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It’s a Wrap

All repairs to the walls/moulding damaged while trying to install the office door were corrected and the final moulding around the inside of the room was installed.  This marks the completion of the final room in my house.

In addition to completing the office, I was able to take extra door trim to dress the basement exterior (not doing anything to the basement side of basement door) and kitchen exterior doors.  All of the closets have been dressed, except for the kitchen pantry and guest bedroom closet  (intentionally left off) with floor and inside door moulding.  This means the inside restoration is a wrap.

I held a Birthday Open House to celebrate the occasion on Saturday and was amazed by the number of people; colleagues, clients, friends, family, that came to see the work that had been accomplished.  Approximately 40 people braved the torrid rainfall and gusty winds.  It was a proud moment.  I absolutely loved showing her off and I was overwhelmed by the 100% positive feedback I received.  It was humbling, but my inner soul was enjoying the praise.  The flow of people was constant throughout the 3-hour event and I was so busy giving tours that the only picture I have as evidence of the wonderful afternoon is the haul of gifts received.  Also overwhelming; I haven’t had that many gifts to open at one time since undergrad graduation.

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I was asked what is my favorite room in the house.  It is the hallway leading to and including the guest bedroom, all done in tribute to my mother that I so wish were alive to share this moment with me.  She’s been gone almost 20 years and the void her death left is still strong.  I adorned the hallway with pictures of her from childhood through early adult and the guestroom walls are filled with more items in tribute to her.  I am my mother’s only child and because I made the conscious decision to not have children I wanted her pictures and awards to have life.  Once I’m gone I don’t know if anyone else will care.

The furniture was hers, she loved the Victorian style.  I remember her joy when it was delivered.  The quilt on the bed is one she purchased during a trip we made to Gatlinburg, but barely used.  It was on her bed when she came home from the hospital for the last time, but she had me take it off when her meds made her vomit.  She feared ruining it.  I’ve stored it for the last 20 years.  It falls a little short on this modern thick mattress, but I don’t care.  I’ve saved it for this very moment.

The celebration did not end with the Open House.  I had about an hour to clean up for a 6 pm quaint dinner party with five friends that were joining me for the Najee concert at the Ludlow Garage.  Najee was my go to study music in undergraduate school, so when I got the email that he was going to be right up the road I thought that would be a great birthday activity.  His Najee’s Theme LP was one of the first vinyl records I played once I got my sound system set in my master suite, so I took the cover with me to the concert in hopes of getting it signed.  Thanks to Robbie Todd, the promoter that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since the World Choir Games, it was signed, “To Venus.  Thank You Love Najee”.

Reaching this moment is bittersweet.  I’ve been an emotional wreck all week (damn menopause).  My heart is heavy, the tears have flowed.  This project has consumed my life for two years.  Almost every vision I had for the house from my very first walk through with Joe Gorman, Executive Director of Camp Washington Community Board, have come true.  The two areas that are a disappointment, the kitchen floor and spa-like function of the master shower, are correctable.  I should be elated, but this milestone sadly coincided with being confronted with the reality that a person I held in significance and had envisioned enjoying this house with will never be a part of it.  I’ve restored a beautiful house, but now struggle with figuring out how my house will become a home.  She deserves to be filled with sounds of laughter and joy, not hollow solo footsteps and TV noise.  I hope I’ll be able to replicate January 11 many times moving forward.  It was a special day I’ll cherish for a long time.

I was also asked what is next.  I know I can and will fix the kitchen floor.  I’ll add a steam unit to the master shower.  I will finish my master bed headboard, make my dining room table and office desk.  Hopefully by spring a loan from a bank would have come through and I can enjoy watching a contractor paint the exterior and then start Phase Two of the vision, the detached garage.  With a slight tweak of the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage, skill, patience, finances, to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

I was still cleaning up things minutes before the first guest arrived, so I did not have a chance to hang before pictures in each room allowing people to see the transformation.  Enjoy this before and after slideshow.

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I’m a Legal Resident

I’ve passed all City of Cincinnati inspections and now can legally occupy my house.  Whew.  No celebrations yet, as I still need to finish installing all the floor and door moulding and 5 doors, but it does feel good getting all the inspections complete.  For this milestone occasion I decided to hang Christmas decorations.

20191130_160926.jpgI’m not a post Christmas sales shopper, but I got the wreaths at Home Depot on clearance last year.  Regular $49.99 and I got for $12,50.  I had to go to three different stores to get all I needed, but it was worth it.  The wreaths have battery powered LED lights and can run constantly, 6 hours on/18 hours off, or off.

