House Week 24: Entry Doors

First off … doors!!!  I finally managed to get the entry doors back with them installed into their brand new jambs from the company i hired to do the work.  I say finally as it took five weeks to get the front, back, and bedroom French doors from them with 4 pieces of wood around them.  Suffice it to say I was more than disappointed.

I had originally hired the company, Wooden Window, to “remake” the original windows for the front of the house in the Front Bedroom as they were completely rotted out from being stored under the house for many a year.  It took about two weeks to finally get the person who the owner said “so and so will contact you tomorrow”.  I guess that should have been a sign, but them seemed nice so on i went.  Nice they were … some of the time, and the windows i got do look exactly like the ones that they were replacing, just in brand new condition.  The windows were actually not bad, they were just ridiculously slow.  Below are the original windows that are in the living room front wall which are still in fantastic shape so luckily they did not have to be replaced.

The real problems started with the doors.  So a bit ‘o back story.  I really wanted doors for the house that would have actually been in the house back in the 20’s or 30’s instead of new hollow doors with plastic all over them.  I just wanted everything to actually look like it belonged once i get everything together.  I found both my back door and French doors at Urban Ore and picked out a beautiful front door at Ohmega Salvage which means i found doors without jambs, hinges, or any kind of weather stripping.  Apparently putting these things on can be a bit of a pain and we have been so crunched for time i decided to ask my new friends at Wooden Window if i could order the Jambs through them, of course they said through email with a smile.

The problems began when they said six weeks to make the three jambs which is insane.  I had been at their shop and they barely had anything going on or staged, lame!  Oh well, no judging so i just asked to please get it done as soon as possible as it was the only remaining thing for me to be able to get drywall, no problem i hear.  Well weeks of back and forth and finally they are ready and delivered (which is drama i’ll save for another day).  Having the doors in the jambs we set to installing them thinking one day max for all three.  Eight hours later we haven’t even finished the front door as the door was tweaked on the hinges and when closed stuff out a 1/2” at the top and was recessed in the jamb nearly the same amount at the bottom.  Seriously lame.  We moved on to the back door and set it in just under three hours which was acceptable.  When i called my rep at Wooden Window they didn’t answer, and it took two days to get an email reply even, you’d think they want to follow up on their work.  The story ends with a bitter gal who spent two hours on a Saturday in the rain listening the to owner try to tell us that it wasn’t there fault while he played with jabbing push pins into my new door jams. 

    

Above are the back door and the French doors installed into their openings after about eight hours or tweaking from my family to fix the oversights of Wooden Window.  It’s better, well 50% better which is more than it was when they first delivered it, so i’ll take it.  I am trying to roll with it and treat it as “character” for the house instead of a massive reflection of the poor quality and communication of the company … it’s not working.
On a happier note i now have locks for the Front and Back doors that are beautiful and arrived exactly when Belmont Hardware said they would.  Belmont Hardware is a place i would completely recommend as their customer service was great, they called when they said they would, and gave me a discount since my father is an engineer!  I will definitely be going back.  I would take pictures of the locks, but they look weird not installed so instead i will regurgitate images from the internet for you imaginative pleasures.

Below is the Front Door entry set by Baldwin the “Richland”.  I really loved the brass inserts at the top and bottom, super Arts and Crafts!

Below is the Back Door entry set also by Baldwin (they make good stuff!) the Baltimore.  This caught my eye for it’s utilitarian style for the back of the house where there is already going to be so much going on with the lemon tree, deck, stairs, and the French doors.