The Front Door Saga Continues

This is what the front door to our house has looked like since we have moved in (in JANUARY!).



Yes the barricade was already in place, we didn't do that! When Andy tried to change out the locks right after we moved in, we discovered the old door was not very secure, had probably been kicked in at some time in it's past, and new locks weren't going to make much of a difference.

Since we were still making two mortgage payments, we decided to wait until the old house sold before investing in a new door. That finally happened in June .... so we had sucessfully avoided this front door issue until then .....

Andy and I pretty much agreed on the style of door we wanted .... fast forward through more time and space .... we finally got some quotes .... cool, let's double check the size of the opening we are going to fill with this new door ....

o.O

Rough opening too small for any of the standard 36 inch door with sidelights that we had picked out ..... fast forward through more time and space .... we were back at square one .... and busy with life .... frustrated with the door ... but have happily been coming and going through the garage for how many months now?!?

We finally ended up going with a custom door from Simpson which we ordered through Home Depot. We finally got the thing ordered in Sept ..... custom door = 6+ weeks for delivery .... that is delivery to Home Depot ..... then we had to find a dry Saturday in October to go collect it .....

Simpson wanted another $1000 to finish the door, so we ordered it unfinished. For a thousand bucks, I can figure out how to stain and finish the door.


I finally started working on the sanding, staining, sealing this week. It's really not been difficult or challenging work ..... it's just sort of a timing nightmare of do one side let it dry, flip it over, do the second side, let it dry .... blah blah blah

here's the door, side one, which has been sanded, pre-conditioned, stained, allowed to dry, then sealed, allowed to dry 4-6 hours, then sealed again .....


Now this has to dry for 24+ hours ..... then repeat sealing on side 2 .....

ah, yes, when the "door itself" is done, i get to repeat all of this on the frame containing the 2 sidelights .....

then we'll have to figure out how to install it .....
maybe some day, i'll be able to let company in the front door.