To dress them up a purchased ribbons and red berry garland from Michael’s.  It was a cold and raining day when I hung them and I was able to do it all from the inside of the house just by lowering the upper window sash.  Eyelet hooks drilled into the center of the outside frame allowed me to hang the wreaths for the inside via transparent wire capped with electrical connectors.

The snowman I’ve had since a child.  It’s over 40 years old.

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Kitchen Complete. First Thanksgiving.

I moved into my house on November 17, 2018 without a functioning kitchen or bathroom.  Fast forward one year and the kitchen is finally 100% complete.  Finishing and placing the built-in was the primary reason the kitchen didn’t reach this status sooner.  The crown moulding for the cabinet over the refrigerator could not be installed until it was in place.  My Jack of all trades, Tom Milfeld, was able to make quick work of the final run.  Because the wall ended into the hall he had to create a finished end by boxing around the corner.  He’s fantastic.

Before:

Open Concept Coming Together
Kitchen
Kitchen Built-in which was relocated

After:

You may notice the window trim is up in the dining room.  With the kitchen done and my desire to host Thanksgiving I felt compelled to make the dining room more complete, so I forged through the piles in my basement and found the window trim for all of the first floor windows, 9 windows.  I got 7 done before Thanksgiving and it made a world of difference in making the house look finished.  The windows are at eye level and without the moulding looked like eye sores.

My regular readers know my process for cleaning up my wood.  These windows were in far worst shape than the upstairs windows.  I had to glue many cracks or broken off pieces and even create filler pieces before I started my regime of denatured alcohol, stain and/or Restore-A-Finish, followed by Howard’s Feed and Wax.

One of the aprons was completely missing it trim (not sure of the proper name), so I found something that was a close match at Lowes.  Once stained the difference was neglible.  That is the top of the apron which is directly under the window seal, barely seen.  A normal person probably wouldn’t bother to replace it.  I’m not normal.

Before hanging the moulding I caulked every crack and seam of the window frame.  You could feel the air and cold around every window.  I still have the two office windows to install, so I’ll share pics on where I caulked when I post “Windows Complete”.  For now I’m just amazed on how the moulding transformed the look of the rooms.

Living Room Before
Dining Room Before

The rug, Safavieh Evoke Quinn Vintage Boho Medallion Distressed, I ordered it from Overstock.com  I’ve been stepping over the rolled up rug still in its plastic for months.  I’m pretty sure I’ve surpassed the period to return it, so I’m glad I like it.  The different shades of blue pick up the cabinets and wall and the splattering of  grey ties in with the living room.  I can’t wait to start working on my dining room table.

Diner was great.  I cooked my first turkey in a convection oven.  I got a fresh Amish turkey from Country Meat Co. on Findlay Market.  I did a dry brine method with seasoning from Colonel De Gormet Herbs & Spices, also at Findlay.  Sea Salt, Brown Sugar and the Colonels’ Simon and Garfunkel and Turkey/Chicken rub.  It was awesome (no cooked bird pics) and the turkey and noodle soup I’m cooking tomorrow will be even better thanks to all those spices.

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Master Bath, Functionally Complete

What a journey. I still need to find towel racks and get them installed, but it is an official 4 piece functioning bathroom and tomorrow I will call the city to get my final plumbing inspection.

The shower has been reworked and refitted. The Signature Hardware knobs, which match the sink and tub filler, and hand held sprayer are the only remaining reminders of what went down. If you look real close you can see where I nicked a few pieces of the surrounding tile, but all and all removing the body sprays completely was fairly simple. My Ridgid JobMax tool with a grout grinder attached made quick time of the work.

I decided to rework the diverter valve. Of the three ports on the top, I caped off the middle (housed the wall shower head) and moved the wall shower head down to the single port location where the body sprays once were. Doing this 1) put the head I’ll use daily on a port by itself, so easy direct access, and 2) I can now have the wall and rain shower heads work simultaneously.

I replaced the Signature Hardware shower heads with Hansgrohe Raindance S models. I didn’t leave it to chance; I actually went into a local showroom and tested several before selecting these units. I saved over $200 by ordering them through Build.com and not purchasing them from showroom retailer.

