A Majestic Old Door Gets Its Day

An Irony of Antiques

It was time for an antique door installation at White Rock.  This meant that another project would be completed but it always means that we were about to face another set of problems, challenges, and issues!  That is the way it is with antiques.

The irony of antiques is that they tend to flock together.

When we started this adventure, several people said that when people find out that I like old things, they will start giving antiques to me.  I didn’t doubt the person, but I was surprised when it started happening.  So far, we have been gifted pew benches from a local church, the contents of an old smokehouse, a couple of ladder back chairs, and the door in the photo above, to mention a few.   I love it and if you are reading this and have something that needs a home, I am your girl.

A Gift to Us

We were given an old door and doorframe.  The door came from my hometown of Italy, Texas.  It was removed from an old house on what could only be called our town’s one “silk stocking” sort of street.  South Ward boasts some of the most beautiful homes, yards and old trees in town.  It was my favorite street to ride my bicycle on when I was young.  The church where I was married is on this street.

Our dear friend, Jackie Cate, was given this door and he, in turn, gave it to us before we even started on our project.  He patiently stored it until we had a place.  When the time came (which means when we had the walls built around the opening where the door was to go), we installed the behemoth and hoped for the best.

While we waited for us to have time to complete this project, we oh so stylishly screwed a piece of OSB over the hole where the door was to go.  Professionals, we are not, but we are patient and eventually we get a round to whatever it is that needs to be completed.

In February, this door was finally on the agenda.

Installing the “Jackie Door”

After staining the floor in this room, we needed to cut out a section for the threshold to be installed under the door.  This was a little nerve racking.  I had just finished the floors and now I was using a sharpie marker and a cutting tool.  UGH.

The space was made and we started installing the threshold.

Lucky for me…I had the best help in the world and the threshold went in without a problem.  We did have to trim the metal and wooden pieces of it because, you know…old door and door frame so nothing was the size of a modern door.  Another joy of working with old things.

Oh, Yeah, Another Problem

The door didn’t fit back into its space.  I don’t even pretend to know how that is possible.  I thought we needed to figure out why it didn’t fit and fix that.  Jerry thought that we needed to trim the door so it would fit into the size the doorframe was currently.  Hmmmm.

After trimming off a piece of the door, we installed it and were ready to add the hardware.  Unfortunately, we didn’t trim the hinge side of the door (we couldn’t remove the hinges!) and when we tried to install the deadbolt and knob, the holes were no longer deep enough.  This made it necessary to get the drill and bore into the door further.

Finishing Touches

After struggling with every aspect of this door installation, I was left with nailing the door sweep into the bottom of the door.  This went without a hitch and the door was successfully installed and weather-tight.

What I Learned

Pay someone to install doors.  The only doors we did not struggle with were the doors with the transom windows.  The new store bought doors were terrible.  The “Jackie” door was terrible.  Doors are not easy.  There seems to be no end to the number  of ways you can fight with them.  And the doors usually win.

We watched YouTube videos…we worked and worked on them.  Since this was the last door, I think Jerry didn’t want to work with the door.  Why bother since the door wins?  He whipped out a saw.  Probably not a great idea since the door is not longer balanced, but the struggle is real and the door is in place.   Time to move onto another project.