3 Doors Down

Eleven to go…
So… last night was another wild one. Got to the house at a little after nine and worked until shortly before two getting doors hung. I was able to hang and partially trim the door in the entry hall, the door to the pantry, and the door to our bedroom. The door to the pantry was my biggest worry as the opening was just barely large enough to accept a 2-6 door. The opening was so small that there was almost no room for shims and my concerns lay with the quality of the framing. Rough framing being what it is, and ours being rougher than most, I was worried that the door might not fit in the opening AND be both plumb and square. Thankfully, this was one instance where the framing was atypically good.

I had finished two doors by about 12:00 am and, feeling bold based on my good luck with the pantry door, I got it in my head to install the door to our bedroom, which I figured wouldn’t take much more than an hour. (My initial goal for the evening was to install 4-5 doors, but by the time homework was complete and I felt comfortable leaving Kathy to finish out the evening without also feeling that I was leaving her holding the bag, it was pretty clear that one or two was going to be the max). Of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The rough opening to our bedroom was larger than it was supposed to be, out of plumb, and—probably due to overexposure to the elements during the rain-soaked days of August… and September… and, oh yeah, October (thanks Matco!)—pretty darn twisted as well. Needless to  say, what I though would be a 45 minute door install turned into 2 hours. Well, at least I’m still young… although today I probably look like I’m 85.

Two more notes of joy: 1) While these Masonite doors weren’t our first choice (as I noted in another missive, we were planning on installing two-panel fir doors, but lumber-related money issues put the ka-bosh on that) they don’t look half bad. We did choose to go with the solid-core Masonite doors which gives them the heft of a normal  wood door and considerably less cost. 2) Finally, we’re going to have the siding completed. As you can see from the photo, the trim is up and the siding on the front of the garage is started. That will be finished today, which makes the house look more complete and puts us one step closer to the end.