New Storm Door

For a couple years now we have needed a new storm door on our house. It was one of those things that we kept putting off. The problem was we could no longer raise the window on the bottom of the old door because the screen had been worn out. If we raised it our indoor cats could get out. When the old door handle fell off a few dozen times, we reattached it and finally gave up using a wire with a keyring attached to open the door. But the major problem was it no longer stayed shut! The slightest bit of wind would bang it back against the outside wall. OK enough already! We ventured down to the hardware store and picked out a new door.

This is the new storm door being unpacked.

Getting the cardboard off the new door was easy. Reading and understanding the instructions, not so much. I feel sure there are less instructions for launching a space ship at NASA. Bless his heart our wonderful friend Tim was in charge of installation. My husband told him this was his first multi-tasking project. Tim looked at him very puzzled. My husband told him he was being the carpenter and the marriage counselor. Now Tim was really very puzzled. My husband told him marriage counselors saved marriages, and so by Tim installing the door it would save our marriage! Plus, he would not have to be calling 911 because we killed each other trying to do it ourselves. Tim thought that was funny, but he had no idea how really true it would have been.

Husband and Tim putting up the door. First Tim had to remove the old door and part of the wooden frame around the door to make the new door fit. Before it was installed he had to shave more off the old door frame. I told him this was the only thing we have in our house that has been installed properly. This house is older than I am and everything has shifted...mmm...same thing has happened to me! Must be something about 50's models?

After hours and hours and hours...OMG so many little parts the door is hung! YEAH! It has a pretty gold handle and a gold kickplate at the bottom. Now I must say this gold looks a little out of place on this old house. (Next project is going to be scrape off old house paint and put on new house paint. Or it might be a new mail box or a zillion other projects we need to have done on this old house.) You can't see in this photo, but Lizzie Tu is sitting there looking out the new front door. She thinks we installed it for her convenience. She loves sitting there looking out and watching cars pass on the street.

This is my favorite part of the new storm door...why are they called storm doors? (We had screen doors when I was young and I understood that. It was just a frame with screen wire on it that made a door.) If you look close at the bottom of the photo you will see a white latch on the door. If you move the latch it unlocks the top window in the door. Then you reach up and pull the window down and a screen magically appears out of the top of the door frame. Love it! This new storm door has a dead bolt lock with keys too. This winter we will be able to leave the wood front door open and let the sunshine in the all glass storm door. The cats are going to love it as much as I will.

Thanks to Tim we finally have a new storm door installed. The actual next project is a new set of door knobs and locks on the wood door. We picked those up at the hardware store when we went to get the storm door. Just a little thing here and there and we might catch up on all the needed repairs. LOL