“Ouch!” It’s an exclamation I heard often within the confines of my small kitchen, where people regularly banged into an awkwardly placed door when trying to maneuver around the rear of the room. The door wasn’t a problem when it served as the back entrance into my 1903 American Foursquare. But ever since a previous homeowner enclosed the back porch decades ago, the four-light entry door hung in what amounted to a hallway, serving as a stumbling block for folks coming and going. My wife, Theresa, noticed that the door’s dimensions nearly matched those of the solid wood door fronting our cellar stairs. “Why don’t we move the four-light so we can see as we’re coming and going from the cellar?” she suggested. Thus, we decided to create two much more functional spaces, while breathing new life into our home’s original back door.
Related Posts
Setting cabinets is a tempting DIY project because the installation principles are basic, but the reality—especially in the old-house world of crooked floors and uneven wall surfaces—is more complicated.
August 21: Design tips to help sell your home, plus home improvement insider news and ideas MyFixitUpLife is giving it the old Midas Touch…
Used for porches and play-sets, plates and pilings, decks, docks and more there is hardly a more heavily worked, more deeply depended upon material in…
If you’ve listened to our show (thank you) and read some of my articles (also thank you) you know my rant about how vastly over-looked…
Historic houses are known for many fine original details—leaded glass windows, parquet floors, ceiling medallions, rich woodwork—but storage space isn’t usually one of them. In…
Discover which 6-inch random orbit sander is the best. Sanding is boring—and a lot of work. Depending on the project, you might be attached…
Here’s a quick-fix for locks and knobs that are hard to turn. Give them a sip of Teflon spray. Turn the knob or throw the…
When it comes to buying a new roof, I recommend considering two important things that are easy to overlook: How does the roof look on…
Lead paint in our homes—just the presence of it—can be dangerous, especially to our kids. And the scary thing is, it’s the dust that you…
When it comes to a new roof, it is sometimes easy to forget the stuff that keeps the rain and snow out is also one…
There are just some parts of a lawn where it’s harder to get grass seeds started than others. I encounter this a lot with remodeling…
It’s easier to mow your lawn in straight lines.
It’s easier to work with sharp tools.
It’s easier to exercise when you have the right gear.
And it’s easier to keep your home more comfortable, beautiful, and energy efficient when you can keep the cool air where you want it.
Reuse old doors instead of throwing them away! We have ways to upcycle and bring in some awesome new style to your home. Tips to…
For customers hoping their roof can be more art than asphalt, materials like quarried slate and thick cedar shakes come into play. They’re timelessly beautiful…
I love the modern materials that go into doors theses days — everything from MDF to fiberglass — but there’s still nothing like the look,…
