French Doors

As with most of my adventures, this one begins with "Nathan and I..."

So a group of my friends (Chris B., Sarah, Michael, Nathan, Brooke, Jenny and I ) went out to dinner last Friday. After stuffing ourselves and drinking a couple of beers, Nathan and I decided to change out the sliding doors at our house for french doors. As I had already purchased two sets of french doors and was low on beer, we went to the grocery store. After securing "supplies" we make it back to the house. It is now around 10:00.

It is decided that the sliding door in the dining room will be changed out first because it is the most offensive. When we moved in the door was broken. It wouldn't move and was allowing water to enter the house. As a temporary solution I had previously siliconed it shut. Back to the story - the sliding part of the door came out with a bit of grunting and cussing. The fixed part of the door (which can usually be removed whole) was not so willing. It was built into the jamb. We thought, let's remove the glass so we don't break it. Well, it was impossible to remove it without breaking it. Okay, let's just rip this thing out. In doing so, we broke every piece of glass in it, save one. Hoorah! The door is out!

As a side note, Michael decides to remove the single piece of glass that survived, for posterity's sake I suppose. In the course of trying to remove it, he broke it. Now we install the door! The door is brought over, placed in the hole... The opening is too big. About an inch and a half too big all around. There is no way we can finish this in one night.

So, there's a big hole in the side of the house (approx. 6' x 6' 8") and a door that is not quite big enough. So we stick it in there for the night and hang some fabric over it. With plans to start fresh the next day, we drink some more beer and then go to bed.

The next morning Nathan called at 9:00. I answer the phone, still in bed, to find that he is at the front door. I am speechless. Jenny called me a liar (not really, but she probably thought it). I throw on some shorts and run to the door and (Holy Crap!) he's actually standing there. This is shaping up to be a good start. After a Lowe's run and a call to Michael for backup, we eat some blueberry muffins and set to work.

By about 3:00 we have both doors installed, squared and good to go. Turns out we should have started with the other door. It was much more cut and dry. As with any good project, it's not entirely done. I can't trim out the inside because I have to sheet rock over the paneling first. I can't trim out the outside until I purchase some tools. The doors function and look so much better than the sliding doors did.