It's just a door right?

How hard can putting up a new door be?  I am afraid the answer is a lot longer and a bit more complicated than we ever anticipated.

First, a little background- I made a an offhand comment one day that I liked the exterior doors that a lot of houses in the neighborhood had- they were wood and glass and really classy looking on little bungalows. This led to an internet search with few results and finally we found out that a lumberyard in our neighborhood sold them so David surprised me with a door for my birthday (back in October mind you)! The door came in a cardboard box and was unfinished wood. No hardware, no nothing.

Since we were gearing up for the construction on the house, we left the door in the box and decided not to mess with it until the exterior work was done on the house. We felt like it would be the very last thing that we would do to finish off the house. They finished the house on the last week of February.

On the first free weekend, which came in late March, David had a handy friend come over to help thinking he could throw up the door no problem. They started strong,  removing the existing tacky screen door. Then they got the new door out of the box. And then they set out to examine the door frame to come up with a strategy for hanging the new door.

 

 Checking it from all angles...

 Until they finally determined...

That it wasn't going to fit. That is right the door was way too large to fit in the frame and it was the wrong shape.  At this point they decide that they either needed to remove the exiting door frame and got their hammers and crowbars ready- or call it a day and call a handyman. After a group consultation (which yes, included me) we decided to call the handyman. So the door went back in the box.

All of you who are strict DIY-ers will love this next part, we called a handyman who came out for a look and concluded that he couldn't do it. At least not without a few hours of troubleshooting...so back to the drawing board...and back to doing it ourselves.

Another phone call and a few weekends later, David's dad comes over early one Saturday and they set out to make the door fit in the door frame.

So the door comes out of the shed and out of the box. Again.

 

They start out by shaving the door down so it will start to fit in the frame.

Followed by some measuring of the frame. At the top.

 

They had to measure multiple times because the frame wasn't even at any point from top to bottom. 

 

So they had to measure at the bottom too.

 

There was a lot of consulting about next steps on the front porch.

 

Which led to heading to the backyard to work on the door a little bit more.

 

And sometimes even carrying the door around front to test it out. And in case anyone is wondering- yes, the door is very heavy, more than you would expect.

 

I would like to say that it fit perfectly that first time (or even the second time) they tried it out, but it didn't.

 

They would get the top of the door to just about fit in the frame.

 

But couldn't get the bottom of the door to line up.

 

Or if they got the bottom to fit, then the top got all out of whack.

 

On both sides...

 

So they would head back to the back yard again to keep working.

 

And measuring and leveling....

 

Until finally they got it to fit!!

 

While this was very exciting (especially for Lila as you can tell in above photo), it was only half of their task for they day. Once the door fit, they still had to put on all the hardware, so they could actually hang it. 

 

You guessed it- backyard again.

 

Where they started drilling and chiseling.

 

To make space for the hinges and handle.

 

And then finally, after 6 hours...they got it up!!! 

Now, before you go and get too excited for us...there is more. So are you sick of the door story yet? Yeah- us too- we are on about month 5 in the life of our door and believe it or not, the story continues. But not in this post- stay tuned for the conclusion of the Willis front door saga.