The "Whys" Of Our New Doors

You may have seen my "oops". 

I knew as soon as I did it that it was going to be a costly mistake. 

I went to the home improvement center to look at doors. 

The options were limited. 

They had French doors with grids. We didn't want grids. 

They had single panel doors with mini blinds inside. Nope, nope, nope. 

They had sliding doors. 

Everything else was a custom door. 

Eeeek!

We tossed around the idea of replacing the glass. 

But! 

I'd screwed bead board into the door to keep the ax murders out while Bill was out of town. 

I know what you are thinking. 

"Bead board ain't going to keep out a determined ax murder, Honey."  

I'm not sure why y'all say "ain't" or why you call me "Honey". 

I felt like the door was ruined. It would be difficult to cover up all the screw holes. 

The old plastic grid split upon landing. 

You may never have noticed but only one of these doors opened. 

The other was stationary for some reason. 

They were also not very energy efficient. 

Bill wanted new doors. He has wanted them for years and now was the time to do it. 

When Bill got home from his trip, we took our measurements into the store.

Our doors were not up to current code. 

The door that was operational was only 30 inches wide and code requires 36 inches wide. 

The set that I wanted had a starting cost of $2,500. 

That didn't include installation. 

Ouch! 

My designer friend saw the broken glass post on Facebook. 

Her husband, who is a contractor, came to the rescue. 

He came and measured and then sent us to a door manufacturer. 

Normally exterior doors swing inward. 

There wasn't a sunroom when the house was built. 

Now we have the sunroom so the doors can swing outward. We wanted the kitchen to feel larger. 

Ordering the door was so easy. 

We were in and out of the store in about a half hour. 

It only took a week for the door to be made. 

The carpenter, recommended by the contractor, installed the door in about 4 hours. 

Painting and a transition piece are the only things left to do. 

We love it. 

The kitchen looks huge.

We payed significantly less than the other options and it was done so fast. 

If you live in my area and you need a good contractor, please message me. 

Katie

Katie Lands In Hot Water!

There have been a couple of times when my DIYs have gotten me in hot water. 

I'll tell you about the first time Bill's patience reached a boiling point. 

The kitchen floor when we bought the house was a gross off white vinyl. 

I'm quite sure it was bottom of the line flooring. 

You can image what it was like to keep this floor clean with three kids, a dog and a cat. 

Picture it for a minute if you will... 

Thank you -pity party over. 

I mopped every day or every other day. 

I saw an article in one of my magazines about painted concrete floors. 

Bill and I have differing views of DIY. 

I'm a "throw it together and see what happens" type. 

He is more of a planner. 

See how happy planning makes him?

Sometimes these two don't mix very well. 

I decided to rip up the vinyl flooring one morning after he left for work. 

I just could not mop that floor one more time! 

It was all going pretty well until I got to the pantry and the laundry room. 

Most of the kitchen was finished by the time he came home but I ran out of steam and I could not get the vinyl off in those two small areas. 

Bill did not appreciate what I had done.

 I was in trouble but the gray floor with a stamped brick pattern looked super cute and it saved me from daily mopping. 

All was well, or so I thought, until it was time to lay new flooring over the painted surface.

The floor guy said that the glue for the new floor would not stick to the concrete paint and the paint had to be sanded off. 

I think I saw steam coming out of Bill's ears. 

For quite a while after that incident, I asked permission before embarking on another project that would land me in a scalding bath of trouble.

 Asking permission doesn't always keep turmoil at bay.

 I few weeks ago, I shared that I was painting our kitchen cabinets. 

The French door in the kitchen hadn't been painted in years and it looked brown next to the white cabinets. 

I remember being traumatized because my dad made me scrape paint off of glass at some point during my childhood. I decided to loosen the plastic molding piece on the door. 

It seemed easier to pull the grids away from the glass to paint them. 

Painter's tape was out of the question. I'm not nearly patient enough for that. 

I accidentally got a dab of oil based paint on the upper right hand corner of the glass so I used a finger to scrape it off before it dried.

Like some sort of slow motion nightmare the glass gave way. 

"This isn't going to end well." was my thought as the panel cascaded to the floor and shattered into a million pieces. 

The vinyl floor immediately popped into my head. 

I'd landed myself in another simmering cauldron of H2O. 

Oops. 

The new door has been delivered and it will be installed on Monday. 

No grids. 

I'll be back with a reveal and our thought process. 

There is still time to link to Monday Social #6. 

Katie