Hubris

I knew I’d have to post this after reading over at HOUSEBLOGS, in a discussion thread, that I was one of several housebloggers that Jeanne, co-owner of the site, wished would create video casts of their projects. After reading this she may want to reconsider that.

We have been working hard to get ready for the house tour coming up this Sunday. Lisa asked if I wanted to maybe put up the wooden screen door that has been laying on the porch for a month. Now in my defense, it didn’t have a screen when we bought it from the Davenport RE-store, and I took the storm insert to my favorite millwright to use as a template for him to make a screen. Anyway, I thought sure it was time to get rid of the crappy metal storm door. I quickly got off the door and the metal frame, pried up the even more crappy weatherstripping and was ready to fit the new door. (I was proud I had only poked my finger badly once on a nail during removal.

The new door was a great fit and in a short time I had installed the self closing hinges and put on salvage hardware. It looks great, and now it only needs something to go into the giant empty opening in the center. I had done this start to finish in about an hour. That’s when hubris set in…

I decided to do the same for the back door. It was the crappiest of all. I got it all taken off pretty easily again, I didn’t even poke my finger this time.

I had an old wooden storm door I had salvaged from my grandparents’ basement 5 years ago. I had moved from Northwest Iowa to our old house, then to Foxcroft. It was buried in the garage. I knew it would be too short for the opening (opening height is a full 84 inches) but I was thinking it would only be maybe 2 inches short, for a short term fix, I could add wood easily.

I got the door out and lo and behold, not only was it a full 5 inches short, it was hinged on the wrong side. CRAP. Luckily I have a key to the salvage barn. I drove out there to find that we don’t have ANY doors in the right height/width/hinge side configuration.

I took a door that will fit width-wise after I remove about ¼ of an inch, but it is still 3 ½ inches short, so I bought a nice big piece of 5/4 yellow pine and will get Pete to come over with a biscuit joiner and add the material. The good news is that this door is unfinished pine and never has been drilled for hardware. I’m hoping to get it up before Sunday.

So right now we have no back screen door. I’m pretty sure no one would want to have seen a video of me cursing!

And I hope that both Jeanne and
Brooklyn Row House appreciate my overuse of your favorite adjective/expression!