Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Guest Bath Redo: Duuh-duh-duh-duh-DOOR!

What? I had to make this door installation a little more exciting somehow!

So, if you recall we've been slowly making changes to the Guest Bath. It's pretty much a tiny closet/dungeon, or it was, and every time you went in there it felt like you were relieving yourself right next to the huge furnace unit (the doorframe on the left).


Oh, the ambiance.

After a few evenings slapping on white paint, it mightily improved.


But it still felt like you were relieving yourself to the lovely ambiance of a furnace, thanks to the open doorway.

Attractive? Not so much.

Thing was, ever since we first toured the house way back before we were even handed the keys to this baby, I envisioned (yes, I "remodeled" in my imagination every single room we toured in the 30+ houses we viewed... shhh, don't tell Tom that!) a door in that existing doorway. Really, it just made sense. Door + doorway = common sense.

And less "ambiance".

The view from the john.

Fast forward to a year later, and I began to remodel this room by painting the wood white to match the rest of the basement. Then it came time to install the door.

And we ran into a problem.

The door frame was crooked. Along the top.



Crap.

What do we do now?

We tried all sorts of things, spent days trying to figure it out, and finally... forgot about it. Or rather just moved on to other projects that we had the means and the know-how to handle.

But guess what? This past weekend we had another go at it.

And we WON.

After careful examination and figuring, Tom was able to pry off the existing trim and take apart the base of the frame.



He worked a little more magic by removing 1 piece of wood, and then just nailed everything back together.



And this time it was straight.
Hallelujah!

We seriously danced around hugging and laughing, because in the end the solution was just so easy. Why couldn't we see it before?

Happy-as-could-be, already victorious before we'd even tried installing the new door (we are pretty much pros at installing doors by now, though!), we hit up Lowe's and purchased the smallest bi-fold they had (it's a very small door frame), and returned home.

You can see how crooked the frame was before by comparing where the door trim used to be.
Holy slopes!


To realize it wouldn't fit. Doh!



Luckily, it was a pretty easy solution.

We had a scrap of wood laying around that fit perfectly once Tom cut it down, and we made another trip to Lowe's to buy some brackets to hold it in place.




Then it was time to caulk and patch (the wood wasn't exactly high-quality)...


Spray paint prime (What? I was feeling lazy!), and paint.

And we have a DOOR!




Goodbye nasty views of the ugly furnace and spooky ambiance, hello bright and clean beautiful door! Ah, it feels so much better, and actually seems to really open the space rather than close it in.

Total cost? $38 for the door and the brackets. We saved money by using the existing trim, and had everything else on hand. Not too bad for creating a much better bathroom experience! So what do you guys think? A hands-down improvement over the old bathroom/furnace room? We sure think so!

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6 comments:

  1. Nice job guys, and way to defeat Charlie yet again! That space looks completely different from when you bought the place.

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  2. Great job! Why the heck was that piece of wood there anyway?

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  3. Awesome job - a million times better now!

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  4. Ooh la la! Love the new door! Looks amazing!

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  5. Thanks, guys!

    @Amanda - That is a very, very, VERY good question! :)

    ~Chelsea

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  6. Painting it all white makes it feel so fresh (and actually larger). Love the fun pops of color too!

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