Some of the fruits of this summer's labor

[Mick_VT]

I thought I would share the work I did to renovate the front door and reconfigure the steps this summer. The door was, as far as I can tell original to the house and in terrible shape. Plenty of abuse, but also this is South facing and has been sun baked in summer and and frozen in winters for over 150 years. At least once it had been both opened and closed with a hammer. The original lockset had long gone and the wood had many splits and cracks, but fortunately due to the baking, no rot. It was a plain four panel mill door. I had an idea that our hallway would be much nicer if it had glass lights instead of the top two panels.

After much restoration work on the door itself - removing all the paint, repairing damage and filling weather cracks I cautiously removed the top two panels by drilling the corners and running a jigsaw round. I then constructed a rabbet into the door by addition of a permanent beaded moulding (painted in the lighter color in the picture) on the outside. On the inside I made a similar molding but affixed it with pins so it could be removed if ever necessary. For glass I chose 3/8" bevelled glass so it would evoke the look of the panels it replaced, still kind of keeping the style of the original door. This added a huge amount of heft to the door and gives it a very satisfying thunk when it shuts! the inside was refinished with about 5 coats of amber shellac.

The stairs were much newer (1990s?) and put in by the PO back when the house was all white. In the before picture I had already started to rebuild and reconfigure those.I spun the steps round so they faced the entrance to the property and widened them to match the width of the entryway. I reused much of the materials (all pressure treated so it had held up well). The after picture shows the job nearly complete - just before I stained the trellis work dark brown.

All in all I am extremely pleased with it - it has drawn a lot of compliments from neighbors.

[Don M]

Very nice result; your whole house looks great!

[phil]

Te house looks beautiful. I like the doors better with the windows, they tie in nicely with the side lights. My front door is pink and I hate it ! but it is original so someone will have to scrape it . I haven't the heart to put more paint on , but pink door? glad the POs weren't too ambitious because they had a horrible taste for pink, and variants like salmon with beige and crackled paint.. OMG.. Your color scheme looks nice. the railings look great too! I find myself thinking how the dormer would look if it were thickened with a facde or wider trim. You couldn't get a larger window in there, but I bet it is nice to have the light up there. I love the little balcony and how it is set in, I bet you have a nice window into it from both rooms..

[Mick_VT]

Thanks guys - it is of course an ongoing project Those sashes are all due to come out, be stripped, Sarco'ed and painted in the red.

Glad you like the color scheme Phil, its what it was wearing around 1900. When we bought the place it had every single layer of paint since 1865 on it, almost 1/16" thick. One of the very bottom layers was this yellow and brown scheme with green shutters. I added the red, but suspect that the windows were just brown as the door was in the brown and yellow scheme too from what I can make out.

[Gothichome]

Very nice work Mick, And yes the colours sure is impressive.

[mattswabb]

Looks really nice. I like the colors and once you do the windows it will all tie together nicely.

[Mick_VT]

Finally got round to doing the windows of the main house this summer. In fact I'm working my way through all the sashes about four at a time. Hopefully I will not run out of steam before fall. Anyhow, here is a picture with those sashes restored, repainted, weatherstripped and installed. Unfortunately those basement windows are modern vynil ones so wont get painted, though I have considered messing with Kylon Fusion or similar on them, (anybody tried that on vynil?)

[Don M]

Very nice results!

[Nicholas]

Yes those colors really pop. Nice job.

[wletson]

I have considered messing with Kylon Fusion or similar on them, (anybody tried that on vynil?)

I don't see why it wouldn't work. I've painted pretty much everything with it. Gives a nice smooth finish... hmm, trying to figure if there is something similar you could test on. ... nah, go for it!

Beautiful house by the way. Hi, I'm Warren