The Swinging Door

Have you ever gotten yourself involved in a project that seems to never end? I'm in the middle of this never ending process to replace my patio door. It seems to be one nightmare after another and I just can't get a minute of peace about the thing.

The back door project is becoming a regular time bugler in my life.

Sad thing is, that I did not intentionally decide one day that "I would really enjoy changing that patio door because...

...it just isn't the right style for me
or
...i'd really like my back patio door to be another color
or
...i'm feeling uber industrious with tons of my time on my hands, so I think I am going to dive into a home improvement project of my choice."


No. Not anything even close.

I have this really great neighbor that lives around the corner from me. He loves me. Really. He. loves. me. One of those guys that would do just about anything for me. He is sort of like having a honey around to do the honey do's, except he my honey.

The deal is that my sweet, dear friend knew that I had been having some problems with water seeping in around the back door during torrential downpours, like hurricane Ike or the recent flood days we had here in West Houston just wanted to do something nice. Something helpful to remedy the situation. Something as simple as replace the weather stripping on the back door.

So, when he showed up unannounced with tools in hand one day and waltzed right to the back door and started working with hardly a word spoken I thought nothing of it. It took him no time at all to remove the door from the hinges and strip off the old weather stripping, when he turned and somewhat solemnly announced that the door was rotted and he would not be able to replace the weather stripping.


You know what that means, right? My ten dollar weather stripping replacement job (that I did not even initiate- keep that in mind) was turning into a door replacement project that I soon found out would run upwards of $700.00 with installation.


Can you say YIKES!?!?

To make this rather lengthy story a little shorter, I'll just tell you that after picking myself up off the floor when I received that extraordinary quote, I humbly picked up the phone and called my real knight in shining armor and household fix it all friend and kindly offered him multiple home cooked meals to help with the door installation process. Guess what? He accepted and I just knew it would be a breeze from here on out.


But I sit here now, writing this post to tell you that I have never endured so much agony in all my life! This door situation has left me thinking that it may have been easier to put a for sale sign in the front yard and just pack up and move to a new home with a nice, tight fitting, weather stripped back door.


The tedious problems that I am having at this point though have nothing to do with said, knight in shining armor who is actually being ever so patient with me, but with my own stupidity. From the shopping process to the transportation of the door home, I have had multiple challenges.


But, the icing on the cake was my painting mishap. I picked out this really great red color to enjoy on the exterior when I am sitting on the patio enjoying a nice cold beer or glass of wine. Hoping that it will enhance the whole patio experience that was actually my original home improvement project for the season (but I was thinking more along the lines of a few potted plants and repainting the patio furniture).
Didn't I say I was making this lengthy story shorter? I need to work on that.
Needless to say, the door was painted, ready for install and looking rather like perfection, if I do say so myself. The knight in shining armor came with tools in hand to replace the door while I was not home. But, I fortunately (or not) came home just as the install process was being finished to see the red side of the door not facing the exterior in order to better enhance my patio experience, but staring straight at me in my living room. ARRRGGG!!!
The door was removed and set carefully back in the garage for yet another round of painting and will then go through another install process. Hopefully, this time without incident.
But, I promise to keep you posted and hopefully pics coming.