House Projects: Doors

Our old doors were hollow wood paneled, which we painted several coats of white. One still had brown streaks that seeped through the paint regularly, one stuck when it closed, one didn't stay open, and one was hard to pull all the way shut. So out of our 5 doors, 4 had problems. Basically they were 58-year-old doors.

We saw some beautiful "colonial" doors at an open house and it improved the whole feel of the house. I didn't want the beadboard ones, but I loved the 2-square panels, so when they went on sale at Home Depot in September, we ordered them. (They also had a free upgrade at the time to solid-core, which has been a nicer upgrade than I anticipated)

Several weeks later, they came in and John started installing them, pretty much one per weekend. We didn't have every Saturday free, so the 5 doors took more like 2 months. They were absolutely beastly and we don't recommend this DIY at all. Eventually, they were all in. We primed the doors and trim.

 The new trim is wider, which looks nice, but requires some extra work cutting the baseboards and ripping the sides to fit in small corners. John's early Christmas gift was a new saw to help with that. I think the only reason he agreed to this project was for the new toy. I mean tool. 

John chipped away at installing the trim on free Saturdays for months, through the holidays, vacations, etc. I wanted new doorknobs to match the hinges, but our old ones were in perfect working condition. I was debating because it was just an added, unnecessary expense. Then our front doorknob broke and we had to go through the back door.

So we bought a new front doorknob and John went ahead and swapped all of them out for me and it was instant love. So worth it. This is with the trim up and doorknobs in.

Then John caulked all the seams, patched all the holes and sanded everything smooth.

 On Saturday, we painted everything, sanded, cleaned and painted again. Finally, finally, finally, our beautiful doors are done. It seems like a small change, but it makes a big difference.

When removing the trim in the bathroom, the paint/texturing just peeled away down to the drywall paper.

Since the texturing in there is so thick already, we decided we'd just rip it all off and retexture the walls. So, the guest bathroom got bumped up on the to-do list.

Then, one night I went to dry a puddle that I assumed was from bathtime earlier, and all the floor squares came up. The toilet valve was leaking and soaked the glue off the lovely linoleum.

So, we peeled all of that up, too. John fixed the leak and now we're planning what to do next in there.

One project finished and another one started. Slow and steady progress!