Saturday, October 23, 2010

Storm door shuffle

Dudes, I have been a busy bee.  Last weekend we finally put up the new 'full view' storm door that had been hiding out in our living room for the last year:
See it?  Yeah, the box totally matched our wall paint.  I guess that is why I didn't care that it was sitting there so long!  Here is what we were working with before:
I didn't take a picture of the inside of this storm door, but it was flaking away and rotted through.  There was always these little flakes of aluminum on the stoop that drove me crazy!
We started around noon last Saturday, thinking that it would take us about two hours. 
The old door came off so fast I didn't even get a shot of him removing it!
When we did get the door and hardware off, it was clear the door surround needed some TLC.  Ew!
I scraped, sanded, and put a quick coat of BIN on the entire surround with a foam brush.  BIN is not necessarily for exterior applications (only recommended for 'spot' touchups) but I figured it would be fine after a coat of exterior paint.  It looked so much better - sorry about the over-exposed pic, all the pictures I took this day were on the wrong setting and I didn't even notice! 
While the primer dried, I noticed that the lintel above the door was rather rusted and yucky. 
We taped off the area, gave it a bit of sanding, then shot it with some 'rusty metal' rustoleum.  I love that the primer totally matches our brick!  I will come in later with the same 'Sweet Tea' exterior paint that I used on the A/C and meters around our house. 
After everything was dry, we started the installation.  We had watched a Larson installation video on their website where the guy installed the door in about 5 minutes.  It took us about 300 more minutes than him to install this door.  5 hours of drilling, attaching, removing, repositioning, crying (that was me) and wondering 'what the hell' later, we had this:
Yay!  Of course, my work wasn't over because the wood door was yellowy-white, full of nail holes, and boring.  Observe:
More on the door soon!  Oh, and those house numbers are another issue soon to be discussed...

22 comments:

  1. Wow! The door looks great. I can't wait to see what you do with the wood door. It's also a plus that the door frame was still in good shaped (even if it was a little gross). I'm a little concerned about mine....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! We are in great need of a new storm door - and a regular door. But we're not nearly as ambitious as you.

    If you're looking for suggestions on the address numbers (and even if you're not, I'm still giving this to you) check out this link that shows the address labels you can get from my work! We have a set for our house - but yet again we're not very ambitious and they haven't been hung outside yet. :) http://www.pewabicstore.org/browse.cfm/2,40.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replacing our storm door took forever too. Are you repainting the door white? We painted ours black and it looks awesome next to the brick (if I do say so myself!). I can't wait to see what you do!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your door looks great! We have a similar one and I totally agree - that installation video is completely misleading.

    On a side note, my ears perked (eyes peaked?) at mention of painting your meters? Is there a post lurking about that project?

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh no. I want to hear that storm doors are easy! We're installing a full-view soon...as soon as it comes in (special order for a 32" door). Any tips would be appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm impressed. You don't want to know how much we paid to have a storm door installed at our house. Let's just say that the installation was more than the door, but we were terrified that we'd do it wrong and have water flowing into our house or something!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The full view storm door looks great. Even though there were some tears, it's looking fab now. My locksmith installed a new fancy keyless deadbolt for our front door. Unfortunately, he wasn't so smart to notice it interfered with the storm door handle. More work to be done. I was lucky this time it wasn't my fault.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good idea to paint the top to match the brick. And, I totally relate - when we put our back door in, it was a nightmare! The old door ended up being larger and it took almost an entire day for two capable people (not me, I just watched, and am definitely not capable).

    Oh well, all the pain is worth it, right? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful. Funny when I looked at your first picture I couldn't see the box at first. Ha ha.

    Take care,
    Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, it looks great! That old door sounded pretty nasty! Can't wait to see what you do with the wood door.... color?!

    We don't have a storm door, but I'm thinking I'd really like to install one. I feel like it just looks more "complete" that way, plus it keeps the wood door clean. BTW, our "lintel" (I didn't know what it was called) is also nasty and yucky - was wondering if there was any way to clean it off, but I guess maybe painting is the answer?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Don't you just love projects that take 8 times longer than you are thinking? They always make it look so easy.

    I always rolled my eyes when my dad would joke "it's not a really project til blood is drawn." I now have switched it to "it is not a real project until someone cries". And that someone would be me. Don't want to ruin the husband's man cred all over the internet.....

    ReplyDelete
  12. I had to really look to see the box against the wall in your living room.

    Doors always seem take longer than expected. We have learned this, too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is so funny! Clint decided to install new storm doors when he first moved in, thinking it would be a piece of cake. It took him 2 days to install two storm doors. lol! It looks great by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  14. The new storm door looks great! We have a similar storm door that came with the house, but the hardware has seen better days. I'm putting that on the back burner for now, especially considering the mention of crying! Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It looks wonderful! I wish we had a storm door on our front door so we could leave the door open. But the shape is so unique that I don't think a storm door that comes to a point at the top is possible! :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. oh my... you HAVE been very busy! I'm sure you wouldn't mind installing a storm door at our house, since you're an expert now and all....

    ReplyDelete
  17. The door looks great...and there's always something else to paint, isn't there?

    ReplyDelete
  18. It looks awesome! I would have cried if it took that long to install too!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Excellent, I really liked it. The door looks very awesome and beautiful as compare to old one. Well Done.

    ReplyDelete
  20. You guys are seriously talented DIYers! You're lucky you have a handy guy too!!

    Looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  21. It really looks great and also its very amazing. The images of the post also very impressive and inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara