Your door, is ajar...

Well let's just keep this ball rolling shall we!

After last winter we had realized how cold some areas of our house could potentially get and I knew that we had to do something about it, more than just putting plastic over the windows, which of course seemed to be a yearly tradition, mainly to keep us and the kids from freezing but also to save on the energy bills!

So, just about 18 months ago, we made the decision to do something about it. There was a lot of hype about the eco-energy retrofit grant thinger that the government was offering back to homeowners that made the effort to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, thus reducing their carbon footprint, you know the story... or maybe not. So to take advantage of the situation and try to help save the world in the process, we had a company come in to inspect our home and report on our current energy loss and where it can be improved. Long story short, we had a few directions to go in!

Since the main entrance doors seemed to be a huge factor in our energy loss, we decided to start there! Actually, simply saying that we were loosing heat around the doors would be a huge understatement! As it turned out, the doors that I planned to removed had only a single pane of glass in them and any weather stripping that was once in place had been long gone! More than that though, our main entrance door was not a solid door as previously expected, but a hollow core door that had virtually no insulating capabilities other than slowing down the icy winds slightly, thus reducing the wind chill factor over the cats water dish a couple of notches!! "Well THERE'S your problem!"

The photo above shows the main entrance to the porch and the photo below it shows the back yard entrance to the porch. It may not be apparent in the photos, but there was a lot of room for improvement... especially around the jambs!

So, after choosing some new doors from our local hardware and lumber store, (and storing them for about 6-8 months, that's another story), it was finally time to have some fun! That means DEMOLITION and there is no better way to release some frustrations than to take them out on an inanimate object! lol! A sawzall and a couple of beers later and voila, we have a breezeway!

So the doors have been removed! Next step, throw in the new doors, right? WRONG!! Due to the fact that construction standards were at the pinnacle of minimalistic expectations way back when, a wee bit of structural work was required to, you know, hold up the walls and roof since I have now removed the structural supporting members... of course I am talking about the doors themselves!! Ah, the joy of renovating an old house!

Since removing the doors also included replacing the sill and threshold, it was time utilize some good ol' fashioned mill work and craftsmanship! Ah who am I trying to kid, I just wanted to play with my table saw!! ;)

I do have to give props to the building methods of years past though, especially when it comes to demolition, common nails make it easier to tear out old framing because they are smooth!!

Lets run through the checklist, shall we!? Old doors removed, check! New framing in walls, check! Openings prepared for new doors, check! Can't wait for my next pay, check! I guess it's time for the new doors! So by the magic of editing and for the simple fact of forgetting to take pictures during the actual install, here are the finished products!! (Well finished meaning the damn things are in and they close properly!)



Until next time, keep your hammer polished!