New front door

Re: New front door

Barry Irby

Nice door, beautiful work. Thanks for posting. I just made a table about that size of white oak so I know how heavy it is. I like your dolly and may copy it for the table delivery.

Also thanks for the commercial door threshold Idea. My cousin has and oversized front door and is struggling with threshold and weather-stripping parts. This may turn out to be a big help.

Do you know what it means when you paint your front door red?

I agree . . .

Yonak

Really nice door .. lots of character. Was there any thought to having it open the other way ?

Barry, indeed, what does it mean to have a red front door (I'm a bit afraid to ask, having recently painted our front door tomato red ?

Painting the door red.

Barry Irby

Traditionally when you pay off your mortgage you paint your front door Red to celebrate and put the world on notice your house is paid for.

Re: Painting the door red - hmmmm

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Well glad that's what you came up with b/c I was suspecting something much more like the same signal as a 'red light' district. Phew - glad for John - and others, who have hopefully paid off their mortgages!

Ours is kinda eggplant/plum even though with Barry suggestion, it 'could be red'!

Henry

Re: New front door

Joe shelton

Beautiful, John. Nice job all around.

What is the framing like on the hinge side? Any extra trimmers?

The irony is...

John in NM

I always let my wife pick out the colors. I tend to use the paint I have on hand.

In this case it's a kind of subdued red, the same as we painted the shade ramada over the porch. What really impressed me about her color choices is that the dark accent color on the steel mesh filling in under the railing is a very dark brown. It looks far better than black, but I never would have thought of choosing it - in the paint isle my reaction is just get regular black and get the heck out of Home Depot ASAP. She's got an eye for color.

I was a bit relieved too when Barry explained the meaning. Red light district hadn't occurred to me, but I did imagine something vaguely embarrassing. We built this house in 2005, its been paid off from the start - so I don't have to repaint the door!

Hinge side

John in NM

There is a post of 3 2x's between the window and the door, which is the hinge side. Sometimes I put a 4" screw into the framing from the hinge, but I didn't do that in this case since I had put in the jamb with 5-6 3" screws. If I don't do the jamb installation I don't always trust that it is sturdy and put a long screw through at least the top hinge.

Jamb is made of a 2x6 because I had some of the nicest framing lumber I had ever seen at the time. Picked something like 30 off the top of a unit and more than half were actually stamped #1 and a few SS rather than #2. Figured I would make a jamb out of some of those since I had them and was trying to economize back when we built this place.

Like picking colors...

John in NM

My wife has a thing about which way doors swing.

I don't always pay close attention, often just doing what I'm told (had to be some area where I would just do what she says, right?). In this case I think she wanted the swing direction to help define the entry area as distinct from the living room to the left as you go in.

I tend to like left hung doors because then the key is in my right hand with my left on the knob. Practical is what I call that, fortunately I also don't always pay attention to what Jean calls it!

She's great with color and details like door swings and not having a view of a toilet from the living room, but I always rebel at her furniture ideas.... that is where her design sense fails in my opinion. But then my idea of furniture never really sold all that well, so I can't throw the stones too hard

Thanks Barry

John in NM

Just watch out for steel parts in those aluminum extrusions - I put a brush sweep under the drip edge with this one and though the housing is aluminum the bristles themselves are crimped in a steel channel inside it. Aluminum I'll cut with my chop saw, steel I tend to go find the right blade or use an abrasive saw.

Re: New front door

John Jardin

Very nice...thanks for showing.

Re: New front door

Howard Rosenberg

Fabulous job, John.

Looks great.

Re: Hinge side

Joe shelton

Well, you certainly did a nice job of it, door, deck and all.

Thanks for showing it to us.

Joe

Re: New front door

Johanna Johanson

John, it's a New Mexico tradition to paint doors and window frames blue to keep the brujas out.

There's a bunch of really tempting jokes....

John in NM

But I won't make them!

I wonder why blue would keep them away?

Re: New front door

Jesse Cloud

Great job! I need a new door and picked up a few things from your work that will help a lot.

Thanks

Re: New front door

John in NM

Glad it was informative Jess. Let me know if you need a second pair of hands with installation - that can get awkward even with light doors.

Re: New front door

Barry Irby

As an aside....It looks like a small Air Bag Jack or Air Wedge could be very handy installing a heavy door.

I started looking at The Viking Arm that Facebook was pounding me with and ordered a cheap version, but it looks like the Air wedge might be just as useful and a lot less expensive. Home Depot has them and there are lots available on Amazon.

Re: New front door

John in NM

I've never tried those. Always used shims since I have them from installing the jamb anyway. Also didn't know HD carried them, that's one to remember, I recall they are broadly useful things.