A New Door!

Okay, so the title isn't all that catchy, but I am SUPER EXCITED about my new door!  Josh did alot of work on the house before he and I got married.  He re-sided the house, put on a new roof, installed all new windows and designed and put on the new porch.  (You know what I mean... he didn't do all the work, but he made it happen.)   With all that beautiful work that was done, there were two things that were left untouched that I never did quite understand why they weren't taken care of when the rest of the jobs were done.  The first is that the house has all new windows... except the downstairs bathroom;  the bathroom still has the old crank window that doesn't match the rest.  But it works just fine and as long as its functional, its not a big deal. (I just don't understand why he didn't replace it with the rest of them, but men and women think differently, I suppose!)  The other job was replacing the front storm door.  We have this beautiful house, with a lovely front porch... and then this tacky old storm door literally partially held together with tape!  And said door is the topic of this post!

The doorway that houses this door is taller than the average door, meaning it would have to be special ordered.  And after we got married and started having kids, there just wasn't quite enough money to splurge on a special order door.  But that didn't stop me from having a vision of the door I wanted!  We have this very pretty front door original to the house (built around 1910, we believe) that has a full glass center framed by the wood.  The glass in the old storm door (that was the part taped together!) only went halfway down the door, meaning that the bottom view through the front door was obstructed by the solid part of the storm door.  MY vision was to have a full glass storm door to compliment the full glass in the front door.  And it has finally come to be!

Here's the "before".  See how pretty the front door is?  And then the view is obstructed by the storm door!

There they are, figuring it out!  Despite the warmer than usual temperatures, it was chilly and very windy on this particular day... which is why I took the picture from inside.  Those white bars are the crossbucks from the window :-)

Let the work begin!  Apparently, something across the top of the door jamb needed attention, which required Josh to find a way to reach it easier.  There was no ladder nearby, so the next best thing was...

.... a square corn stalk bale!  (This is from the stash by the wood furnace: nearby, light and very handy as a step stool!)

There's Josh and that third arm to see there is Loren's, working diligently outside (as they do everyday, rain or shine, hot or cold) while I am still inside taking pictures!  I did felt kinda bad but as much as I would have been very willing to help, there was just very little for me to do with both men there.  Which was okay by me... I kept the kids warm and toasty inside.

And so they worked.  Making sure every detail was perfect from top....

....to bottom!

After lunch, the kids and I joined Josh outside. 

While searching for some object Josh needed, I came across  Moose hiding away in a flower pot tucked in safe from the wind!  How cute is she?

Sarah Rose and Caleb did the best they knew how to help!  If anyone needs anything measured within the closest five feet, these two are for you!  Notice the swell teamwork!

And finally, after just a few drops of sweat (despite the chill) and frustrations, the door is completely installed!  Isn't she beautiful?  (I mean the door, not Sarah... although she is gorgeous!)

Sweet!

This is the best picture I could get of the detail of the front door.  It has pretty wood detail around the glass. 

And this is the "after".  Isn't it lovely?  No more ugly, taped storm door hiding my view!  For the next couple of days after they put the new door on, I kept taking second glances because I thought the outside door had blown open!  I had to remind myself that this was how it was supposed to look!