The wall shower unit is Raindance S Multi Function 2.5 GPM Shower Head. There was nothing wrong with the Signature Hardware wall shower unit, but since I lost the multiple body sprays I wanted a multi-function shower head. The WhirlAir massage setting feels awesome and the RainAir setting has a tingling sensation on my skin. Like taking a shower in club soda. The rain shower head is the Raindance S Rain 2.5 GPM Shower Head. Again, nothing wrong with the Signature Hardware fixture, but I wanted the two heads to match. I washed my hair last night and tried running both heads. Slight reduction in water flow, but still a nice shower experience.

A city licensed plumber installed the tub for me. I’m very glad I did not decide to install it myself. I didn’t have the tools they used, would not have known how to properly cut the pipe, so a very good $300 investment. I need to give the caulk tonight to set up, but I’m taking that puppy for a test ride tomorrow night. It’s been a long time in the making. This was the very first fixture purchase.

BEFORE

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Master Bath (Future walk-in shower/free standing tub)

AFTER

Did reality match the caption of the before picture typed almost two years ago. I think so!

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That Section Looks Good

It’s going to look awesome when complete.  The wall tiles are 4×16 and I purchased them from the Tile Shop, Imperial Bone Gloss Ceramic.  The skirting around the tub also came from Tile Shop.  The grout is Superior Pro-Grout Excel in Dessert Sand.

The floor tile is the mosaic tile that matches the hexagon tile I put in the tub area.  I fell in love with the Isla King Wood tile when I stumbled across it on Pinterest.  It’s an Italian tile and it was a splurge that I justified because I put in the labor.  I was fortunate to find the tub floor tile online at Mission Stone and Tile.  With shipping it was several hundred dollars cheaper than JP Flooring, a local vendor.  I had selected a 2×2 hexagon tile from the Tile Shop that would compliment the tub area, but Mike Tanner’s installer suggested that I go with a square shape tile, less waste and time to install.  The Tile Shop had a 2×2 square mosaic, but it was only a couple of dollars less than the King Wood mosaic, which is what I really wanted.  I only needed 23 sf.  Even though I had to pay for installation, it was less than $100 in material cost increase, so I went for it.  Unfortunately Mission Stone and Tile did not carry the mosaic, so I ordered it from JP Flooring.

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Foundation Restored

The featured picture was taken on my first visit to the house after being given the option to buy it and it is the reason I almost walked away.  The gutters for the house were completely gone above this section of the foundation, so it took a beating for years.  Inside I had literally, weeping walls, and puddles whenever it rained.  I had countless companies come out to provide remedies, all had price tags $10,000 and higher.  I made the decision to move forward with the purchase and had decided to take one engineers suggestion to remove and replace the most decayed sections of the foundation, about 18′.  That would cost about $20,000.

Fortunately I flew my father in town to look at the house and he urged me not to do it.  He took a hammer to various sections.  Loose pieces fell to the ground, but in short order he reached sound areas.  One engineer recommended some specific products to use.  My father read up on them and said it was work he/we could do ourselves and it could wait; focus on the house.  I’ve done just that since October of 2017 and then Tom Milfeld was put in my path.  Everybody needs a Tom in their life.  His skills are boundless.  Turns out not only is he a great carpenter and tile man, he really loves working with cement.  He learned the skill from his grandfather.  He told me he could repair the entire outside and about two weeks ago, on one of the hottest days this year he got started.  If you need a handyman and live in Cincinnati email him at melvin7448@hotmail.com.

The BEST part of this project is I did not lift a finger.  I told him I’d help dig around the house and he said that is what I was paying him for, not to worry.  Boyfriend you don’t have to tell me twice.  I can’t believe the transformation, which I turned into a Quik video (I haven’t made one of those in awhile).  

 

 

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From Toilet Surround to Headboard

This is the back to my future master bedroom headboard created from beadboard that surrounded a hole that was a toilet in my basement.  It was covered in yellow paint, black and white graffiti, cobwebs, and spider sacks when I tore it down.  These are the best before pictures I could find as the vision of turning it into a headboard came much later.

Once I had decided to make the headboard, I scoured the Internet for design ideas and I came across the blog of Jen Woodhouse – The House of Wood DIY Life of a Military Wife. She has a ton of cool plans/projects, but the one that caught my eye was her Evelyn Chevron King Bed.  I got the plans over a year ago, so this wood has been patiently waiting to be reinvented.  The plans include side rails and foot board, but I’m not making those due to my adjustable bed frame.  Open shop hours are Wednesday and Saturday and I literally thought I have this portion down in one week, two days.  NOT.

