Front Door - Part 1

We're back from Mexico and back at our home projects (yup, I was sitting on the beach making a mental lists - gift and a curse of a born list-maker)! Our front door is one of the first things Mike and I knew we would have to replace. It's almost completely glass (so no privacy) and it doesn't seal properly on the bottom so the first couple of cool nights we really felt it.

Now that the cool nights are going to become common we knew we had to jump on this project. Thankfully (another perk of Mike's job), we were able to get our hands on an extra front door and storm door (which we don't even have at this point!). So, bye bye old door and hello new door!

The first thing Mike did (which I don't have pictures of because he started when I wasn't home) is route out the hinges. We had to move them from their original position so fit the new door - the process was essentially like the process for installing our interior doors. My job is to slide the pins into the hinges. Mike keeps the hinges on both the door frame and door screwed loosely on so that there's some give when lining up the two hinges. Then he drills them in more securely after.

 

Here Mike had to adjust the hinges multiple times so the door would close properly. Then we (he) had to sand off the interior edge of the door so it closed easier. Once all that hoop-la was done, Mike started installing the dead-bolt and handle.

 

 

 

After fitting in the dead-bolt, Mike installed the face. For lack of a better description, it's like a puzzle. He had to fit the pin into the lock along with the screws.

 

 

And then, wah-la! We now have a deadbolt! So safe I can't even stand it!

 

Then came the handle portion of the door. My favorite part considering our old front door had a dinky handle that was more fit for an interior door. Again, Mike fit in the latch (oh, and by the way, we were lucky that this door already had been cut out so Mike didn't have to do that work this time).

 

Then Mike put on the front handle, and then the indoor handle.

 

Now that the handles are here, we're only one step away! The last step is drilling out a hole in the frame for the deadbolt and then, using the template that we used on our indoor doors, for the handle latch on the frame.

 

Once Mike put the latch where the template said the door was installed! WOO-HOO! Here's the final product - now all we have to do is paint it. Not a find of the evergreen going on, but that's for another day. We're tired. (And I should probably start decorating that wall....)

 

Door Hardware

So here is a tutorial of how we (Mike) installed our new door hardware. In my original door post, I talked about how I had spray painted (my fast growing hobby) our existing brass handles. While it turned out okay, it wasn't spectacular by any means. So Mike and I decided that we should spring for new door handles because why buy beautiful new, white doors just to put cheap, hand-me-down door handles on it? It's like a burlap sack on a beauty queen!

Anyways, below is a step-by-step of how we (Mike) installed them. Before I begin, I should preface that we bought a template from Menards.

#1: Tape area where door handle will go. We did this to keep the paint from chipping and the wood from splitting due to the pressure of this process.

#2: Line up the template with door jam on the door frame.

#3: Insert circular template onto drill. The template is the "white thing" for lack of a better description. This is the part that makes the circle opening. It fits into the template that is installd on the door. You have to drill on one side until it cannot go any further. Then start drilling with the same template on the other side; it should pop out after doing this on both sides of the door.

 

 

#4: Drill the latch hole. This is another drill template similar to the handle template. Just switch out the template on your drill and line it up with the door template. (I love the intense look on Mike's face - I had to post the picture!) This is the part where Mike's drill created a lot of smoke - yup, kind of like a the start of a fire.

 

#5: Create the latch ridges with the template. Mike used a hammer to create the ridges for the latch. After creating the outline, Mike wedged out with a hammer and some muscle.

 

 

#6: Remove the tape. Now that all the drilling is done, you can remove the tape. This is when I started to feel a sense of relief that the door was still intact.

It's also when my self-diagnosed OCD kicked in because of all the saw-dust (!!!)

#7: Drill the door jam onto the door frame.

#8: Insert the latch mechanism (yup that's my technical term) into the door. It's a simple insert now that the hole is created. All Mike had to do was drill in the screws.

#9: Line up the door handles and screw into place. Essentially it's finesse for this step; no skill. You literally wiggle the handles until the line up. After that, they should work together (as a normal door handle should). Once this happens, screw the handles into place.

#10: ENJOY NEW DOOR HANDLE!

Have I mentioned how lucky I am that I'm married to a man that has the initiative and skill to figure all these things out?! Also, have I mentioned how much easier it is to open doors with handles? Sticking my fingers underneath and pulling it open from the bottom is not very conducive to my hurried life. Husband & handles = awesome!

Doors Doors Doors

I think I've mentioned this before, but if I haven't ...Mike and I have been living without doors. For a solid couple weeks now. We took them down when we moved in so we could properly paint the door frames white (*sigh* I love my hand-painted white trim). And since we had hollow doors that were pretty cheap looking, we decided to spend the money and upgrade to get half solid-core doors (for the bathrooms and bedrooms - less noise FYI) and half hollow doors. So we finally got them last week but I've been dragging my heels with the more painting project. NOTHING is worse than painting something that is already white, white again. No sense of accomplishment is what I think.

By aren't they pretty?! And, yes, I'm aware the door is upside down in the picture but I can't lift them and Mike doesn't stop his handy work for my photo shoots.

Before we could start painting, Mike had to cut the grooves (yup, that's my technical term) for the hinges. So he bought a template and measured where the old door hinges were placed to model the new doors after them (you can see the old door underneath the new one on the table so he could get better alignment).

 After Mike finished this process on all the doors, it was time for painting. We are using the same paint on the doors that we did the cabinets and trim. It's Benjamin Moore's Cloud Cover White in their Regal line of paint. We're also using the same foam rollers because it covers so evenly.

In addition to this project, I'm working on spray painting (I LOVE SPRAY PAINT, especially when it's metallic) all the hardware until we're able to upgrade.

So many doors! But we're ticking off our homeowner projects one by one! WOO HOO!