On Wednesday we tackled hanging a few more doors that previously had problems. The upstairs bath door swang the wrong way, so we'd sent it back to Simpson Doors to be rehung. The other was the downstairs bedroom door which had a defective jamb, so they rehung this one on a new jamb. The third door was one that we'd planned to use for the downstairs stairwell, but it was ordered with the wrong swing, so it ended up going to the top of the stairwell. Anyway, three more doors are hung and only one to go. That one is the fire-rated door to the garage from the mudroom. We'll put this one in last, so it won't get bunged up moving appliances and furniture. While this was being done by Brian, I cut the remaining door trim that we had on hand, mostly finger-joint pine (1x4 for jambs) and MDF (5/4x6 for headers). Didn't really want to use MDF (medium density fiberboard), but 5/4 fir (only other option) is about 10x as expensive and I refuse to paint vg fir.
Thursday w
as a delightful day. The sun was out all day, not a single cloud in the sky and Mt. Baker was in all its glory. So I went to Sequim to pick up tile, more paint, and polyurethane to finish the doors and trim. We are using a water-based (low VOC) polyurethane because its easy to apply, easier to clean up, and it won't get heavy on vertical trim. We'll use the same stuff on the floor trim (1x6 vg fir) when its time to do this, after the floors are finished off. In the afternoon, Brian sanded the doors and trim and I cleaned them with an airgun and tack cloth. We built a drying rack (in the den) for the trim and he'll rack the doors together (in the bedroom). With 12 fir doors and trim, we'll have the stuff everywhere by the end of the day.
Friday. Another MT day with Brian. In the morning finished grouting and cleaning the kitchen tile and laid out the remaining tile in the sauna. Now all the tile is cut and ready to be finished, next week. Meanwhile, Tim Hamm (hardscaper) came by and we filled the ditch in the front yard (power line to lamp post) and regraded the ditch with his little Kobota tractor. Giving some thought to having him build another rock wall, this one across the front of the property between the ditch and the berm. Its about $750 in labor and another $150 in rock, but it would help manage the berm by keeping dirt from washing down into the ditch. Plus it will give the walkers a place to rest their weary legs when they wander by on Fairbreeze Drive. Its only money as they say. Maybe I could put a little donation box out there on the wall. Sort of a pay as you sit option.