The first step was getting the sheet of birch plywood to the shop.  Thankfully Tom (my finish carpenter/foundation repairer) was willing to pick a sheet up from Home Depot and bring it to me at the shop.  Per the plans I ripped it down to 77″ in width.  Next was preparing the beadboard.  I knew I wanted to remove the paint and graffiti and I thought it would mean stripping.  However with one pass through a planner it removed most of the paint and graffiti.  What was left I felt would add character, so the plan was hatched and I spent the bulk of the first day planning down the boards.

Once I got what I thought would be enough I found and marked the center lines (both vertical and horizontal) on my plywood and I started cutting 45 degree cuts.  Jen’s plans had measurements for each length board, but she warned to measure first.  I made it one step easier.  I cut the 45s to be placed on the lines and left the boards long off the edge and planned to just trim all sides down once all boards were glued and nailed in place.

I started cutting pieces on July 13.  I got the last piece glued and nailed in place on August 3.  Primarily due to the limited open shop hours available at the shop I was using.  I didn’t work every Wednesday and Saturday and some days I only got a couple of hours in, but this worked my patience.  I didn’t butt the pieces tightly during the cutting phase.  I nailed and glued all of the pieces in one quadrant first.  When I started in the next about 3 boards in the lines didn’t align and by the end it was off by 1/2″.  I had to take them apart (I had glued a few) and scrape the groove or tongue of each piece.  Just the thickness of the residue paint was causing the issue.

Next came the trim up.  In that raw finished state I knew I had created something special.

From this point forward I am not working from the plans.  The wall that the head of my bed is located on is not wide enough to allow room for nightstands on either side.  I currently use a TV table to hold remotes, pocket contents, etc.  I had the idea of building a shelve above the headboard, which will give it depth away from the wall and creating dead space.  The manager of the shop I was using added to the idea and suggested I put shelves along the sides too.  So with that plan hatched I decided it would be really cool to have part of the backboard be the back of the top shelf.  The board straddled across the two work tables, which meant I would be pushing as far as I could, but then need to go around to the other side of the table to pull through the remainder of cut.  In that transition I pulled slightly away from my straight edge.  Fortunately not much damage and if I hadn’t shared it in this post, most people would not be able to see it once it’s all complete.  Learn from the mistakes of others.

With that cut, it was time to take the board home to apply the finish.  There is a gentleman, Gene, that has adopted the shop donating all sorts of great tools.  He’s a master woodsman and super knowledgeable.  I was toying with either Polyacrylic, Polyurethane without or without stain.  Gene recommended and prefers Danish Oil.  I spent an evening on the Internet doing research and decided to take that route.  I purchased Watco Danish Oil in natural.  Super easy product to apply.  I used a cheap sponge paint brush.  They tell you to keep applying if you see certain areas drying up (soaking in) the oil.  On the first coat that definitely was the case.

After the second coat.

Final coat.

With that the back of the head board is complete.  This project took a major twist last week.  Scotti encourages people to buy wood for their projects from Paxton Lumber.  Originally I had planned to get slabs of Ash from the Randy Wipert, Woodwrights Sawmill and Hardwood who had got the walnut logs from me last year.  He couldn’t produce them when I was ready so, over the phone I described the project to a clerk from Paxton.  I am very comfortable buying site unseen, but never again will I do that with a wood project.

When I arrived to pick up the wood I knew IMMEDIATELY it was not what I had envisioned in my minds eye.  I had approved white oak slabs, cut to 15/16″, in widths up to 12″.  Long story short, I bought the wood and resolved myself to make it work.  I actually spent an entire day in the shop working on the top shelf box.  The planer in the shop struggled on these long pieces of oak, but I got them planed, joined, and ripped to prepare for biscuit/gluing them together to create the true width I wanted.

I took a piece of scrap oak home and applied Medium Walnut, Natural, and Dark Walnut Danish Oil.  I didn’t love any of them, but was going to go with natural and then came the phone call that changed everything.  Lacey, the woman that gave me the pine floors for my kitchen, called and offered me some of the floor joist she was removing from her house.  True 2×12, 100 year old pine.  I jumped on it and picked up five pieces and went straight to the shop (it was a Saturday).  I spent the bulk of the time denailing one 20190814_214547joist, but once denailed I started running it through the planner.  10 passes and we didn’t put a dent in the wood.  I cleared enough to know that this was the wood my minds eye envisioned.  This one spot rubbed with the natural Danish Oil confirmed it.  It will take months to finish the heardboard if I move forward with the pine.

