Little House: A door

Salvaged hardware from the firehouse

I can't believe it has been a month since the last post. It has been a month full of snow. It seems that every weekend and mid week, we were getting slammed with a blizzard. The three feet of snow on the ground is beautiful but my back and shoulders have been sore from constantly shoveling paths, driveways and roofs. Roofs have been collapsing all over Massachusetts from the snow load but I have been watching the snow slide right off of my tarped roof with a smirk on my face. Who ever thought that flat roofs were a good idea? I am happy with my 16 in 12 pitch.

Filler piece with a sloped lap joint to keep the weather out

Unfortunately I need to do some more work before I can buy the materials to finish my roof. In the meantime, I did work on my front door. You may remember that the door I am using was too wide and too short for the jamb. It was easy enough to cut the width down, but I didn't get a chance to build up the height. It was cut in half, with the plan to make it a dutch door. I ended up joining a piece to the top of the bottom half of the door, with a sloped top and rabbit to make a weather tight seal. Most of my time was spent patching holes from previous locks. Each hole had to be squared up with a chisel and then filed with a plug cut out of similar wood. It was a time consuming process, but enjoyable work in the comfort of my shop.

Each hole is chiseled square

People ask if it would have been easier to start from scratch. It may have been. I love the character of the beat up old wood though. There are so many dings and holes that each have a story unknown to me. I will strip the inside face of the door and put a clear finish on it to show off the wood. The exterior will be painted for longevity.

A plug is glued in

There were so many...

I found a box of old hardware that came out of the firehouse. I want to incorporate as much of that into the house that I can. I even found the old brass house numbers from the front door- 126. They will go on my door as a homage to where the house was built.