Door dilemma

Well, I'm still behind in updating our house progress (and we have made a lot!), but I'm going to take a break from the timeline and bring you to present day where I'm struggling with a door dilemma.  I'm really hoping these first big decisions are the hardest, because if I toss and turn over every little choice like this, it's going to be a long project!!

With that said, I am having a hard time deciding on a front door design.  Trying to reconcile so many factors like what is available, what is in budget, what is time period correct, and what is good for a rental, has me all confused on which direction to go.  I first started looking for doors last week at the Nashville flea market.  I found two beautiful doors I fell in love with.  They had just the right amount of Victorian detail, and just a little bit of glass at the top of the door...they were perfect!  Well, perfect until my dad pulled out the tape measure and delivered the bad news that they were only 32 inches instead of the 36 wide needed for a front door.  The flea market wasn't a total bust.  I loaded up on some great interior door deals, buying 9 doors for $160 total!  That's less than $18 a door for period specific, solid hardwood doors!

Our loot all loaded up and ready to go home!

But back to the front door saga!  Since I didn't find anything at the flea market, I then headed to a salvage yard this week and stumbled upon the door mecca.  I mean seriously, there are rows and rows and stacks and stacks of doors.  You can't even get to them all!

What is a girl to do in all this door madness??

Oh, and did you say you wanted windows?  Yeah, they have that too...

This place must be a hoarder's kryptonite for sure.

Okay, I promise I'm getting to the door dilemma point...

The first door I found at this salvage yard was this one:

 

                       Front exterior of the door                                                            Interior, closer look at the glass panes

I love it.  It's Victorian style, it has great detail, and seems to be very period appropriate to me.  However, it does have more glass than I anticipated.  The reason I was initially look for a door with very little glass is for safety and because this is still going to be a rental property for me, and I really don't want to be fixing broken glass.  Speaking of broken glass, all three panes are cracked and would need to be replaced.  I don't know how much that would cost or where to go get this done, AND to top it off, this is already the most expensive door in the salvage yard.  

Here is another glass door I found

This door is faced with similar pros and cons to the one above, and if I had to chose, I like the 3 pane rounded one more.

Getting nervous about the glass, I started looking for solid door options and found these:

They are technically not period specific, probably built after 1930 (not 1910 like my house).  However, they are cheaper and do not have any glass to deal with.  I do like that they have some detail, which gives a nod to the very Victorian, detailed gingerbread trim traits.  

The last option is this one:

This is a solid, period specific door (probably around 1910), but it is very plain with no detail.  I should also note that I got interior doors that look like this for one of the units. I like the look, I was just looking for a little more curb appeal character for the front of the house.  

What are your thoughts?  Should I brave the glass for the period specific look I want?  Or go with something solid?

Day 4 of demo - I feel itchy

Day 4 of demo was all about ceilings with lots and lots of insulation.  Have you ever taken down a ceiling with about 2 feet of spray insulation in it?  Well, let me tell you, its a chore!  Last blog entry I told you about our "method" of sweeping out the insulation and then taking down the ceiling.  We definitely perfected this process, and my dad even made a patented tool that was sized perfectly to fit in between the beams and sweep out the fluff (as we loving called the insulation).  Still this method does take time and you will be itchy!  Really you need at least 2 people for this job, but 3 is ideal.  With 3 people, the person sweeping down the fluff can stay up in the ceiling while the other 2 people dump the loads of fluff (otherwise the ceiling person has to keep going up and down into the ceiling).  Per room there would be about 4 or 5 heavy tarp loads of pink fluff to carry to the dumpster.  

Speaking of dumpster, we needed a new one, so one got delivered first thing in the AM.  

Side note...I say first thing in the AM for the dumpster delivery, but really it was 8am. I thought this construction project of mine would help me become more of a morning person rather than the night owl that I am, but it is not working! When the dumpster lady suggested a 6am drop off, I was like "come again???" 6am does not work for me, and I fear this hour never will.  So, I am a "late" construction girl...but I don't mind working into the dark :)  

Back to your regularly scheduled ceiling program...

Here is a great view of the ceiling insulation removal process.  You can see the cannel that was punched out of the ceiling where the fluff is swept through and lands on the tarp below.

