The guys finished up the door installation yesterday, and I have to say, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But there’s no way to get a door perfectly installed in a house that’s almost 80 years old and built on ground that is constantly shifting and moving. That has been one of the most frustrating things for me, as a perfectionist, to deal with when remodeling this house. I like things to be perfectly square, plumb, and level, but that’s almost never possible in this house.
It took me years to be okay with “close enough”, but I had to learn to be okay with it long ago because the only other option was to let those imperfections drive me absolutely bonkers. And it’s a very unpleasant and peace-destroying mindset to never allow yourself to be satisfied. I can’t live like that, so I have to live with the imperfections.
Anyway, the last time I showed y’all the door, I wasn’t quite there yet. I was trying to make peace with the imperfections, but I hadn’t quite attained that “it’s close enough” mindset yet. That’s when it looked like this…
I just couldn’t imagine how that would end up looking nice. But I have to tell you, those guys were amazing. When I told them I wasn’t pleased with how it was looking, and that I had an idea about how to make it look better, they were willing to redo it.
The main thing I didn’t like was how the whole area around the door (especially that Hardiboard) was inset. In my mind, that needed to be pulled out so that it was more even with the stone, leaving only the door and the brick molding around the door inset. So they pulled those pieces off, built that area out, and reinstalled the Hardiboard so that it was more in line with the stone. The stone is so rough, so there’s no way to really make it flush with the stone, but at least it’s more in line with the stone.
I plan to paint all of that Hardiboard the same gray as the stone, and now the only part that is inset is the door and the brick molding around the door. All of that will be painted white.
You can also see that there’s a pretty significant caulked gap above that top board between the board and the stone.
They originally installed that top board so that it was right under the stone, and then they had installed the brick molding so that it was right up against that top board. That made the brick molding very obviously out of square with the door by about 3/4″ on the left side. There was no disguising that. In my mind, the brick molding needed to be square around the door, and any disguising and camouflage that needed to happen needed to be on the stone side.
So I had them lower that top board on the left side, kind of splitting the different on top and below that board. In other words, it’s not right against the brick molding on the bottom, but there was a caulkable gap that wasn’t significant enough to be noticeable at a glance. And then it left a very large gap on top that could be caulked, and I’m hoping that once it’s all painted gray (the Hardiboard, the caulk and the stone above it all the same color), that will just disappear.
I’m also very pleased with how they did this part. I was so concerned about this because the stone was originally the same height as the threshold of the door, and it was also very obviously unlevel. But they used a grinder to cut the stone down so that this board could be placed under it. I’ll be painting this the same gray as the stone, and I think it will also disappear once it’s all painted. They made sure that everything was caulked with silicone caulk so that no water can seep through there.
On the inside, I can tell that it’s not level, but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable.
So overall, I’m very pleased. I think they did a great job with what they had to work with.
The bummer is that I was kind of hoping that the tree limbs would hide and disguise any imperfections. But two nights ago, we had a massive limb come down from our huge oak tree.
I mean, this limb is massive. And it took another pretty big limb down with it as it fell.
So my tree guy is going to come take care of these limbs, and then give our oak tree a much needed trimming to make sure it stays healthy. That means that I’ll probably lose this camouflage around the door. 😀
Oh well. It’ll be fine. I really do think that once everything is painted, with the door and brick molding white and everything else the same gray as the stone, it’ll look nice. It actually turned out so much better than I thought it was going to.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
