The project plan date finally arrived; December 1st. It's been about three years since we started on this project and I think there were at least some out there who doubted we could stay together and make good on our DIY plans.We had the big birthday party last night and I think we finally won over errant skeptics.
We didn't get to everything that was on the plan for December 1. I guess we will never really be done and there will always be details.
I am pleased to announce though, we finally have a working bathroom door. On Friday night we still hadn't installed the hardware. We were putting sand and sealer on the new oak floors until about 2:00am (good thing too they would have been destroyed last night). We couldn't start the barn door hardware until after it had dried. We did our best to control the frustration as the hours ticked into the afternoon on Saturday, but it had been a lot of tasks for a lot of days straight and the last minute details were piling up.
I thought I had purchased the railing not drilled for the anchors. I was going to align the bar with the studs, drill it accordingly, and screw it in with 3/8" lags. When we opened up the railing we noticed it was pre-drilled, five evenly spaced times, by the fine folks at barndoorhardware.com. Of course none of the studs aligned with the holes.
The solution: we took off a couple of rows of cedar, removed the 1/2" drywall the entire length of the wall in a 7" strip, and then replaced it with 1/2" in ply. We screwed the plywood to the studs, replaced the cedar, drilled it, and then used toggle bolts fasten it all together. In the end I think it's a much better installation than what we would have done, and it was pretty easy.
This is obviously not the final door. It's a random piece of ply we cut down to match the size it will be. Again I'm sort of glad we were forced to do a dry run here. The hardware needed a bit of a adjusting before we got it just right. I would always rather work stuff like that out not on the piece you will be using forever. There's always that first time learning curve, I always wish the first shot didn't have to be the only in some the craft jobs we've taken on. It is nice to have the improv'ed luxury this time.
boardwalk rocks. bathroom door hardware rocks. party was rockin. the whole thing did/does indeed come together nicely. good job.
Posted by: peasy | 2007.12.03 at 05:11
Whooeee! You fellas done good.
Posted by: Ivy | 2007.12.03 at 07:10
wow.
i can still hear us jacking up the house ... creak ... and hoping it would hold. Guess it worked.
Posted by: Douglas | 2007.12.04 at 12:50
Your flooring looks amazing. The light gives an even more dramatic effect on it. Getting the right area rug for your floor would be the cherry on top for this - and your house will look perfect. I recommmend you look through http://www.rugsdoneright.com for a lot of choices.
Posted by: Contemporary Area Rugs | 2008.01.15 at 14:37