One of the projects that we did in our old house was to replace the front door. To say that it was an upgrade is an understatement.
The initial door had areas where you could feel the wind coming in. And if that wasn’t enough you could see that there was light coming through some of the cracks as well. Really secure and efficient, NOT.
Kevin knew that the house had termite damage from the disclosure form when he bought the house. Because of this, we knew the door would most likely need a whole new frame and some love. How much love we weren’t all that sure yet.
This was definitely a necessary project and one that I think made a huge difference not only in appearance but also in our utility bills!
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Picking Out Our New Front Door
Anything without holes was a welcomed change for us!
There are so many options for front doors. We looked at both Lowe’s and Home Depot to see their selections. We weren’t looking to buy some fancy premium door. This wasn’t that kind of house.
We wanted a sturdy, long-lasting, nice-looking door. It wasn’t all that hard to impress us, door-wise because anything was better than what we had.
We found a door we really liked that was on sale at Home Depot. It was a Fiberglass door with a Cherry Woodgrain finish. We really liked the oval window that was in the center of the door.
They had the door in stock, which was a bonus, so we were able to bring it home that day. We loaded the door into Kevin’s truck, which actually means Kevin and the Home Depot associate loaded it into his truck 😁.
We could not wait to get home and get started. Kevin immediately got to work removing the old door so we could see what we needed to do to get the door installed.
Termites Eat More Than Wood
Because Money And Time Should Be Under Their Description Of Destruction As Well.
Well, knowing that there would be termite damage was one thing. I suppose we didn’t exactly realize the extent of it. Because really you don’t know until you get in there and tear everything apart.
Kevin had to replace the whole side panel of the door frame. Reinforcing it with extra 2x4s so that the structure was more secure all around. As well as replacing the surrounding door frame.
This definitely took some time. There was a point where he had to run to Lowe’s to get a couple of extra things and I was sitting in the living room without a front door.
It’s funny you never really think about how important your front door is until you are sitting looking at a gaping hole in your front wall.
The best part was a little boy and his mom was walking by and I could hear the little boy ask his mom why “those people didn’t have a front door”. So I was glad to see Kevin arrive home so that we could once again have the privacy of a door.
Leaving The Front Door For The Next Day
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
By the time all of the new 2x4s were in, the door frame was replaced, the door was leveled and shimmed, and everything was ready to go it was 11 p.m. and dark out.
So we decided to leave the door in the door frame with no knob or anything and rig it so no one could get in. It was an “I’m so tired” I can’t finish tonight kind of decision.
Because really for any other circumstance, other than from true exhaustion, I would not have found this to be an “okay” idea.
So off to bed, we went with a door in place but unsecured. Or as secured as we could have made it at the time. We made sure that if anything we would hear a commotion if someone was trying to get in.
The Early Bird Gets The Worm
Or in our case, we have a securely installed front door.
We woke up earlier than usual the next day to get to work finishing installing our front door. Because sleeping with an unsecured front door is not really conducive to sleep.
A cup of coffee down and we were ready to go! Kevin finished fitting the shims and cutting them down. As well as finishing the outside of the door frame with PVC casing.
We still had drywall work to do on the inside and of course the inside door casing and the such. But we finally had a doorknob and lock!
It was a sign that at least we could sleep better that night because we could actually lock our front door.
A New Day Brings New Light And A New Front Door
And the fact that it was coming through the window of the door and not the cracks running throughout the door was a wonderful relief.
When the new front door was finally installed it made such a difference in the house all around. It allowed for so much more light in the room but still allowed for privacy.
Obviously, the fact that there were no holes and weather coming through improved the comfort and cost of heating and cooling.
We made a lot of changes to our old house but the front door was definitely one of my favorite changes we made.
We didn’t end up finishing the casing around the door until we painted the walls and tore out the flooring but in the end once totally complete it looked great!
Related: The Entryway Remodel Project And Coat Hook Addition
Another Door Maybe Another Day
Though it will not be all that high on our current to-do list.
Though our new front door is new to us, because it is a new house, I would still like to eventually replace it with something similar to the old door we installed.
Something that would add a little more light to the front of the house. Something with a little more character to it.
It will definitely be a project that I will add to our list of house projects we hope to complete for this house. I’m sure it will rank higher on my list than Kevin’s but that’s life!
