New Door

Carpenters and electricians run thick in my family. So, needless to say if you need some building or an electrical project done.... don't look a gift horse in the mouth. My husband is known as a Barter King around town. You need a security alarm put in? Well..... let's see.... we traded our heating oil one year for closed-circuit cameras. My root canal was done in exchange for a fire alarm. A diamond ring I have was courtesy of a trade. In the course of our marriage we've traded tires, guns, vehicles, boats and numerous other things. My husband always says that everything we have is for sale. If someone makes a comment that they like something in my home. ... I'd never put it past him to try and strike a deal and sell something right out from under me. "Um, hun... excuse me. You need to get up out of that chair because JerryJo JimBob just traded me half a side of beef for it." Please.... don't doubt me... I'm not kidding. One time, Gary traded a gun for a beat up Toyota pick-up truck that had some great tires on it. All he wanted was the tires that were attached to that truck... so he and a friend of his took that truck off roading. If you've ever watched Mickey Thompson Off-Road Racing you will know what I'm talking about when I say they took this truck and ripped the guts out of it. If you've never watched it... picture two grown men driving through the woods and fields at 60mph ... hitting bumps and clearing a foot of air under their asses... laughing their fool heads off. Going through trees, mud and whatever else they could get through until that poor truck wouldn't move anymore. Then they removed the tires off it and called a salvage yard to get "the carcass."

Well, back to the real story behind this post. My brother... who is a carpenter... built our addtion on our home a few years ago. I don't know if he'd had too many beers that day but our front door always has been crooked. It has always drove Gary nuts but as my brother gave us a deal..... we never said anything. Until this past weekend when that door just happened to get on that last nerve for the last time. Plus, winter is coming and God knows what heating oil is going to cost this year... probably around $145 per gallon and we certainly don't want THAT going out the door. The door before (notice the gap at the top gets bigger towards the left and if you look real close... you can see the $ going out it) :















Here is Chris scraping the old silicone off the sill and Gary is doing what he does best... supervising. Note the way he's leaning on the door frame in an exasperated stance. He's perfected that over years of practice.



















Gary measures for accuracy using an ancient old technique called a tape measure. Note the precision required in this move:



















Finally the new door is ready to be moved into place. It required both of them because I was doing something else.... :















I was busy (taking pictures!) and working on this tiny raking job. Do you know that 5 oak trees release about 1.4 million pounds of leaves in my yard alone? :















And finally the new door is in place and keeping the heat where it belongs... in the house. Notice the trim is not done. That should be finished sometime in 2008. Come on now.... what do you expect? I've lived in my house 11 years and my bedroom is still not painted.