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July 02, 2004
Improvement, improvements
The carpet and tile guys come the first of next week. So, naturally, I was trying to get the ceramic set in the front hall, so they could work around it. And equally naturally, it has become complicated.
The previous residents had cats who marked the carpet in the front hall, right next to the door. So of course ours did some of this, too (until we discovered Feliway...try it, you'll like it). And then there's the usual water penetration from the door, etc. So I took up the particle board underlayment, figuring to replace it with 1/4 inch luaun and 1/2 inch Wonderboard.
No dice.
The subfloor near the door is also damaged. Which means I have to pull up a 3x2 section of 15/32 inch plywood. This wouldn't be a problem, except that it runs directly under the threshold of the door.
This is typical of our house. Fixing one thing leads to the discovery of three other things that need fixing. Well, we had planned to replace the door anyway. We originally wanted a very nice steel door from Home Depot, with leaded glass panes in a pretty Art Deco design. $500-$600, which is why we hadn't replaced it yet.
But looking at the state of the floor (and, coincidentally, noticing that I could see daylight around the edges of the door), we decided to see what we could do. We knew the door would need to have a glass pane -- preferably a large one -- because the front hall is dark-ish due to the solid door and lack of windows. As it happens, Home Depot had a very similar door marked down to less than $200 -- a price I've been told I can probably get reduced a little further when we pick the unit up on Saturday.
Dad has agreed to help me install it, so with luck we'll be good to go by Saturday afternoon. If I can get the Wonderboard down Sunday morning, it should be no problem to have the tile all set by Monday when the carpet/vinyl guys arrive (plus, I'm going to ask them to do the vinyl first, which will grant me an extra day).
Then it's just down to mouldings, and we're pretty much finished.
Indoors.
It's always something, isn't it?
Posted by at July 2, 2004 12:48 AM