Friday, April 30, 2010

Musical Doors

A couple of months ago we decided that it was time to start replacing all the doors in the house.

Well, it was actually mostly me making that decision.

It started when we needed to replace 2 of the doors during the basement remodel - the old ones didn't work (warped frames), and the doors themselves were in pitiful shape. What's funny - one of the doors was made out of plastic.

I kid you not. Brown plastic made to resemble wood.

And the other? It had graffiti on it. Classy, Charlie. Classy.

So out they went. And we spent a frustrating few days trying to get the new pre-hung doors into the wall correctly. The wildly roller-coaster-like-unlevel-floor didn't really help much, either.

But eventually we got them in, and love them!

Of course, there were still 5 doors upstairs that needed to be replaced now, too. Ever notice when you upgrade/change one thing, you gotta change everything?


And so it went. This time the doors were a little easier (since we weren't replacing the whole frame), except for one big thing:

The doors were too large for the openings.

Because home improvement is never that easy, of course!

So we ended up buying a planer saw, which saws off 1/8th of an inch over each pass. Each door we replaced upstairs, we ended up having to do 4 or 5 passes with the planer saw to get it to fit the opening.


But eventually, we got them hung.


And shiny new handles installed.


And even though the trim, walls, and the doors themselves need to be painted, not to mention quarter round added to the floors, they still make quite a large difference.

As in, this is 2010, not 1968.



What do you guys think about them? We think they're a huge improvement, and we love that they actually work! Of course, to date we've only replaced 3 out of 5, but hey - we're getting there.
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17 comments:

  1. Great post! I have thought a lot about this since I love old homes and some of them have those really ugly sometimes hollow doors. I'm wondering how much each door cost, if you wouldn't mind answering!

    What a difference those beautiful doors make! And those doors are actually timeless as opposed to the ones that were there before.

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  2. Hi Chelsea,
    The new doors make a HUGE difference!!! Makes your home look modern and classic now!! Good job guys!!

    -heather

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  3. Thanks, Sarah! I'm glad you like the new doors as much as we do. They are hollow-core doors too (like the ones we got rid of) but the design they have is much more classy, I think. And they come pre-primed and are new - much better than the sticker-ridden, splintering, paint-splotched old doors! They are about 19$ a door - which is pretty good for doors! The hardware is what'll getcha, though - knobs widely vary (we splurged and got 23$ knobs) plus you have to buy the hinges separately, too. Solid doors are much nicer, but those run upwards of 60$+. If they were solid and/or those older neat looking doors, we probably would've kept them and just painted them. But those babies just needed to go!

    Glad you like the doors - thanks for commenting!

    ~Chelsea

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  4. Thanks, Heather!

    After we finished installing them, we just sat around and gawked at them for awhile - like we do for any newly-completed project. We love them!

    And the fact that they actually work as intended is a plus, too. :)

    Thanks for stopping by!

    ~Chelsea

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  5. Looks great! My parents' house has awful old doors. Some have locks, some don't. Some barely close all the way so the cat can open them and sneak in to jump on you in the middle of the night. And with a shifting foundation one wouldn't open at all! But I think they finally replaced that one.

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  6. Jennifer -

    Thanks for dropping by! Wow - the door wouldn't open at all? That's pretty bad. Our two worst ones: one would always swing close (so annoying), and another one won't shut. We've replaced the swinging one, but we have yet to replace the non-closing one. Haha, that is so funny about your parents' cat. Does the cat do that often to visitors? :)

    Thanks!
    ~Chelsea

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  7. Those make a huge difference indeed. And what a great price! Since we refinished some of our doors, I'm in that mode as well, and I'll probably be referring to your post for instructions.

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  8. Thanks for stopping by, Sunny! Yes, we're pleased as punch about the price - for the impact they make, it's totally worth it! Only half the doors are done, and already the hallway seems 10x lighter and brighter.

    Good luck with your door hanging!

    ~Chelsea

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  9. Wowee, once those are painted your hallways will look perfect! I am grateful that we have solid 6 panel doors, however they are full of layers of horrible paint that is peeling off, so we will probably spend the same amount of time as just painting new ones! DOH

    I'm intrigued by the planer saw. I may have to look into that for some of our building projects.

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  10. the hallways look so much better, even without the fresh paint! i'm amazed at tom's sawing skills too- there are so many tools out there that I don't know about. :)

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  11. Hi, Chelsea! Your new doors made such a difference! We did the same project last year-replaced 50-year old flat paneled doors with two-paneled doors. Makes the house seem new!

    I've enjoyed reading your blog--wow, your kitchen re-do! I'm so impressed at how handy you two are!

    Thank you for stopping by the painted house!

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  12. Thanks, everyone! We absolutely love the new doors. I'll be sure to keep you updated on how it all looks with the fresh paint and light fixture. :) Thanks for stopping by!

    ~Chelsea

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  13. Sara - I am envious of your solid 6 panel doors, but not so much of the peeling paint! That just plain sucks. :(

    The planer saw is great (and actually that's not a real photo of it.. oops!) it just glides down a smooth surface (think the edge/side of a door) and trims off a bit at a time. Perfect for doors that are a little too small to fit an opening, or for trimming the bottom of a door if, say, new carpet is installed, etc. It's pretty dang useful, but the price tag isn't fun, I think it's 70+$. Let me know if you want any more info on it!

    ~Chelsea

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  14. Very nice! We have old (solid) doors with layers and layers of paint. and the doorknobs don't work very well. we just think of them as adding "character" b/c we don't want to pay to replace them :)

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  15. Wow! Beautiful and it makes a huge difference! Great job!

    Roeshel

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  16. Micah -

    We had some really old solid doors, with original (I think) hardware at the duplex we rented before we bought a house. They were super cool, but the handles didn't work very well at all. They did add lots of character... I do love old doors. I wish we had really cool old doors in our house... oh well, gotta work with whatcha got! :)

    Thanks for stopping by!
    ~Chelsea

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  17. Roeshel-

    Thanks for dropping by! :)

    ~Chelsea

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