Finally, we have our front door back. No more climbing up and down a ladder thirty times a day. I can’t believe that we made the door six years ago, where did the time go?
It’s a pretty thick and hefty door, but very sturdy, made mostly from locally sourced red oak; it also includes some wood from what we think was the original downstairs front door. Maybe that makes it a restoration, rather than a new door?
I wasn’t sure how we were going to get it downstairs without damaging it, and there was no way we could slide it down the ladder. In the end, we used a panel dolly, which, with Joe’s help, we managed to move it without any damage.
Once inside, the first job was to glaze the windows. Glazing isn’t my finest skill, though I am getting better, and it seemed easier to glaze when the door was flat. That done, we had the task of hanging it, and what a nightmare that turned out to be. Did I mention that the door is heavy? Not sure how much it weighs, but it’s probably north of 70 lbs. When you watch videos of people hanging doors, they always seem to be lightweight doors that a person can hold in one hand while screwing in the hinges with the other, not so in this case.
What saved us was this door dolly. It’s amazing what products you find when you need them. With this, we could adjust the height so the hinges pretty much lined up. As the door was heavy, it was difficult to keep it vertical, but with various wedges, we got it close. Then the fun started.
First, the door wouldn’t close because the hinges were too far into the door frame, so the door came off. Holes were glued and dowelled, and new hinge recesses were chiseled out. Once I got the door to close, it was fine except for the top right corner, which was sticking out 1/2″. Was the door warped? I was really hoping it wasn’t, as I didn’t want to make a new one.
A day later, I checked the door for warps, and luckily, it was pretty straight with any deviation less than 1/16″. Then I checked the door frame, which was also less than 1/16″ off. Armed with that, the door should fit, so I went about moving the hinges, possibly another ten times, each time gluing and dowelling the old holes. Without the door dolly, I may have given up. In the end, I got the fit to be within +/- 1/16″, which is good enough for me. Next time I make a door, it won’t be so heavy, lesson learned.
The design on the panes is Moroccan. We used a Cricut vinyl cutter to cut the design, and after applying it, we acid-etched the glass to give the gold paint a better surface to bond to. Overall, we’re very pleased with how it turned out. Thank you, Susan, for your Cricut expertise 🙂
Still a bit of work to do on the entrance way. The letterbox and some of the trim have been installed, but quite a bit of trim still needs to be made, and I also need to paint the glazing putty. You’ll notice that I use Kreg pocket screws for the framing, which seems easier than trying to plant a couple of nails accurately, plus I can undo stuff if I make a mistake, which I’ve needed to do before. The screws take longer, but that’s how I roll.
Probably not clear from the second photo, but I did sister two 2×8’s onto the original header beam that goes over the front door. This should make that beam pretty beefy, and when that area gets closed up, it shouldn’t need any attention for many, many decades.
