It has been a regrettably long time since I posted an update. Some black friday tool deals have facilitated the finishing (and starting) or some minor projects around here. A new table saw for me and a new mitre saw for my Dad have helped get the molding going again. I think every room but mine has all of its baseboards at this point.
The shower door is here and 90% installed. Well maybe 90 isnt fair, lets go with 75%. Its functional but its obvious you get what you pay for. It was a struggle from the get go, more from horrible instructions then materials. The door is a thick, flawless piece of clear glass with simple looking hinges. The problem is that they are only simple looking. The instructions make no mention that the “self closing hinges” may need to be adjusted to ensure the door indeed does self close.
Long story short, the door is up, but it needs to be taken down (2 person job) to tighten the bottom hinge so that the door doesn’t want to remain stuck at 20 degrees open. Thankfully with the step I built and the door pretty much installed, the shower has been more useable with almost no water making it out of the stall. More on this with pictures if my Dad can get down to help me uninstall and reinstall it this weekend.
More importantly though, on to the front door. The trim around the front door may have been finished a long time ago had I not retained the original stained glass. Working with and around it has been difficult. It turned out all I really needed was a week of thinking and sketching, a table saw, and some time getting everything to fit right. As with most everything in this house, not much is level, especially when you are working against one of the original brick walls.
If you recall, things started like this:
Even when the area was stripped down to just the brick surrounding the window, nothing really sat right. Not knowing what to do at the time and it not really being a priority, I told the drywall guys to bring the drywall right up to the edge of the existing wood frame.
Still not knowing what to do, I painted the wood trim and so it sat.
After 4 or so hours on Saturday the result was this:
I ended up having to rip down a bunch of flat stock to build up the existing window frame. I also had to rip some really thin pieces down to go on the door frame so that the existing door was flush with the drywall. Thankfully my buddy at work lent me his planer which I needed a bunch. I also had to spot shave and trim various areas to get things to fit correctly. The demising wall side had to have about 1/2″ from the trim and the rosettes because the wall bows inward. Thankfully I don’t think it is that noticeable. A bunch of time getting things level, some wood filler, and some sanding and it is ready for paint. I put a coat on tonight and will follow up with some more pictures.
You may also notice the chair rail I am playing around with on the right. After our trip over New Years I hope to do some custom wainscoting to make the entrance area really look special (thanks for the idea Kyle). I like the fluted molding and rosettes alot because it is more in keeping with what was original to the house. I hope to do the same style trim around the kitchen door and all of the downstairs windows in the future as well.
Hopefully the colder weather will lend itself to knocking out a bunch of trim projects to truly finish the house (yeah right haha).
Stay tuned.