One Sixty: Submitting to My Door-sires

Submitting to My Door-sires

I got in the car after work last night, feeling invigorated after just completing a project. I had just been given a free bag of clothes from my good friend Sylena and her daughter Trystan too, and boy was I feeling fine.

I got home and walked into the mud room with a handful of groceries and just stood there for a few minutes, staring at the two windows facing the street. Everything suddenly seemed very clear, and all the swirling thoughts in my head just drained. I had but one little desire... French doors.

I hopped online, wondering if I could even afford to make it happen. As usual, bone stock Andersons were up in the over-$2,000 range. But Lowes had 6' steel doors, primed for paint, and complete with those cool between-the-glass blinds for only $498. Totally in my price range. Add a screen for just $88 more.

I allowed myself to dream for just a minute... of a beautiful farmer's porch in spring. Opening the French doors and feeling the sun on my face as I brought out a glass of ice tea to enjoy on a comfy patio set....

And I felt really excited for the first time in weeks.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

2 comments:

Rebe said...: Imagine the return on your $500 investment! Not only will the house value increase, you will have better fresh air flow, more sunlight, and that "outside room" feel. My folks have french doors that open to an attached greenhouse (nothing fancy) and they get solar heat during the winter. Your farmers porch won't do the same for you, but I can see you pulling a comfy chair out the french doors, sipping sweet drinks, and just enjoying a moment of peace.; 8:27 AM
kitrainia said...: Totally! I went yesterday to look at them again, although we couldn't buy them because it was raining - and we can't buy until we're ready to install because we have no way of getting a 6ft set of doors into the house with our current, normal size doors.; 2:18 PM