The saga of the door

As the rest of the house started to shape up, our front door started to look worse and worse by comparison. I had really hoped to save it as it's original to the house, but it leaks air like a seive, and our contractor said that it would take them a week to take it out, fix it up and put in a new airtight frame and sill. Probably not worth the effort, as the single pane glass would need to be replaced, and the beveled glass is the most charming part of the door.

The inside needed some significant work as well. Both because there were multiple holes from old deadbolts and handles

and because Tessa did a job on it the first week we had her when she knocked over a large, heavy shelf in the hallway and then panicked.

Yes, that is the wood door frame dug away by the dog's nails as she tried to escape from the house. I was so happy to come home to that mess that day.

So in the spirit of continued job creep, we bit the bullet and ordered a new front door. It took five weeks to arrive and when it did, it was hinged on the wrong side, had the wrong finish on the hardware, and was the wrong size. Sigh. Oh, and our contractor almost cut off the index finger on his right hand when he was inspecting it at the door store.

They re-hinged the door on the other side, the contractors removed the brick moulding so that the door would fit into the rough opening and we decided that we would take the hardware it came with instead of waiting for the new stuff to arrive. It's satin nickel, so it matches much of the other hardware in the house.

The big install was today, and true to form with this door, it didn't go well. It's in, but it took a lot of fiddling, it has no handle yet and the deadbolt can't be locked from the outside. Gah! At least there's one more work day this week before we leave to go away for the long weekend. Hopefully they get it all finished up tomorrow.

Here's a picture of it from the inside - it's going to be a beaut when we get it all painted up!