You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2008.
Here's what was in our housebuilding budget for 2008:
Shingles and stain
Chimney for woodstove
Wood for kitchen cabinets
Upstairs trim
Possibly the kitchen countertop
Here's what was not in our housebuilding budget for 2008:
A new back door
Our back door is… functional. It keeps the rain out and the dogs in. It locks and therefore discourages those would break in to steal our coveted collection of dust (both saw and drywall. Oooohhh, fancy). It is a full glass door, which allows the cat to stare out and dream big dreams of open woods full of squirrels to chase.
It also cost $60 at a Habitat for Humanity yard sale. And looks like it.
(Actually, that's not strictly true. We did buy a door at a Habitat for Humanity yard sale and it did cost $60. Then when we tried to install it we discovered that we had purchased a 6'6" door for a 6'8" doorframe. So then we had to go out a purchase another 6'8" door, but we don't remember how much it cost. Regardless: it was cheap. Also, that story is far less interesting so do you see why we tried to skip over it?)
So, our current back door is…did we already use the word "functional"? We did? Shoot. Because it's really the best word for this particular door. It's a full-light, white vinyl door. It doesn't improve the look of the house. It doesn't detract from it in any significant way. It's a door. It is what it is. It works, and, like our plywood countertops and Advantix stairs, that's good enough for right now.
Or it was good enough until a few weeks ago when Michael happened to stop by the FS pile at our local building supply store. The FS pile consists of custom orders that were rejected, misorders, overstocks, and other good that need to be off-loaded quickly. There are good deals to be found in the FS pile. We've pulled a few items that have gone in this house from there, including boxes of slate tile for the entryway and the giant bay window in our kitchen. We can't tell you what "FS" stands for… well, we could tell you but it totally ruin the PG rating of this blog and cause both our mothers to wash our mouths out with soup. [Edited to add: Obviously, that should be "soap." But the image of getting our mouths washed out with "soup" is so nice, we're leaving it. Cherie's pick for a punishing soup would be split pea, which she never has learned to like.] Suffice it to say that it's not-very-nice jargon for items that are messed up.
Anyway, Michael cruised by the FS pile one day and happened to see a door sitting there. Not a white vinyl door, but a really nice, 15-pane, fir door. It was a misorder, as it was designed to go in a 2×4 wall, not a 2×6 wall as most exterior walls are. This would prevent it from opening completely flat in a 2×6 wall. But our back door can't open fully anyway because of where our kitchen table is located. And the folks at the building supply were desperate to unload it, so they were willing to deal.
In other words, we have a new door.
It will still be functional. Only now, it will be functional AND attractive. And cheap.
Win, win. And win.
The upstairs trim can wait.