So what to do.  Use the oak I purchased or create a fully salvaged headboard and use the pine.  You’ll have to keep checking my blog to see how this project is going to end.  Anyone want to lay bets?

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Water Closet Complete

Another room down, small, but complete.  I actually finished the room 4th of July weekend, but I’ve been crazy busy with client work that I haven’t had time to make the post.  My confidence on woodwork projects is growing by leaps and bounds.  My first finish carpenter started this projects last summer.  The door was a salvage door I got from the Cincinnati Reuse Center and it is the only painted door upstairs.  It was in

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pretty bad shape and already painted when I bought it for $100.  I had serious size constraints given the water closet was built in a dormer area (that same space originally housed a 4′ tub, toilet and sink, crazy).  It came with its jamb, but had to be flipped for right swing orientation.  He did all that.

I filled holes and cracks with wood putty, but did not strip original paint.  I sanded what was flaky, but allowed it to be my “primer”.  I applied Sherwin Williams Pacer White semi-gloss and the door turned out great.

The challenge I had was closing.  It closed perfectly when originally set in place, but I guess from sitting in basement it swelled and with the additional coats of paint it wasn’t close closing.  I took it off the hinges and used my hand planer to get past the paint and into the wood to reduce the size where it hit the jamb.  Messy, but it did the trick.

My next challenge was installing the strike plate.  I bought my first set of chisels for this project and although I went a little too wide, that project was much easier than I thought. I’ll be hard pressed to hire someone to do it if I need another (which I will).

The idea for the toilet sign came from my mecca to Waco and visit to Magnolia Market at the Silos.  They had similar on their bathroom doors, which they didn’t sell.  I found mine on Amazon and use furniture tacks to attach it to the door.

With the door hung I turned my sights on the floor moulding.  Since it would be painted and I knew I’d need the original to make up for missing pieces in the Master Bed area, I bought all new from Home Depot, primed pine that was close to original, and the shoe moulding came from Menards.  I tackled my couping cuts again.  Thank goodness I could hide my imperfections with paint and caulk.

One coat of paint was all these needed, but I took countless trips up and down two flights of stairs making the cuts.  Well worth it to get another room off the list.  The only thing left in the Master Bath is the shower and tub tile and that gets kicked off on Monday.

Tease for next post.  The Master Bed is one window shy of being complete.20190711_221700

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From Pinterest to Reality – Part 1

Some females have wedding books, saving clippings and photos of ideas to create the perfect wedding.  I had an electronic house book, links and photos to things I’d put in my

first house.  The idea to recess a dresser into the eaves space that was once a short closet was born from this picture I saw on Pinterest.   I was starting with nothing in regards to furniture in my master suite.  I really don’t like a lot of furniture, so this was the perfect solution to utilizing the empty space created when I relocated the door to this closet to my master bath linen closet.

It took several months before I found a salvage dresser that would fit in the dimensions, 20190605_205930but I finally did on Nextdoor.com for $50.  A beautiful, five-drawer dresser with dovetail drawers made by the West Michigan Furniture Co. of Holland, MI.  I couldn’t find any before pics, but it was a beautifully made dresser; solid and heavy.

The first thing I needed to do was trim the overhang from the top and bottom sides.  I’ve had this dresser for at least 9 mos, so I made the cuts with my circular saw before I started working with Tom Milfeld and taking classes at the Wood Shop.  I butchered that dresser.  Some areas I cut in too deep, some not far enough.  It’s a good thing the bulk of the dresser would be recessed in the wall.  I could have let it go, but I filled the gaps with wood filler and sanded down the high areas just to get it ready for paint.

This project was all about salvage, recycle, so I did not purchase the primer paint recommended by the Sherwin Williams sales clerk.  I had over a 1/2 quart of their White Synthetic Shellac Primer left from the fire damaged door I bought, so I used it instead.  He told me that would be over kill and he was right, as I discovered.  I’ve always felt spray painting is the best option for painting furniture.  Rolling/brushing creates too thick of layers if you’re not an expect and I am not.  At the end that’s exactly what I got, but I’m jumping ahead.

Once the primer dried my first, bone head amateur mistake was revealed.  I was in such a rush to get this project done, I did the cardinal sin in sanding.  I started with 80 grit and never went higher, so my surface was rough, especially on the drawers.  In hindsight I should have sanded at that step, but my first inclination was more paint would hide it, NOT.

