A multitude of doors!

These are three of the doors we (I should really say me, Brandon) acquired for the house. The blue one is a Craftsman style door, but someone has ripped the shelf off of it. I am contemplating building a new shelf out of pine (the door, under the bright blue paint, appears to be unstained heart pine). The white door in the middle is a two panel interior door, intended for our guest bathroom, after we frost, or replace with stained glass, the glass panel. And, the third... this has been my side project all winter. Whenever I disappeared in the shop for a while, Nolan could expect to find me bending over this door (it was on sawhorses) using a heat-gun and paint scrapper to remove the layers (at least 3) of white paint that covered it. This is the perfect Craftsman style front door for our house, as it matches our windows (six panes on the top) and, I believe, that I can restore it to a deep, almost cedar red that will complement our house. The only problem, is that it has been damaged and poorly repaired along the doorknob side. Ah, I love a challenge!

This is a close-up of some of what I have accomplished with it:

One last door. See the big white door behind the brown one? That is the one we found last summer, which we cannot use, and apparently can't sell. It is like 89" tall, and can't be cut down that much. If anyone is interested, please make an offer (click on the link for more info)

Brandon's Update II

So, here is a list of the things I am trying to accomplish before the twins come in May (when we expect that non-essential work will be put to the side, at least for a while):

-Finish front door! I really want to finish this to install it soon.

-Clean up basement. We have a lot of junk, and are planning on having a yard sale in April, so I need to go through everything to clear out the, oh yeah, it is not junk, we have a lot of great stuff that everyone will want to look through and buy!

-Clean, sand, paint, and install two-panel doors on the bathrooms and the master bedroom. I have the doors, but they need a lot of work first. I have all the hardware (from my find from the house 2 doors down that was throwing away early-century massive 5 panel doors with Eastlake style door knobs and plates, with the mortise locks inside!). Yesterday I bought a two panel door from a guy here in East Point, in Jefferson Park, which has a window at the top, which we want to use for the guest bath (with window frosted, which needs to be done), that is in great condition.

-Install bathroom exhaust fans. I have already purchased these: one with a built-in light for the main bath, and a basic fan only for the second bath. I will need Paul's help with these.

-Install flood lights on the corners of the house facing the driveway. Once again, Paul may be required to do this. :)

-Re-seed back yard with Centipede grass. I may be a little late doing this, but hope it works.

-Build concrete burm at base of wall below the bonus room. This area has plywood all the way to the ground and needs to be replace with a short concrete brick wall. Not looking forward to doing this.

-And, my project that Nolan doesn't endorse, digging out a new room in the basement. Wait, this isn't as crazy as it may sound. In the spot of our old furnace (which is still there), there is a place that is dug out of the dirt and is at least 8 feet tall of space, and about 8 feet by 8 feet or so. I think this would make a great studio for me. I would need to level out the dirt, build a concrete block retaining wall of about 4 feet, then build in a stud wall above that, then finish off. Anyway, that will not get done before the twins arrive.

So, think I will get all this done? Yeah, not gonna happen, huh. I at least want to try. And, there are always more projects waiting!

Brandon's Update I

Ok, today we have a guest blogger (sort of), me, Brandon, Nolan's husband, who has done most of the work to the house (I expect to hear about THAT comment later). Nolan has not really felt up to doing much on the house for about the last 6-7 months. I however, have still accomplished a little, and have more planned. :)

Projects completed (or almost, at least):

-Hallway baseboards and shoe-mold installed (ok, the baseboards had been there for some time, but were just leaning against the wall. There was a gap of about 2 inches from the bottom of the sheetrock and the studs behind it, so it was kinda tricky to attach the boards on the bottom without them going in at a weird angle. Had to use a few wood screws to get it right. I actually got the shoe-mold cut, stained, and installed in just two days!)

-Nursery painted, shoe-mold stained and installed, closet shelving system installed (Nolan actually accomplished most of that. Yay! Pregnant women can do something!)

-Old wiring pulled out and replaced. Thanks goes out to my friend Paul for all his help. We pulled out all un-insulated cloth wiring in the basement, and replaced with Romex. We also installed a arc-fault breaker for the nursery, to add extra protection. The basement is still a wreck from the mess we made, but at least now we won't have an electrical fire. (Paul is a commercial electrician, but does resedential work on the side. If you live in the metro area, email us for his info. He does great work.)

-Landscaping - not much, but did plant a rose bush (with another languishing in a pail of water, waiting on us to decide where to put it), moved some old roses around, moved some daffodils that sprung up in the middle of the yard (Casey liked to plant stuff EVERYWHERE!), cleaned up the flower beds and put in new mulch, planted some hyacinths, put out centipede grass seed in the front yard, oh, and discovered a dead, half-eaten rat that my neighbor's cat left for us in one of those flower beds. Awesome!

-Craftsman front door - still not on the house, but I used a heat gun to get the paint off of one side of the third in our Craftsman front doors. It is heart pine, and I still need to scrape the other side, and use a paint stripper, then sand it. There is a little damage to the door that I also have to repair better than the previous owners did. Will post pictures of it soon.