How to create a Dutch Door from an old wood door

photo credit: http://www.countryliving.com

My lovely wife decided she must have a Dutch Door. Possibly after seeing images such as the adjacent image in various magazines. Of course the door had to be old because "They just don't make them the same anymore". Which is true, but older doors come with their own set of issues.

So wifey found a wooden door at a vintage shop downtown. Unfortunately this door had around 8 - 10 layers of paint.  I left the wife to handle the paint stripping and she purchased this paint stripper and began to go to work on the Dutch Door...gradually. Over the course of about 6 months.

This was a project that wouldn't go away so I decided to step in, after all it was taking up room in my shed. Instead of the paint stripper that seemed ton only take off one coat at a time, I went after the door with ceramic sanding belts like this.

Then the paint really started to fly! The only real problem was getting into all of the crevasses, which had to be done by hand, and I didn't really have the patience to do a perfect job with the hand sanding. A bit out of character for me, but I just wanted this Dutch Door project done. After cutting the door in half I made a ledge for the bottom half and added some custom corbels. Here is a shot of the work in progress.

After sanding the door down to a paintable finish, I decided to try out my air spayer. This sprayer in combination with my tiny compressor turned out to be an exercise in frustration. So lesson learned, if you want to use an air sprayer, you're going to need a big boy compressor that can keep up.  The idea was to get some nice smooth coats with the sprayer and then maybe do a final coat with the brush. But the spray coats seemed to be enough, at least for now.

I'll post some updated pictures soon.

More New Windows

We decided to replace 4 of the 5 window in the sun room. The 5th window would be another special order window since it's 4ft by 4ft (not a standard size anymore). The other windows were not standard size either, but with the help of uncle mike we built all new supports for the windows and in the process sured up a lot of areas that had termite damage.
This time we got the Pella windows from Lowes and I would say it's worth the extra couple of bucks over the home deopt windows, just because they have the cool feature where the window folds inside the house so you can clean both sides of the glass from inside the house. Other than that a couple windows make some noise when they open and some of the screws on the latches don't screw down all the way, but if the little lady would have allowed it, I'm sure they could have been replaced no questions asked...pick your battles...


When we removed the old windows, there were no supports between the 3 windows.We built supports above, around, and between the 3 new windows.
Hard to believe we removed 4 windows, built new supports for new windows and replaced all with new windows in one day.

Cabinets!

After spending months of planning with the pre-fab screm em' together cabinets in mind. "We" of course had to change our mind and special order some different ones from Home Depot. We got the "American Craftsman - Del Ray series" after the planner at the Depot assured us that any of their cabinets would be fine for Granite countertops (the counter tops were another change in plans). But they look nice and they have so many adjustments, that if any thing is a little off when they arrive, it can be fixed. Hopa was quite relieved we didn't have to send anything back and further delay the Kitchen we desperately need.

...and drywall for all

We put the sheets of drywall up ourselves, us being myself, Hopa, Chet, and uncle Mike on various days and weeks. Then I hired a guy to mud and texture the ceiling. He did a good job and as the drywall gets finished, it starts to look like a house.

Insulation & Drywall

We were going to to do the cellulose insulation in the walls and in the attic, but we decided to focus on just getting the kitchen done for now. The cellulose thing is really a much bigger project, what with the machine and all the bags you have to buy, someone to hold the hose, someone to shred and feed the chunks in to the machine, etc, etc. So we went with the itchy stuff for now and covered it up with some dry wall sheets. At least we know one wall in the house that has insulation now.

Kick out the Lash

How to break off Lash spacers after the mortar hardens...fast.

Black Granite...Floors?

Yes, granite floors. We were going to do a marble and granite pattern, but after the Home Depot guy went around and literally scratched every stone in the store with his utility knife, we decided on granite. It didn't scratch even when you take a utility knife to it. With Gravy running around, the marble would have lasted about a week.
I put down a backerboard with a built in moisture barrier to it. I actually ended up pulling up the 4 sheets that I had down and reinstalling them after putting down Versabond underneath at the suggestion of one of the tile guys. Then on top of the backer board, I put more mortar. By the time the tile got to the floor the floor was feeling pretty solid.


We installed the granite using these things called Lash Spacers, (http://lashspacer.com/) again at the suggestion of one of the tile guys. I felt like I had been duped, because I probably ended up spending about $100 on the spacers and the yellow triangles that are sold separately. But, for the novice tile installer, I have to say they work pretty good. It does kill your hands pushing all these little triangles until they are tight, but at least the floor is nice and level. The triangles are reusable for future jobs, but the plastic spacers hook under the tiles so you have to buy new ones everytime you do a job, at ten bucks a pop for a bag of about 50. Also you get to kick them all off when you're done to let out the frustration about spending $100 on plastic pieces. Video here.