Tuesday, March 22, 2011

New Front Door



I thought I'd let Dave post about installing our new front door since he was the one who installed it:

In the process of replacing our front door, we learned a lot of helpful information. For one, if you're getting a custom door from Lowes or Home Depot, there are close to a dozen options of how to get your door. A few that I can remember that we should have paid closer attention to:

- Jamb width: Given that our house was older and had larger studs and thick plaster, we should have measured the entire thickness because it's not a "normal" thickness.
- Height: Seems like a no-brainer...the door below looks "normal," but as you'll see, our new "normal" 6'8" door is missing a few inches.
- Hardware finish: We got the standard finish but later decided to do oil-rubbed bronze hardware

The good news is that the door you order is total customizable for all of these features and more. It pays to do your homework upfront and make sure you order the right door for your space. One last comment I'll pass on from a Lowes salesman that I thought was valuable: "People come in all the time and spend a lot of money ordering fancy french doors that are fiberglass and rot-proof, but they don't spend the extra 5% to get vinyl jambs." Look into vinyl jambs because over the years the water running down your front door and collecting in your jambs will rot it out.

So anyways, on to the pictures. Below is the original door, which was nice, but had multiple non-functioning locks and the door was starting to come apart. Looking back it would have been nice to fix it up, but at the time it seemed easier to replace it...oh the ignorance...


There used to be a storm door and there was aluminum siding applied over the old wood siding, so the jamb area was a mess with all kinds of layers and overlapping materials.


Yep, three locks.


Super-wide jamb.


Old door out, new door propped into place. Looks nice; it's still daylight outside, right? Didn't get this one all the way in until after midnight (in February).


Rachel is holding up the door. Notice how the new door was significantly shorter. The old door was probably a 7' door.


It took a lot of shimming and trimming, but we got the door in there all right.


I cleaned up the exterior trim a lot.


Finally it was finished on a cold February night.


lil luna link party button


Transformation Thursday

Furniture Feature Fridays

21 comments:

  1. Very Nice door! Love the color and the windows. And thanks for the tips.

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  2. Oh I liked the door before but I LOVE it now! Great color too. Good luck on your dining set re-do!

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  3. Gorgeous! Love the new door! Especially the color!!

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  4. I love it! It is gorgeous and I think it was great that you let your hubby join in the blogging fun! :-)
    Vanessa

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  5. or you could just go the more expensive route of paying someone to install your new door like we did this week...;) excellent job altogether.

    blessings,

    alison
    stuff and nonsense

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  6. That's a really nice color! And what a cute home you have! We bought a new door (off craigslist) at least a month ago. It's still in the basement! Poor hub has a loooong list of to-do's. Hope to share it someday!

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  7. Love your new front door and I'm impressed that you guys put it in yourselves!

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  8. Oh the things we find out afterwards, huh? O well, life goes on.
    The door you picked is absolutely beautiful! Love, love, love the color!
    -Bethanie

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  9. I think its beautiful..
    I love the color that goes with it..
    :D

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  10. The color is very alluring! What's it called? It would be nicer if you had the windows painted with a similar shade, but that's your call. Btw, are you planning to put some potted plants by the door?

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  11. I'm sorry to say I don't remember what color we painted the door and we no longer have the paint. It was a Valspar from Lowes. We later painted the shutters black. We would have loved to put window boxes with flowers under the windows and some plants by the door but unfortunately we moved out of state and sold the house. Thanks for the comment and again sorry I no longer have the paint color info.

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  12. Installing a new front door for your house may be hard, but once it's done, it actually feels good. The door looks really great, I like it. :D

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  13. Pretty new door, love the color! Keep the old one and trim the wood off the bottom a bit (if you can) and then hang it horizontally somewhere. I see doors hung horizontally like that all over blogland. It's a great old door!
    ALSO: Please tell your daughter that I love that little black hoodie thing she's wearing! It looks great with those pants. (You did a fashion post too!) ;)
    Best,
    Gloria

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  14. Gloria! You are so fun! We loved the old door and would have used it in the house but our neighbor actually wanted it for his law office so we thought that would be a great new home for it. Thats actually me in the hoodie...haha. I was probably about 22 there but looking more like a teen in my renovation clothes :-)

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  19. Yikes! It looks like you forgot to measure your old door before getting a new one! Then again, there are few doors these days that are the same size as your old door was. Hiding the addition to the frame with the jamb and moulding was really clever! I also really like the color you chose to paint your door in. It looked alive, yet soft and welcoming.

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  20. Thanks Terry! It's funny the things you learn on your first remodel. It ended up working out well though and since we took down the old plaster inside and put up drywall it looked seamless.

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