OLD/NEW Door Part Two

So this vulture flew directly at me then landed on our house the morning I decided to take off the front door, and put some fresh windows in it. My superstition made me quiver at first, but by the end of the day, my rad door and I were eating his dead carcass instead of the other way around.



This is the interior side of our door. Check out that wicked 3D waviness... Almost tempting one to dive into its pool of swirling gold. Also a reason I didn't really want to get a brand new door.



In Door School 101, you learn that the exterior side of the door is actually smaller than the interior side... helps with that smooth swinging action. (I've resisted making a dumb "swinger" joke here).



ANYHOO! After our supernice hippie professor neighbor helped me lug this monster to the backyard, I went to town. David Erwin over at Crestview Doors wrote these great instructions on how to cut big holes in your door without freaking out... they also include perfectly drawn out, scientifically formulated window placement options that are based on the type of window shape you get. I chose the Ledgestone layout, which seems to go best with our mail slotted door that we can't really remove.

Basically, after tracing the trim onto the door, you whip out a drill with a fat bit, drill a couple holes, then stick a jig saw down into said holes, and cut out the rectangle. Again, there's this diagram on the instructions that lists a cut sequence to make a pretty fine rectangular hole.

After gittin jiggy, I did have to do a little fine tuning to get each of the kit pieces in... better that problem than realizing I've cut me some oversized holes that vultures can easily fly through to eat the corpse my preggo wife turned me into when she found out I've ruined our front door. Catastrophe diverted!

It got dark upon my bald head, and I wasn't done- dadgum Central Standard Time. Final steps are like this here. Put the trim on the exterior side of the holes, then flip your big boy door over... squeeze a bit of silicone in the trim, and put the glass in it. Grab the other side of the trim, and screw it into its exterior counterpart. I found that putting a flat surface under the door provided some needed pressure so that ole screw won't just push the trim out on the other side of the door. The predrilled screw holes are counterbored, so once they are screwed together, you can cut off a piece of dowel rod, stick it in the bored hole, and sand er down so you don't have to look at that ugly screw head.



Julie and I found this stain that matches our door color pretty well. We purchased 13 ketchup packet samples of the stuff and that was plenty. Then our good friends the Taylors came over to help us rehang the big sucka. SO NOW...



BRAND NEW/OLD DOOR! It's Miller Time!