home repair

We moved into our current house in December of last year. We knew it would need some work, but we had faith in the landlord (he’s sort of extended family – my brother’s wife’s dad), and now that the weather’s good (not too hot, but also not rainy) we’re starting to get some of the work done.

The first big project to tackle was the sliding glass door that  leads out to the back deck. When it was installed, they somehow put it in backwards. I don’t even know how that happened. It also didn’t quite fit in the hole properly, so we had gaps where the outside air could seep in.

You can imagine how awesome that was in January when it was 18 degrees outside.

Here are some other “before” pictures.

Back in April, our landlord bought the replacement door. He got a great deal from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The new door just sat in our garage until this past Saturday. It took 4 men (hubby, landlord, a friend from church, and landlord’s son – who happens to be the previous tenant here) 8 hours to get the job done.

It was a very elementary, though time consuming, project. Once the got the old door out, moving the new door into place took all 4 of them plus our neighbor. Then there was the removal of the moulding, some cutting away of the siding and floor to make the hole big enough for the new door, the door installation, and replacing the moulding. From a spectator’s perspective, it seemed very difficult! But I’m told it really wasn’t, other than the size of the project (the weight of the door, the use of power tools, etc).

The new door… is fabulous!! It’s glass, like the one they took out, but is a traditional door, not a slider. So there’s a door-sized window on the left and a door on the right.

It’s so nice not to have to fight with a incorrectly installed sliding door anymore!

–Wendy