Birthday French Door

If you can have Christmas in July, I supposed you can have a July birthday in November. All I wanted for my birthday this year was a French door (with a handle) and a security gate. I was fortunate enough to have contributors to my present, namely my in laws and my mother, as well as the ever handy and meticulous Rob, a husband who knows how to cook, change a nappy, burp a baby, garden and, in this case, hang doors, install handles and set up security gates. But this all takes time. At the time of my birthday, there was a lot of work happening in the lounge and dining room. I will write a post about it in due course but it involved plastering walls, cretestone, painting, hanging curtains, putting up cornices, taking down lights and stripping and re-painting wooden window frames. So, although we bought the French door, the security gate and the elaborate handle that matches the new one for the front door in July (another post to come), I had to wait and wait and wait for my birthday present. That is the most frustrating thing about renovating a house yourself when you do not have a limitless supply of money. There is a lot of waiting involved and you have to be prepared to live in a construction site for years. It is tempting to go with cheaper options for flooring, lighting or anything else just so that you do not have to walk on concrete or look at a bare energy saving bulb dangling from the ceiling. But I could not work that way. Rob and I bought this house to live in - not to re-sell. This does not mean that we will never sell the house but we are not renovating with that in mind. Don't get me wrong, we will never over invest in the house. We bought this large house in a very good area for an extremely reasonable price. If we spent as much as we paid for the house in fixing it up (which we would never be able to do anyway) we would not make a loss if we sold it. But it is important to note that we are fixing the house up the way that we want it for ourselves and not for re-sale or for anyone else.

Anyway, I digress. A picture is worth 1000 words so I though it best to document my present in pictures

This is the offending door. It really is hideous. This is also the way that we got it when we moved in. Rob had already removed the cat flap from the door (that we bought) as there was just a gaping hole for the previous owner's small dogs. It was terrible. The wind used to blow all sorts of crap into the house through this hole! The floor was always a mess and the rain came in. We bought one of those magnetic cat doors (to keep the strays out) but the cats kept on picking things up (like nails and anything metal) from the garden so we disarmed the magnetic door and just used it as a regular 4 way cat flap. Vassili, our husky, did a great job at keeping the strays out until we got electric fencing.

The worst part of this door is that it had no handle. This meant that if you went outside, you had to leave the door open (banging in the wind) or wide open on a hook. Not ideal in winter or any time for that matter. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when I tried to close the door in gale force winds one day and it slipped out of my hand and snapped all my nails off. Don't mess with the nails!

Here is Rob contemplating the doom of the door. You can see that the frame was already stripped and had an undercoat of paint put on it.

Here is Rob and Jeffrey seeing if the new French door was cut correctly - which it was, with a little more sanding just to make it perfect. The French door was already painted with one undercoat and two coats of white paint at this stage.

Rob is putting in the plate for the lock and aligning it perfectly.

Here is my French door all in with the security gate. The cool thing about this security gate is that it is a concertina so that you do not see it when it is open. It also has a slam lock for extra security. Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that only the top 9 panes of glass are in the door. We ran out of time this weekend so the rest will have to go in when they can. At least it is not windy or raining and there is always the security gate and alarm contact for security. The cats and dog are loving this temporary arrangement!

Here is my beautiful handle. We got it from Handles Inc. in Cape Town.

So here is the beginning of my birthday present in November! Only 9 more panes of glass, a few paint touch-ups and a cleaning to go! It may have taken an age, but it is something that will make my life a little better every day. And that is definitely worth the wait!