An open door

It was installation weekend at the Christy-house!

old door

The sliding back door that my house had was the original from the 1973 construction. I suppose it may have been a mighty little door in it's day, but it now is a tired, over worked, rusty, ugly, energy-wasting, bug-lettin'-in, loud, hard-to-open, nuisance of a thing. And with the big dog I have and the little one my roommate has, it gets used many times throughout the day. It's only gotten worse throughout the course of time living in the house. In fact it had gotten to the point that about once a month I would inevitably get stuck outside unable to pry it open. The solution was to simply lift it off the casters, let myself into my house and realign the entire thing. (glad a burglar didn't realize this simple little trick!) It was time for a new door!!

So, the budgeting, bargaining hunting and pricing of doors began. At minimum I found I might be able to spend $400 but the prices went up from there. I did what I do...saved and kept my eyes open for deals. And I guess it's a good thing I've got big eyes; as the shopaholic wolf might say, "better to see the good deals with, my dear."

After work one day I went to Lowe's just for the fun of it (and yes, I really do find it FUN to walk around the home improvement warehouse stores!) and came upon a nice sliding glass door just like what I would need with an impossibly low price. So of course, as is human nature I assumed there was something wrong with it and asked a store associate as much. To my delight the only thing wrong was a missing screen door! I didn't even want a screen in the first place for surely, if my dog didn't go busting through it, I would. After measurements and phone calls I bought the door and the Lowe's employee even threw in $25 shipping (usually $79) my grand total was $224!

[Money saving tip: While of course everyone knows it's smartest to shop around and compare prices; another idea is to look for the things you need before you actually need them. What I mean is if you're planning a project, keep a list of things with you and when you're out and about take a few extra steps down the aisles housing those items. You may be surprised to find a great sale you may have otherwise missed if you waited until you began your project to look.]

Mom and Dwight came from Tallahassee and on Saturday (10.23.2010) morning they came to my house as well as Dan and the kids. Mom loves being Abuela (grandma) to the kids so she gladly took the job of entertaining them while me and the men folk got to work.

We take to heart the saying, "measure twice and cut once" with all the cutting and measuring we've done to this house. And I've yet to have a project be completed without some sort of complications. So first things first, we measured. Thanks to Dwight's construction savvy and skills, I know he'll get it done right and that he knows what to do; so I usually just do what he tells me to. He has been dubbed my personal contractor! (And don't tell Dan I told you, but I've often called him my worker bee.) But he always lets me get in there and do all I can to work on my house myself!

It really wasn't too difficult to take the old frame out (ask the boys, they might have a different thought on that) with a power drill to take out the old screws and a crow bar to pull the frame away from the house it came out and we were ready to put the new one in. And that is where the problems arose. The new door frame was a bit bigger than the hole it was being put into. And the door was made for a wood frame house, not a concrete block structure such as mine. The word "saw" was mentioned and next thing I was cutting vinyl off the side of the new door. At least until my poor little Popeye pre-spinach arms got tired, then Dan and Dwight took turns cutting.

Once that was completed, the boys lifted the door into place. (I was too paranoid to try that; I felt like I would drop the heavy thing every time!) This is where problem #2 showed itself. Even with the leveler showing my door as level, it would not fit into the gaping hole in my house. My house was crooked?? Solution? Saw off the plastic strip on the other side. But alas now the door fit on the sides, but was too tall. You guessed it! The door went under the knife again. However, this third time was not quite good enough. The top of the door was still too tall. So Dwight took chisel and hammer to the outside structure and made room.

With the door in place Dwight used the leveler time and time again to ensure that the door was completely straight and level within it's spot and shims were put in place and screwed into the door frame and wall. The process was long but fun and without Dwight's expertise it would not have happened or at least it would not have happened like it did. Because of removing the plastic stripping on the sides to make it fit in place, there is a gap all the way around the top, left and right sides of the door. Unfortunately there was no more time on Saturday to complete the trim work to close this gap, so the temporary closure was newspaper. That's right, the good ole' Central Florida Future (Go UCF Knights!!) is as we speak within the walls of my house holding my new addition in place!