Or was our front door...Back in February, after accomplishing a lot of things that I needed to get done, I thought I'd take a peek at out front door. See we had this ugly front door that someone had attached a wooden "medallion" to, front and back, and then added shutters. The paint on the front was peeling. The stain on the back was unmatched. Our brushed nickle handle clashed with the brass knob plate. It was a mess. So one day while Rachael was out of town (because otherwise I suspect she would have stopped me) I pried off the wooden medallion on the inside of the door. I also pried off the shutters. Suddenly there was light and hope and the door didn't look too bad. There was obvious water damage being hidden by the ugly medallion but overall it looked better.
Encouraged by the inside of the door I thought I'd see what the outside of the door had hidden behind it. Here's my first real mistake. We could have lived with the back being open, a little ugly, but otherwise improved. The front of the door though-- the medallion on that side was covering a multitude of sins.
It probably would have been fine if I had stopped there, but I don't ever stop there. I had made a problem, and now I needed to fix it. So then I removed the trim around the front door, Inside and Out. Did I mention it was February? Have I mentioned this house was built before they believed in insulation? With the trim missing I suddenly had an ugly door and gaps all around the edges where the brick and the door frame don't quite meet. Wind blew into the house. Heat fled through the cracks...now I had a made enough mistakes. Now I stopped doing anything else.
And from there the transformation takes place. First I bought foam insulation and filled in all the gaps that I could. Wind and heat stopped traveling in and out so noticeably. Then I bought a new door. I bought a beautiful unfinished wooden door in a prairie/arts and crafts style. Rachael helped me stick it in the basement so I could finish it. Then nothing happened for several months.
Then I finished it. And nothing happened for several months.
And then Friday there was no reason to wait any longer. The summer has passed for another year, the cold was coming. "There's nothing to fear but fear itself" right? So Rachael helped carry the door up out of the basement. We removed the old door and did the classy thing around here-- left it on our front porch.
Then six hours later, and a little help from Brooke, we have a the new door in.
Isn't it beautiful?, especially compared to the super ugly missing medallions door? Now I just have to trim out the door and hide all the new yellow foam insulation.
