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Sunday, February 24, 2008

The last two days Cory and I have been installing a french door in my master bedroom. Cory had installed single doors before and I have seen door installations on home improvement shows but, it didn't happen as quickly as either of us anticipated.

On Saturday, we pulled out the original sliding door to see what we were working with. The size of the rough opening was almost a foot too small for the new door so, we had to make a decision on which way to cut away at the wall to make the opening larger. Since the left side of the opening was smaller than the right, I decided we should cut right.

Of course, the first thing we had to do was move the light switch further right. So, I cut a new hole for the light switch, while Cory cut away the studs to expand the opening. We pulled out all the wires from the existing j-box and moved them to the new location by pushing them behind and through the insulation and rewired them.

Cory and I studied the problem for a few minutes and figured we needed to buy lumber to replace the studs we removed (they were eaten up by termites), and, that it would be easier to fit the door in the opening if we could shave down the thickness of the wood. So, we went to Lowe's and bought 8 2X4's and a single pressure treated 2X4 and a planer. It was pretty satisfying having the right tool for the job.

After cutting away some of the siding, and putting back the jack studs in the right position, it was time to figure out where the door was going to sit. The slab had a notch in it for some reason so, since we would have to notch the slab for the other two doors we were going to install, we had to fill in the notch. Que the pressure treated 2X4. Well, it turns out, we really needed to get a 1X2 to get the job done right but, I don't remember when we went to get that board.

I started to drill holes in the concrete to sink screws which would hold the board in place. Once the holes were drilled, we laid down a thick blanket of caulk (to keep the weather and bugs out) and put the board into place. Cory put in the first screw but, as it got close to cinching down the board, the head snapped off of it. Then the second screw did the same thing. Then another, and another. We were out of screws, and none of them went to the bottom of the holes!

Apparently, the holes were either not drilled deep enough, or the aggregate in the cement (which makes up the concrete) would not let the screws spin though them. Either way, that was the end of the project for Saturday.

Sorry everyone, I felt so guilty about not blogging all week, I went back and reto-blogged this entry. I'll put in another one today (Wednesday) and catch everyone up on the project as well as some other stuff that happened over the weekend (like Bill showing up and hanging out).

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posted @ 11:27 PM

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