New Front Door
Yes, time for a new front door. The original door is was ugly, we especially didn't like the glass (no privacy at night, etc).
Southern Lumber in San Jose has a custom door workshop. You take your old door off, cart it down and they'll cut and trim a new door to size. This includes the holes for the door hardware and the hinge insets.
This turns what would otherwise be a professional-only job into a weekend project, and was especially helpful for me as my house has a steel frame which would be a lot of work to replace. Installation took about an 1, followed by an entire day of painting... :-)
Hint: strip your own hardware off and save $10. Sometimes they have limited stock on hand, so call ahead and get them to tag the door you want with your name. When I called they said "sure we got it", then after I removed the old door they called back to say "sorry, it's on order". Two weeks later it arrived and I'm in business.
A view of the steel door frame.
The new door (T.M. Cobb Douglas Fir).
Installation is pretty simple, just attach the hinges and hang the door. Here I test fitted the door before painting. I chose to paint it (3 coats) freestanding on the side of the house, then re-hung the door and added the lock hardware.
Here's the completed new door from the outside.
Here's the new door from the inside.
Final Note:
According to the sales guy @ Southern the softwood doors are not of staining quality anymore. My door had some noticable grain patterns around the joints where the wood didn't match (different stock), but I was planning to paint so it was not a problem. If you want a natural wood color, go with a hardwood door. Don't forget to install the peephole!
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