My walls in my master are Sherwin Williams Indigo Batik, so I purchased a quart of their All Surface Enamel (recommended by the clerk) in that color and he recommended a Mohair Blend roller, which I also bought.  I applied two coats of paint and at that stage absolutely hated that I had ruined such a beautiful dresser.  I called my friend Joan who has a relative that paints furniture all the time.  She uses scrap paint and sands lightly between two coats.

Even though I had three coats on already (primer plus two color) I decided to try the sanding in hopes it would get rid of the rough spots that were still visible.  I only sanded the drawers.  It helped and the fourth coat actually looked pretty good.  So good I decided to drain the end of the quart can of Polycrylic.  I had enough for just one coat, but at this point that dresser had five layers on it, which would come back to bite me.

The craftsmen that build that dresser left zero margin in the drawer openings.  My five 20190609_131153layers were thicker than the original stain, so when I went to test a drawer it would not close all the way.  I intentionally painted the top edge of the drawer, but the bottom lip was just overage, so between the drawer edges and the opening overage I had too much build-up.  I used my new chisel set to scrap the bottom of the drawers.  I was hoping it would create a clean edge and it did.  I thought scraping the bottom would be enough, so the next task was getting the dresser from the basement up to flights to my master.

Earlier in the week I had asked my neighbor if he’d be around on the weekend to help and he was willing, but when the day came I had the epic feeling of not wanting to fail with an audience.  I didn’t know for sure if the dresser was going to fit and I didn’t want witnesses, so I tackled getting it upstairs by myself.  I had the full on Jane Fonda burn working in my already too tight calves when I hit the top landing, but it inserted like a glove.

I tried the drawers again and same outcome, still too much paint, so I bought a paint scraper and scraped the paint from the top of the drawers and top/bottom of the opening.  That did the trick, but it looked awful, so I decided take some dark stain (Minwax brand, but color unknown as I had poured the remnants of several different colors in one can) and stain the top edge of the drawers.  That amazingly did the trick.

The next obstacle were the two front legs.  I had to remove all four legs to trim off the bottom overhang.  I reattached them to their original location.  What I discovered was that my opening wasn’t square and the floor not level.  I had used wood glue with the original screws and I needed to push the front legs back about an inch. I used my draw saw to cut through the glue and mini crowbar to left them off.  Amazingly no damage.

That helped with the bottom alignment, but not the top.  For that I removed the original nail-on sliders and installed adjustable, which would allow me to set the heights on each leg differently.  Turned out I needed the entire dresser to tilt forward, so I made the back legs higher than the front.  I also needed the front right side to be lower than the left, which meant the left rear had to be even higher to stop the dresser from rocking.  Sometimes I amaze myself when my mind can sort through fixes like that.

The last step was replacing the original wood knobs with the Amerock Classic Cabinet Knobs Clear/Golden Champagne I found on Amazon.  They are 8-points, just like my glass door knobs on the first floor and the bases were a perfect match to my other brass accents. 

With that part 1 of the project was complete and I could finally empty the last box and bin in my floor.

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Score, 3 for price of 1

You cannot restore old homes without visiting your local salvage stores.  I’m still looking 20190608_094532.jpgfor two doors (office and basement) in a specific style (Mission, vertical 2-panel), so I make it a point to visit one of 2 stores fairly regularly, Cincinnati ReUse Center and Building Value.  This morning I went to Building Value and scored big time.  Not with doors for my house, but brand new, pre-hung doors for my future garage apartment.

My back door is a 3-panel craftsman styled door I got from Home Depot.  I had decided 20190608_200026that if I couldn’t find a 2-panel I’d buy another 3-panel.  When I saw the exact door at Building Value for $50 I jumped on it.  It only measured 30″ wide, 32″ with the jamb.  I thought that was the opening for the basement door.  It was not, I needed a 32″ wide door.

I could have made it work, but I decided to take a look at my garage plans and low and behold, the door for the bedroom specified a 30″ door.  The plan also calls for a 28″ door for the bathroom and bedroom closet and I knew they had more new doors, so I went back.  Sure enough, they had a 28″ 3-panel and a 28″ 1-panel.  I snatched both of them up.

The 1-panel door is taller than the others, but I figure it’s a closet door, so who would care.  Also, I’m not concerned with it not matching the other 2 because the 1-panel will allow me to hang a mirror on the door giving my future tenant a full-length mirror.  I bought twin size mattress bags to keep them covered and set them on a skid to keep them off the ground, just in case I get water in the basement.  What started as a search for some elusive doors saved me at least $350.