The story of a door.

Our crazy old house came with a crazy old door. As near as we can tell the door is original to the kitchen addition to the house which – again as near as we can tell is around the 1920’s. The door locked with a skeleton key that the real-estate agent broke when I was being shown the house prior to buying it. This means we have never never been able to lock it. The not being able to lock the door part has not been nearly as big of a deal to me as the fact that the door doesn’t seal. That means all the cold winter air and before we bought a new storm door- a Christmas gift from my mother in law some years back- even the snow would come pouring into the kitchen. The problem with replacing it is -it isn't’ standard size, height, or width. This meant the door had to be special super custom ordered for a billion dollars and then still wouldn’t necessarily fit because the opening isn’t square or completely tear out the frame and part of the wall and build a new one. Neither option sounded like much fun so we have taped, caulked,weather stripped, put rugs, and… I can keep going… and still it is cold and drafty. This year for Christmas from my mother I got a new door and money for a carpenter to put it in since Clint and I felt like this was above our pay grade as far as skill level. At the time I swore we picked the coldest day of the winter because it was –1 degree F but of course I jinxed myself and since then it has been colder. We hired a person recommended by a friend who gave us a really low offer $125.The carpenter did a great job of the hard part – he took out the portion of the wall framed in the new door and it is plumb, square, and seals but…. there is a big but. He didn’t install the header so it is connecting to the cripples above or to the jack or king studs below. For my non- remodeling buff followers this means the door has no support above it holding up the wall. Yeah that is kind of a problem. Clint said “well at least the part he got wrong we can fix- headers we can do.” … yeah just what we need another project- because we certainly don’t have enough of those. Oh well in the mean time I have a door that shuts and locks even. I am trying to look on the bright side.

The original door from the outside and inside.

   

Taking the old door out.

The door was framed inside a different opening that was a standard size- why? Of course it isn’t  the size we purchased because we didn't know the the other frame was there. Have I mentioned I regularly swear at dead people? The previous “header” was a 2x4.

    

We found these keys behind the trim when we took the door out. We actually found 4 all in total.

We found this shoe box top in the wall above the door.

Taking the door out.

The old door is out- did I mention it was cold? Just the day you want I giant hole in your house.

    

Fitting the new door.

The header that doesn’t extend to the jack or king studs and the cripples above that don’t touch the header- sigh.