Tall, Dark, and Handsome

No, not me. Stop it. I'm blushing. ;-)

This is a quick shot of the door from the downstairs kitchen to the backyard. It's here because this door has come back almost from the dead. It was really beat-up and had so many coats of peeling paint caked on it that you couldn't see much of the panel detail.

It was also badly crooked. It was so far out of square that there was a 1-inch gap in the upper-right corner. You could see daylight around the top of the door. I nailed in a dutchman to fill the gap, but even that fit so badly that we figured someone must have sawn off part of the door. The hinges were rusted and their screws poked straight through the jamb. Standing outside, you could see the screws sticking out in midair. In short, this door was a disaster.

It's amazing what a week of professional care can do. Scott the carpenter took mercy on this door, scraping away the years of accumulated paint -- four different colors in all. Underneath he found a layer of stain, the door's original finish. Then he loosened up the mortise and tenon joints, trued up the door, and screwed it back together. To everyone's surprise, the door was straight after all. It hadn't been cut; it was just sagging so badly that it looked like it had.

Now the door fits. It swings open and closed -- deluxe! It blocks light as well as drafts. And the original mortised lock even works again. We replaced the rusty old steel leaf hinges with historic reproductions that are pretty close to our original ones. And it got a good sanding and a coat of new paint. After years of abuse and neglect, this one little piece is back in shape.