Part One: I'm So Excited...

... and I just can't hide it.

Oh. Wait. That was a week ago. Before. The. Incident.

What happened? Before I tell about *the incident*, I have to rewind the movie.

The first winter I lived at The Homestead was brutal. Ya'll remember it (and subsequent years), right? Right. The doors on my house are vintage solid wood and while they are beautiful, they also let in a LOT of cold air during the winter. I tried weather stripping, but then the doors don't close right. The door that's used regularly won't lock during cold months, and due to the knobs/locks also being vintage they're not replaceable. Well, they probably are *if* I want to pay boo-coo bucks to do it. The aluminum storm door doesn't do much to keep out the cold air and rattles terribly when the wind blows.


I finally made the decision last week to buy new doors. Here's where my excitement came from... New Doors! I figured it was a win-win for me -- energy efficient doors, 30% tax credit, the doors were on sale, AND the store credit card was offering 6 months no interest. After much contemplation and two trips to the home improvement store, I decided on these:


A friend recommended a contractor after seeing his work done on a co-worker's garage. Before I bought the doors he came, gave me a quote, and said to call him when I had the doors. We decided he could put them in last Monday.

He arrived around 9am and at 2pm when I went home for lunch, he only had the side door roughed in and for some reason decided to put the knobs on the door. I've done and seen enough home improvement projects to know that it takes approximately 4-5 hours to tear out and install a new door start-to-finish. And that's if it's being done by someone who doesn't do it for a living. It should take a contractor a lot less time. With that in mind, it should've been a one day job for both sets of doors. And yes, the contractor does this for a living. Sad, eh?

During the 10-15 minute time span I was home, I asked him how it was going. All he said was “Well, it’s not going as smoothly as I’d hoped.”

When I got home from work at 5:15pm, he STILL wasn’t finished with the side door. It was still only roughed in with a 2-3” gap (opening) at the top of the door –and- he was working on putting the storm door on! You don’t do that until the main door is done. I did a double take when I walked by to let Celeste out... he put the hinge on the wrong side of the door! After I said something, he tells me he can cover the holes where he’d screwed the handle on (cuz it would’ve had to been moved to the opposite side when the hinge was switched). I wasn’t sure how I’d like it, but I was open to what he could come up with as a solution to his mistake.

Click on photo to see enlarged view

I also inquired as to what he was going to do about the 1" gap between the threshold and my flooring. The bottom of the door barely cleared the throw rug; he certainly didn't leave room for a piece of trim to cover the gap. He said he'd "have to figure something out".

Left Side
Right Side
As I stood looking around the door frame on the inside, he proceeded to tell me that he was going to cut out the drywall so that the trim would fit into the hollowed out area. My head was screaming, "the hell you will!". I told him "No, that area needs to be built-out so the trim lies flat over the wall." I'm not sure if he thought I wouldn't know better or what. He said something along the lines of "Oh, OK. I'll have to figure something out."

About an hour later, he started cleaning up for the day. He’d been working on that same door for 8 hours by this point and it still wasn’t finished. Right before he left, he said to me, “I had a problem with the door.” He then showed me and told me that “the wind caught the door” and smashed the trim around the leaded glass window... on both sides of the door.



All that came out of my mouth was, “Oh my God!” I felt sick to my stomach. I also started having major panic and anxiety, literally my chest hurt and felt like someone was squeezing my heart. Not good.

Prior to this *incident*, I had told him that I’d like to use the side door on the garage if possible. He had the “nerve” to say something about putting it on the garage, implying that he wanted to do it. I told him that “At some point I’d be putting it on the garage.” and left it at that. There was nooooo way I was going to let him put the door on.

He told me he’d go to the store and see if he could get replacement trim. If not, he’d buy a new door. I waited about an hour (I figured he’d be gone from the store by then) and went to talk to someone at the store. They assured me a trim kit could be bought and it wouldn’t affect anything on the door. I felt a little better.

After I got home, I started thinking “I wonder if the door is level” so I got out a 24” level and the door itself was level. When I stepped on the threshold, it gave way. I thought, “What the...?!?” Thresholds are aluminum. He hadn’t put any support under the threshold!

By this time, it was about 8pm. I called my Dad (he’s done lots of carpentry work as has my uncle) and asked him to come into town to look at it, to make sure I wasn’t being paranoid.

Meantime, I continued to check for levelness. When I was up on a chair (hey, I'm short!) checking to see if the top of the door was level, I noticed the door was convex dented at the corner of the window! It’s a frickin steel door!

Inside Door, Upper Right
In addition to being sick to my stomach and disgusted, I was also livid. I wanted to cry. :( When my Dad came, he looked at it and found the opposite corner of the door's window was dented concave,

Inside Door, Lower Left
and that the door jamb was out of level by 1/8” in a 2ft span, and said it meant it was 3/8” off at the bottom, which is what he thought it felt like when he checked it with hands. Dad asked "What the h-ll did he do to this door? The moulding corners are split apart."

Brick Moulding at Top of Door
Outside Threshold, Lower Left
Dad confirmed all the things I thought were wrong and said I wasn’t being paranoid. He told me that the guy owes me two new doors. Actually what he said is the guy owes me "two f-ing new doors", LOL.

At 9:30pm, I called the “contractor” and told him he could either buy me two new doors or give me the money to buy new ones... that I had just bought the doors a few days earlier. I also told him I didn’t want him to do anymore work. Wherever he was at, it was really noisy. Sounded like a bar. He said he wanted me happy and he’d figure something out and call me back the next day.

How can someone in right conscience install a broken door? Not only that, he could’ve said something to me at lunch time and he didn’t! He waited until just before he was about to leave to tell me. I was really excited about getting new doors... my first outsourced home improvement project... and he ruined it for me. :(

Here's what I think happened: I think he lost control of the door. It fell out and down onto the railing, which caused the door to twist (Yes, the door frame is twisted and no longer "square") and bend the steel. Also, the railing must've hit the glass which forced the trim and window back toward the house, busting the window trim on each side. How it didn't break the glass, i don't know!

Stay tuned for the next chapter in The Homestead Chronicles....