Monday, June 29, 2009

Doh! A door!

Adelaide asks:
"What kind of door will the garden shed have?"

And of course there's a story there. The door was free - $0. And it came with a complete jamb - including threshold. And the jamb was in great shape.

So, I was riding the bus home from work one day, and as it drove by our old neighborhood, I happened to catch a glimpse of this big door (with jamb) leaned up against a garbage can on a side street. In our city, stuff on the curb is fair game, and frequently raided.

Completely spazzing out, I called Ken from the bus. "There's a door on the side of the road. We just have to go back and look at it. Someday if we build a shed we could maybe use it. And anyways, it's free!"

Always open to my wacky adventures in dumpster-diving, Ken immediately sensed the urgency and we raced back up the hill in the little Suby, parked by the door - which thankfully no one had snagged yet - and declared it a superb find. And on the roof rack it went.

This was, oh, over a year ago. Since then, it's sat out in the garage, often in the way and totally neglected. The plan was to slap on some fresh paint and use it on the shed. Easy, right?

Wrong. The minute I began feather-sanding a chipped spot, I saw that it was fir - like all our other doors in the house. And out came the stripper. Several goopy days and three coats of spar varnish later, here it is. The glass was completely intact and the door had no condition problems whatsoever. Definitely a find! And the jamb was just the icing on the cake - talk about an easy installation!


This week (if it ever stops raining) we will install it. We're very close to 40 days of rain, so perhaps we should just turn the shed into an ark. Cedar floats well, right?

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

What an awesome door! I'd love that for MY house. Great find.

Karen Anne said...

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Adelaide said...

Very pretty door. And the fact that it was a freebie is icing on the cake.

Sandy said...

What a beautiful door!