It’s very much a door themed weekend and Glynn is back with his amazing carpentry skills to help out. It must be one of the hottest days of the year so far though!
Lengths of pine skirting and oak door architrave that Glynn has brought from his workshop for us to prime and paint before he fits them.
Hot dog.
Glynn starts by making the triangular door for the cupboard underneath the new staircase.
Using the new oak door for the staircase as a worktop, he builds the cupboard door using MDF.
The new oak door for the staircase needs substantially trimming down to size, by several inches in fact. Not an easy task as the ledges holding the door together also need trimming down and shaping (without taking them off as they are all glued and screwed).
Glynn cuts through the ledges without cutting into the door, adds new fixings, and finishes the newly cut edges with a matching bevel.
Glynn finishes off the cupboard door with a sand. Also MASSIVE tractor.
In the meantime, in the blistering sun, Cat is tackling our shit front door, sanding, filling and repainting it. This door has been massively abused over the last year, everyone has kicked it, thrown plaster, mortar and worse down it, and it is in a very sorry state indeed! This is the door that was filled and painted early last year as it was rotten – Cat managed to very cleverly save it by replacing the rotten panels at the bottom with MDF, you would never know! The door that won’t die.
It is so ridiculously hot that we set up the massive fan outside for Glynn as he is quite literally melting.
The new oak door for the very narrow attic staircase is ready to be hung.
Glynn has brilliantly hung the cupboard door on soft-close kitchen hinges, ones that automatically shut slowly so this won’t ever get left open. We also then don’t need latches etc. we just need a handle.
This just needs painting, architrave adding and a handle. This is where Henry the Hoover will live.
Hanging the new oak door and fitting the metal hinges. Not an easy task as these doors are SO heavy! Glynn uses a series of coloured wedges (see the green ones here) to get the door hanging squarely.
Drilling out the holes for the latch.
Cat working out how to fit the new letterbox. Jasper destroyed our old one angrily snatching a letter out of the postman’s hands – he pulled the whole thing off the door!
Teeny tiny door. It is only 600mm wide!
This staircase must have a door to comply with building regulations and to make it fire secure. We can now get the building regulations for the new staircase signed off.
It’s definite BBQ weather! I have the pressure washer out so this gets a good clean.
I have washed down the dusty slate chippings and cleaned the remains of our stone patio.
Front door, repaired, cleaned and sanded back, ready for painting.
It’s a good job Glynn was here! We discovered that fitting a new letterbox is anything but straightforward. Who knew? You would think that they would all be standard sizes, but no. I made sure the letterbox was the same size as the old one, but the hole in the door is too small to fit the new one…
Glynn takes the door off so he can make the letterbox opening larger.
Turns out it is a horrible job.
It’s very fiddly to get the new opening just the right size, too big and there will be no room to attach it to the door, too small and the letterbox won’t open, and there is only a couple of mm tolerance.
Cat sealing up any gaps in the door frame before it gets painted.
Letterbox fitted, Glynn puts the door back on. Thanks Glynn! Above and beyond again!
The following morning and Cat is prepping the door to be painted.
It’s spider season in the house, when the numbers literally explode overnight! These two are wrapping up a fly and one of them is clearly pregnant.
We can’t take the door knocker off the door without destroying it, so Colin the engineer comes up with an ingenious way to hold it up while Cat paints it.
Cat painting around the door knocker erection.
Today there is a half marathon going through the village this morning. It is roasting hot already so some of our neighbours borrow our garden hose to cool down the competitors.
The hose kept all the water pistols loaded and the kids happy (not so sure about the runners!)
We have set the parasol up to cover the front door while Cat paints, it’s so hot the paint is drying on the brush!
First coat.
Colin is sorting through the remaining piles of stone and rubble and filling the skip with any that is no good (small bits and any that is smothered in concrete).
Colin is moving all the good stone to the back garden.
Second coat going on.
Colin finds a toad sheltering in the pile of stone and re-homed them under the rockery.
The finished front door looking very smart.
What a difference a coat of paint makes! We have used Farrow & Ball Railings, a lovely blue/black that matches perfectly with our windows (painted in Farrow & Ball Downpipe).