Finished Side Door

And here is yet another small fraction of the house that I’m not ashamed of.

Inside

The side door project is now complete.  Fully complete.  Typically, any project I do has some residual “punch list” items that I never get to, such as touch up painting or recessing the nail heads and filling them with wood putty or stupid stuff like that.  But this project is one of those rare gems that I saw through to final completion.  If only I got to invoice someone for my troubles.

Anyway, it is FANTASTICALLY better than the old door.  Just look down a bit and you’ll see the Before Picture.  This is a door we see and use every day.  It welcomes us home from wherever our day took us, and it begins our journey into the outside world (or just to take out the trash).  The old door was a cadaver, barely clinging to its rusty hinges, begging to be put out of its misery.  Our new door is vibrant and cheerful.  We’re very, very happy with it.

Paint

Here is the door being painted (which took about nine hours total, I think this pic was taken during hour three).  We painted the inside only and left the outside stained wood.  There’s a lot of detail in this door for the accent color to paint.  We used two colors, a deep purple with a sort of lipstick accent color.

Outside

From the outside, more stately and less whimsy, but still a very attractive door.

Sneak Peek

And here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming, as I continue my way around the interior of the house, ripping out paneling and stair treads like there’s no tomorrow.  Those stairs, and the closet underneath, are going to be a major challenge.  I’m just doing the landing right now, a mere two stair treads worth of stairs, and it is very slow going.

The Actual Cost of a Salvage Door

Door

Salvage Door:  $40, plus tax.

Ferry trip to get to the mainland and back with the door:  $58

Gas:  $8

Tools

Tool wear and tear:  $5

Fasteners

Fasteners and miscellaneous hardware:  $2.50

Doorknob and deadbolt:  Free, just use the existing crappy ones so all the keys still match.

Fir

1×6 Douglas Fir planks:  $112.  (For that price, next time I’ll just cut down a tree)

Dentist Pick

Labor:  Free, though in all fairness, in the time it took me to fix up this door I could have watched District 9, Gladiator, Season 6 of The Shield, the extended versions of all of the Lord of the Rings movies, Skyfall and Casino Royale.

Dowel

Dowel:  Free, I got dozens lying around for scrap.

The correct size dowel that you don’t have lying around and have to go buy at the hardware store:  $4.35

Sanding Discs

22 Festool sanding discs:  $16.50

Stain

 

Stain, primer, paint, and about 24 feet of frog tape:  $54.67 (that frog tape is a little steep)

Cat

Cat in a sink:  Free.  Good luck washing your hands.

Hinges

Solid brass hinges in Oil Rubbed Bronze (TM) that will never ever rust:  $75.

Asymmetry

Amount of sleep I’ll lose because the door is asymmetrical:  0.0 hours.

Priceless

Using the old door for thrown weapons practice:  Okay, that is priceless.