the door is in- and nearly done!

Dave decided that he'd like to put in our front door much earlier than we had originally planned. that way they could finish insulating and house wrapping the front and sides of the house, and do it right, with not so many seams. i was glad that this job got catapulted to the top of the list- it really looks nice- both inside and out! of course, it was a big job, with lots of little, and not so little tasks that needed to be done in order to complete the door, making it into a 2 day project!

Tuesday night G, A and i got the hallway ready. we cleaned, moved all the stuff that has been stored there for many months, and did as much prep work for Dave as we could.

G removed all the old trim, being careful to save it. we'll use it around the new door, or if there is any extra, around some other doors in the *grand* hallway.


Wednesday morning, Dave is beginning to remove the transom and side lights, as well as the old door. i did save the top window, thought maybe i would do something with it, but not sure what, and Dave wanted to save the door.

remember the huge hole i told you about? well, here it is. and it really is huge. i was not exaggerating! but Dave and G quickly got it closed up, so it never got cold in the house.

now they are framing out for the door. we've had this door for almost a year. it's from Lowe's, of course. it was a special order door, $2,500, that was knocked over and the one sidelight was broken out. Dave used to have his own door business, so fixing it was no problem. and the fact that we only paid $300 was no problem either!

B and A are helping daddy and brother to insulate.

N is helping Dave on the outside to finish with the insulation. it was a windy day, so he's keeping the foam board from blowing away. or as Dave said, just being the "straw boss"

here's that huge hole again. this was the only time that it was actually open to the outside, with no house wrap or insulation over it. i stood in the door and waved to all the cars going over the bridge. many people are naturally curious about our house, and the history behind it, so i was just being friendly.

here it's in, with a bit of help from A.

this is a really bad picture from the outside.

here's the outside in the daylight. nice front door, but watch that first step. it's a doozy! the plan is to wrap the side porch/deck around to the front, just to the left of the door. it won't have a roof, but will have a nice deck and railing. now that the house is halfway insulated, the boys and Dave will be able to hosuewrap it early next week. we are really starting to feel a difference in the heat in the house. it's definitely warmer, and not as many drafts.

another bad picture, this time from the inside. I'll get a better one another day, when all the construction debris is cleaned up, and maybe it will be drywalled too. this is the south facing side of the house, and I'm anxious to see how nice the door will look with the afternoon sun streaming in.

just wanted to give you a little update on what we've been up to the last couple of days. i didn't write a huge long list for myself this week. i figured I'd better concentrate on laundry and stuff like that. last week Dave ran out of clean socks and underwear. not a good thing! so household management has been at the top of my list for this week. not that you could really tell, or anything!