Hinges

The oak door installation all hinged on getting these hinges installed correctly.I purchased these heavy bronze hinges several years ago just after I purchased the oak door. I liked these hinges for several reasons. First...they are heavy and we needed substantial hinges to hold the weight of the heavy oak door. Second... these hinges were manufactured by Corbin the same lock set company that made all our cylinder locks.

I removed all the paint layers trying my best to leave the patina right after I received them in the mail. I then promptly stashed them away until last week when we decided to start the door installation.

We decided that since this would be our first attempt at mortising hinges we would use the previous hinge location in the door jamb (after we removed the wood patch that filled the opening)........and mortise the door to accommodate those hinge locations thus reducing the number of mortises from 6 to 3.

We removed about 1/4 inch from each side of the door so that it would fit the opening with an equal margin on the top and sides of about an 1/8th of an inch. Plan A was to use the planer/joiner to trim the door. But we decided that the door was too heavy to run it through the planer/joiner and keep it flush with the bed plate. Plan B was to use the table saw but first we had to run to Harbor Freight and buy 2 roller stands to support the door as we fed it through the saw.Each stand cost $19.99. We opted for the adjustable roller instead of the stand with one continuous roller. FYI Harbor Freight also sells just the roller if you wish to make your own roller extension.

The bottom of the door has a space between the door and the marble threshold of about 3/4 of an inch. Once the door is stained and sealed we will add some sort of weather stripping to the bottom. This will make the vestibule an air lock and should be beneficial in keeping cold air out of the house and warm heated air in the house whenever we open the front door in the winter.

Today we mortised the hinges on the door. I chiseled while R watched. He sharpened the chisels whenever I decided that they were not cutting through the wood as well as I liked. Each mortise went quicker than the previous mortise. It was still nerve racking, which in part was R fault for continually reminding me "not to take too much wood." My wrists are tender now and I think I'll take a couple of Motrins and try to sneak the heating pad away from R and the cats.Luckily the door's previous screw holes did not land in the wrong place. All previous holes are well out of the way of the new screw hole locations. The old screw holes will be filled with wood filler when the time comes to stain the door.The door is installed and swings nicely. I still have the door/jamb stops to install but that will have to wait until I receive the striker plate and key hole escutcheon in the mail.
We will re install the beveled glass panes after all the hardware and trim is installed and the door is working perfectly. I have no idea where we would get a replacement pane if we break one so keep your fingers crossed that the pane installation goes pain free since I do not have a Plan B.

Chainsaw, Planer, and Oak Door

Alex, I'll take Projects for $500.00

The answer is.... Cut down two trees, set up the planer, and set the oak door in place.

Buzz

What is what did we do today?

Correct!!!!

Yup, we fired up that brand new chainsaw and cut down two dead trees. But first R had to show me this huge icicle that he found when he went to the barn to get the ladder. Doesn't he look happy? I mean why wouldn't he be happy? It was cold, the wind was blowing, and he had to stand in the snow. It could be worse....he could be crawling around under the house.See this rope.
One end was tied to the tree.
And the other end was attached to me. Not as much attached as just placed behind my back and one hand had hold of the rope before it went behind my back and the other hand held the rope on the other side and I just leaned back on the rope to put tension on the rope to guide the tree as it fell.I'm very talented. I can hold onto a rope and take a photo, with my gloves on, at the same time.

One tree down...one to go.Second tree down.Both trees fell without damaging the driveway, fruit trees, plants, shrubs, or lawn. We just piled up the logs and branches until the snow melts and we can bring the little lawn tractor trailer out and pick up all the logs at one time.

R conducted a quick count and both trees were roughly about 50 yrs old. The photo below shows why we had to cut down these two trees. Those squiggly things are the larvae of the emerald ash borer. Say it with me......ewwwww.Then we placed (not permanently) the oak door in the opening to form an air lock. We decided that we need to remove about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch from the side. The height was OK.
We decided we would fit and hang the door before I reinstall the beveled glass panes for two reasons. First... the door is heavy and would be even heavier with the glass. Second...we won't have to worry about breaking a pane when we take the door out to the barn to run it through the planer.

See that patch where there was a hinge at one time? Sadly the hinge placement on the door does not line up with the previous hinge placement on the jamb. In a perfect world they would line up.
Tomorrow we will plane the door. I don't anticipate getting much more than that done because the planer is in the barn. This project will require carrying the door back and forth from the house to the barn.

I purchased the door at the architectural salvage store called Grand Illusion Gallery in Grass Lake, Michigan. The door came without any hardware so I will need to go through my boxes of hinges and lock sets to see what I have that will work. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I have something that will work and is appropriate to the style and age of the house.

Next Project...Oak Door with Beveled Glass

Last night I resumed a small project that I had started over a year ago. I usually have several projects going at one time. This allows me to work on one project while waiting for a part, perfect weather, inspiration, or ambition. Sometimes I just get bored with a long term project and need to do something else to just break the monotony.

Several years ago I bought the door that we are going to install between our vestibule and foyer. When I stripped the paint from the doorway and saw witness marks from previous hinges it was confirmed that indeed there had been a door at one time.

I purchased an old solid oak door with 15 beveled glass lites. This door was covered in numerous coats of paint. Some of the tiny trim around the lites were loose and had paint drips behind the glass. I needed to remove the glass and clean the paint drips if I was going to return this door to it's previous glory.

Slowly I removed the trim which was only attached with one small nail. The beveled glass was not only paint covered and filthy but also very thick heavy glass with a slight green tint. Once all the glass was removed I could finish stripping the paint drips.This left me with a stack of very heavy and very dirty glass. I was very careful when handling the glass as I did not want to have to replace any broken lites nor did I want to cut myself. The procedure I used took a whole evening to complete and resulted in a case of dish pan hands for me.First of all I placed a thick bath towel in the bottom of the sink. I then very carefully place one piece of glass onto the towel and then turned the water on. I used a couple drops of dish soap to help clean off the grime. I found that a sponge with a Scotch Brite pad on one side worked the best at cutting the dirt. Once I had removed all the dirt I could see where I needed to use a razor blade in a paint scraper to remove the paint. I then dried off the glass and placed it onto another thick bath towel.Here is a photo of the finished stack of clean glass.
The next step is to reinstall the glass and return the small trim pieces without breaking the glass or the trim pieces. But before I can do that, I have to finish the project R and I are currently working on. More on that...tomorrow.