This was a blurry accidental picture, but I felt it was abstractly representative of how the ceiling days felt...a blur of pink fluff.  I also fully recognize I have no future in the art world. Ha

That pink fluff fills up the dumpster quick! Luckily we had the plan to put heavy stuff on top of it!

Front unit kitchen ceiling down

Another view of the front kitchen ceiling down.

Front unit Bedroom #3 ceiling down

After accomplishing a couple of ceilings, my dad had to take off for the day for a meeting, leaving Stephen and I to chug on.  Maybe it was the fact that we were dragging really bad this day (it being day 4 and our muscles were seriously protesting), or maybe its the fact that I mentioned 3 people is easier than 2 for this task...but whatever it was, when my dad left, we fell apart!  Attempting the next bedroom on our own and I almost electrocuted and killed Stephen.  Okay, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic.  Maybe I just accidentally blew out a light bulb.  But it felt hopeless!  We decided to take a lunch break and then we were able to come back and successfully finish the room on our own.  Stephen's parents, Jim and Lina also stopped by and they helped us really clean up the place - get rid of drywall, sweeping up extra fluff debris, etc.  What a blessing on a day that we were feeling less than at the top of our game. 

The front unit bedroom #2 that Stephan and I powered through

Looking at all ceilings gone in half of the front unit

And a pile of fluff that came down on its own in a closet.  That stuff has a mind of its own!

And lastly, here is a video of our post day 4 progress!

Day 3 of demolition...walls no more

Day 3 of demo started out as more of the same...Stephen, my dad, and myself knocking down more drywall, opening up more walls.  We are getting pretty good at this now!  We finished the back unit by the afternoon.  So, besides the 2 bathrooms, all interior walls are gone.  That's right, in less than 3 days, we destroyed all walls of a 2300 square foot house.

Standing in the back unit living area looking all the way to the front of the house (seeing back bedroom #3, and front bedroom #2 and #1).

Standing in the back unit kitchen looking all the way to the front of the house.

One of the back unit bedrooms demo'd on this day

These closets were painful to demo.  So many corners, so much trim, and lots of drywall that was tough to take off.  I think I now understand why in a tornado you should head to the closet.  These things are the strongest thing in the house!

Looking from the back unit bedroom #1 all the way to the front of the house.

Standing in back unit bedroom #2 looking all the way to the front of the house.

Standing in the front unit looking all the way to the back door.

With all the walls gone, it was time to start on the next hurdle...the ceilings.  We had a little bit of time left in the day, so we decided to attempt the first ceiling demo.  We chose to attack the front unit living room.  My dad had the brilliant plan to cut/punch out a channel in the ceiling and then sweep out all the blown insulation through that hole.  We would gather the insulation on a tarp and then carry it out to the dumpster in loads.  This method took a bit to perfect.  We had to try different tarps, figure out how to punch out the channel, etc.  Today was definitely the "trial and error" day.  Here are just a few pics of our first ceiling demo.

After all the insulation was removed, we would then kick down all the ceiling drywall and haul that off.  Once the drywall was off our first 8 foot ceiling, it was like the heavens opened up...or maybe it was just the 12 foot ceiling opening up, but it felt great to see.  The first views of our tall ceiling.

Stephen taking in the greatness of our work ;)

We were packing up for the night, when the next door neighbor contractor came over to enjoy our new ceiling view in the front room.  He suggested that the view would be even better if we actually removed the 8 foot ceiling beams.  We agreed, and down they came...

The guys say "ahhh, that's better"

And I agree, its a much nicer view without those beams.  You can really start to appreciate the 12 foot ceilings and how open the space is going to be.

Look at all that lath and plaster.  Yes, that too will have to come down, but that will be another demo day.  Oh boy.  For now, I will just enjoy my high ceilings.

After 3 days (actually 2 1/2 if you are really counting), we demolished all the drywalls, one ceiling, and filled up a 30 yard dumpster.  I called the dumpster service on this day and told them we would need a new dumpster, and she said "already??!!"  Yes ma'am, we destroyed a house in 3 days, and our dumpster is about as full as it gets!  We are demo beasts!

Video of our progress and the ceiling coming beams down.