Two Doors Down

Thanks to our busy jobs and Trey taking two classes in grad school this past semester, we haven't done much on the house since the summer.  Hence, there haven't been any blog posts. 

However, we have managed to complete one project this past month that looks great!  We took the two solid-wood doors from the entrance in the great room and transformed them into bedroom doors for our bedroom and the back bedroom. 

When Trey and I first started renovating the house, we decided to have as open a floor plan as we could (hence, the removal of a certain kitchen wall to create a bar).  So within our first week of renovating, I took off the double doors in the great room and set them aside.  Since they were solid-wood doors with a beautiful stain finish on them, we couldn't bring ourselves to throw them out. 

This is a picture from the inside of the great room when we first saw the house.  One of the double doors can be seen on the left. 

Due to some . . . conflicting style choices between us and the previous inhabitors of the house, we decided to toss two of the bedroom doors (one was painted a blood red--the same as the wall color in the master bedroom, and the other was baby pink with a matching hammer-head size hole).  So for the first 7 months that we lived in the house, we lived without a bedroom door.  This wasn't a big deal until we acquired a new addition to the family, Missy. 

Missy, the new addition, is the female lab/boxer on the right, not the slightly butchered stuffed monkey.

In training her to stay in the bedroom during the night (and to keep the cats out during the day), we needed a door.  So, we decided to start the process (i.e. "Trey, I have a project for you . . . ") of making two swing-open double doors into bedroom doors. 

You'd think making a door for one room into a door for another room would be simple, it's still a door.  However, the size and placement of the hinges made this project a little more complicated.  One of the doors was too wide to be a bedroom door, and it took several trips to the garage to shave off fractions of inches to get it fit.  Then, we needed to find a door knob template for inserting a hole that wasn't previously there (also, drilling through solid wood is a lot harder and takes more time than drilling through hollow wood.  who knew?!).  And, of course, switching the placement of the hinges. 

Trey switching the hinges on one of the doors in the back bedroom. 

But the final product is a beautiful, solid-wood door for the bedrooms.  The dense wood is also great at blocking the sound of the dishwaser churning away in the kitchen.  And I L-O-V-E the color combination of our bedroom walls (seal gray), white trim doorway, and dark wood door! 

The finished product.  Me likey! 

So that's what's been (not) happening here at Home Sweet PROJECT Home.  We've made great use of our fireplace over the past few chilly nights, so maybe a post coming up about that soon.  But we've got some projects on our TO DO list once Trey is done with school this semester, like putting recessed lighting in the kitchen and window coverings for our deck off of the master bedroom.  So stay tuned!