying to cover stained furniture. I’ve read where people have painted on 4 coats of latex primer before painting, but I just don’t want to do that much painting.

I hate painting enough as it is. I’d much rather paint on one coat of the right primer and call it good. After I fixed this mistake, I repainted with the Behr paint.

All better!

Mistake 2: NEVER take furniture outside when the humidity is high.

We created a workspace area for me in my new barn. And I love it. But, the wood on the drawers swelled during the high humidity of August in Ohio.

To say I had to do copious amounts of sanding to fix the problem would be understating the fact.

I had to sand the rails between the drawers. I had to sand the tops of the drawers. I had to sand the bottom of the drawers. I even rubbed them all down with some wax to help things slide along. Sand, test to see if drawers fit back in the dresser, sand, repeat.

After I was able to get the drawers back into the dresser, I moved the dresser back inside to finish it up. Now that the swelling is down, the drawers slide nice and easy.

Mistake 3: Don’t bother trying to match stain.

I tried using my trick of mixing acrylics in a color similar to the stain and painting it on the open wood before staining. It didn’t work this time. Look at the third drawer on the left. It really grabbed the new stain.

Originally, I was hoping to leave the drawers stained and do the letters and numbers in a thinned white. When I realized that was never going to look like I wanted, I switched ideas and went for a reverse stencil (also known as a mask) with the gradient drawers.

Mistake 4: Line up your stencils/mask before you paint.

This was the hardest part. I had a hard time seeing the brown vinyl on the brown drawer. I’d definitely use a contrasting vinyl from my drawers if I ever do this again.

What happens when you’re not as accurate as you like?

Can you see the flub? It is kind of hard to tell from the pictures, and it may sound like I’m being nit-picky. But the six is slightly askew. It’s not hard to tell in real life.

Betty has her flaws and imperfections. Who among us doesn’t? Is Betty any less beautiful for having them? I submit to you that she is not. She is gorgeous just as she is.

Mistake 5: Don’t forget to score the edges of the stencil/mask before removing.

The white on the left happened because I didn’t score the edges.

I just lightly ran my blade around the edges of the stencil before I peeled it off. It greatly reduced my need for touch ups.

Tip: Make sure you save a bit of paint in each shade for any touch-ups you may need.

Here’s a few other pointers.

Old Pulls:

To get rid of the pulls, I had to unscrew them from the inside.

The pulls must have been glued down before they were screwed on. Also, they were attached before the piece was stained and shellacked, so it required a bit of force to get them off.

Once the pulls were gone, I puttied the holes

and then sanded them down.

Gradient:

For the gradient, I started by painting the bottom (F/6) drawers with True Value’s Color Made Simple testers in the Fairytale color. I added 1 teaspoon of Behr’s White Fur to the paint the E/5 drawers.

On the third drawer up, I realized the change in color was too subtle with just 1 teaspoon of white each time. Instead, I added 1.5 teaspoons for the D/4 drawers, then 2 teaspoons for the C/3 drawers, then 2.5 teaspoons for B/2 and, finally, 3 teaspoons for the A/1 drawers.

I did two coats of paint for each drawer and I barely had enough by the final drawer. I didn’t think to save a bit of paint, so I’m really hoping I never have to do any touch ups.

Finish:

Since, the Behr sample pots only come in a flat finish, you’ll want some sort of sealer to finish off the piece. I used two coats of Minwax Paste Finishing Wax.

See the difference the wax makes in the sheen? It’s so pretty and gives the furniture a beautiful, hand-rubbed shine.

Liner:

I Mod-Podged in some leftover wrapping paper to line the drawers. It gives a fun pop of color.

My craft room in by no means ready for a reveal. The walls are pink. There’s bunny wallpaper on them.

I have a bunch of projects ahead of my office redo, but I went ahead and styled the dresser.

I have my old press box with my stamp pads on the top. I put some glass jars filled with beads and glass on top of some of my vintage doily collection.

This box was an old hardware box that belonged to Hubs’ grandpa.

I tied up some old comic books on a bed of feathers in my wire cloche. The box below it was a gift from one of my sisters.

Some of my favorite pictures of my kiddos (I still need to find one of Buddy), a favorite saying and a stoneware bowl:

And because it was so very long ago, here is the before:

After:

Cost Breakdown:

• Dresser – Free
• Paint – $11.81
• Primer – $6.72
• Stain – $4.31
• Clothesline – $13.23
• Wood Beads – $4.41
• Vinyl Stencil/Mask, Paste Wax, Wrapping Paper, Mod Podge – On hand

Total Project Cost: $40.48

Total Project Time – Far Too Long due to too many mistakes

Suesan