June 14, 2010

Into the door and outa the door, and don't forget, the finished floors



   My writing today is all about doors... stories and pictures of doors... whoo hoo! So I thought a bit of beauty was in order. This is a quick shot of Lake Sonoma that Phillip snapped with his Iphone. We sure do live in amazingly beautiful country. Now onto doors!

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We have been on long haul projects the past few weeks and they seem to go on forever. Take the flooring for example... how many weeks? seven I think, of continuous measuring, and choosing, and cutting, and gluing, and drilling, and nailing, and now... all three thousand square feet of Black Walnut flooring have been laid, (or is it layed or Leiaed? lets ask Oprah!) and covered in brown paper so that we no longer even see them, out of sight out of mind, forgotten, don't even know they are there... until something gets droped and we suddenly cringe, and it takes a moment to remember why we are cringing... oh yeah the new floors.
Now it is all about doors. Exterior doors, not interior. The Front door, the back door, the door above the front door, the dining room doors, the study doors, and the master bedroom doors. Arg, there are so many.
The dining room, study and master bedroom doors are all brand new replications of a door that was in the house that we are pretty sure was on it when it was built. That door which used to reside in the dining room will now grace the kitchen as the back door.


It like all of the old doors has been meticulously stripped to the bare wood. Layers and layers of ancient paint carefully removed with chemical stripper, a heat gun, and hours of sanding. That followed by the application of different types of wood fillers, then more sanding, then priming with an oil based primer and then more sanding, more primer, more sanding... you get the drift. Isn't this an exciting post!




The kitchen door, stripped bare and awaiting filling, priming, and sanding.



The door to the right is the door above the front door and it is now ready for glazing, and installation. I think we are going to have to seal it closed so that we can pass all of our inspections, but someday we will be able to open it and step out onto the portico, and... I guess we shall wave to all of the little people. We will have to don white gloves and learn the queens wave. Not that kind of queen, a real queen, with a tiara and everything!

The door to the left is the front door "before", after it was sent to the cabinet maker to increase its size so that it would fit the opening. And below it the front door stripped of all paint and finishes, filled, sanded, primed and ready for painting. We still need to match the molding for the lower panels, but one thing at a time.
The dining room doors, hung and ready for glass and paint.

The study doors. These are really beautiful and have wonderful proportions. These are in our future office and it will be wonderful to throw them open to the side yard while we are working.


The final door in today's post is the new basement door. This one we actually built from salvaged lumber that was removed from the old section of the house that we tore down. A few weeks ago we arrived at the house to find that someone, or someones, or somethings, or a couple of dras ah frassen god @*$ sons a #%@#'s, had hauled two chairs into our basement and proceeded to set up a table and have a little coffee klatch under our home, while we were not there, on private property, without permission. They left behind empty frappa, frappa drinks and Turkish cigarettes. Unfortunately Phillip threw it all away or I would have called in CSI to spray some magic spray around that always seems to identify the culprits. To say the least it was very disturbing. So, to the lumber pile we went. The door is made from true dimension two by eight, one hundred and forty year old planks, and weighs about three hundred pounds. Phillip and carried into the basement after it was complete so that we could position it and measure the width for trimming. I was sure it was too wide for the opening and as we struggled to lift its mass into place it slipped right into its new home, a perfect fit. All it needed was its hinges and a latch, that is if we could get a hold of it and pull it back out of the door jamb, where it now comfortably and heavily rested literally trapping us in the basement. The back of the door is smooth and we could not get a grip on it anywhere. It was eight thirty in the evening and as luck did have it that day, Brent (our part time worker) had yet to leave and came running to the rescue at our insistent shouting.

It is a fun door and we will be building two more of them, one for the wine cellar and one for the doorway that separates the two large sections of our basement. If anyone happens two know two shady creatures that drink frappa frappa drinks, smoke Turkish cigarettes, and like to hang out in semi dangerous dark and cool places...
Call me!

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