For about 6 months I have been working on refinishing and hanging a door to our bedroom. Well, maybe I have spent a few weeks out of 6 months doing so, I took a big break during winter when the basement is freezing.
The door was already in the basement, and one can suppose it used to hang in the house, somewhere. It was painted black and the paint was quite blistered. So I had to scrape down the blisters (very loud and nails-on-chalkboard) sand down the scraping, and paint it with primer several times to hide the black. So that was what I did last fall. It may blister again, well, It will blister again. The original door was varnished wood and it's the varnish that is blistering. Maybe due to the damp basement and it's extreme temperature fluctuations. Maybe in the house it will fare better.
Anyway, the last week or two I have been putting on the last coats of white paint. Today I am panting some of the inset panels of the bedroom side with the same color as the walls. And then it will be done. It may be dry this eve to hang!
Our bedroom currently has swinging doors, like a bar room. They will be relocated to the closet entry, as it has no door, and I think it will all look the better for it. I had to remove an old hinge from the door frame and it's amazing. It's original hardware from the early 1900's. I may clean it up sometime with paint stripper. The crafting that went into the fixtures in these old houses is just beautiful. The were hand made somewhere, by some metal smith. The hinge is a pin hinge with decorative scroll work. If i ever clean it up I will post a pic. It's too thick with paint to see much right now.
Our apartment sort of has not doors between any rooms, except that bathroom, which has TWO doors. (the bathroom is a door hog!) The front room has pocket doors, and that's handy sometimes. But there is something about being able to CLOSE a door, between any room, that makes a room feel complete, separate, it's own space apart. Our last apartment had a broken pocket door, a bathroom door and a door to the closet/bedroom. It had THREE doors to go outside. But all the other rooms were a continuous flow, as this place has. It's been a long time since I could just close a door and shut out the world. Doors lead to sanctuary, space, quiet, peace, solitude. They are also boundaries, when you have people over or whatnot, a closed door mean do not enter, it's off limits.(Also a convenient place to keep cats out of the way...)No one else quite gets that, or why it's important to me to have a door.(Except maybe J9. =) )
I will post door pics after it is hung. Yay!
