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So while working on the deck door threshold, we found another surprise… the bottom of the door is rotted out. The same handy man who did a poor job installing the threshold also install the the sweep on the bottom of the door backwards trapping water against the wood door.
So this is after cutting off the worst bottom 2″ of the door. You can see there is still some rot on the ends and outer face of the door.
Since there would be nothing left if we took out all the rot at the bottom we selectively removed the worst wood on the outside.
We then patched the door with new wood using adhesive and screws. This should help provide additional structural integrity.
Here it is reinstalled. We are letting it dry out for a little bit and will then prime.
Hopefully it will last a few more years!
Do you remember Wednesday’s big rain storm? We certainly do because we were surprised by a leak in our bedroom, one of the few clean, no-construction rooms in the house. : (
I immediately knew the source, a poorly installed threshold at the 3rd floor deck door (installed before our time). It was on our to list to replace but it was not a priority item until now.
So instead of working on the small bedroom a big part of this weekend was spent rebuilding this threshold. Here is the beginning of the demo. The biggest issue was that the threshold and sub sill all sloped towards the inside not outside of the house: >
To get at all the damage we not only had to take out the threshold but also the bottom few inches of the jamb and casing which where rotted. We took every back to the framing and the installed a new piece of pressure treated lumber, cut to have a good slope to the outside. The threshold will be attached directly to it, so it needed to have right slope.
Then installed flexible flashing and turned it up the sides. You always have to assume water will get in somewhere, so flashing gives the water a path right back out.
I milled a new sloped threshold out of oak (naturally rot resistant) on our new table saw (a Black Friday Deal!). We wanted it to be one piece and wide enough to cover everything. I also pre-installed an apron to the threshold since we don’t want to attach it thru the flashing / roof. The threshold attachment will be inside the door.
Here it is installed with new plinth blocks and patched jambs. The flashing hangs a little long but that will be concealed when we reinstall the deck board.
The door itself also needed some work but that’s a whole other story (& post).
The weather this weekend was amazing: open windows and coat-free. But soon enough it will be cold & snowy… So this afternoon I “winterized” the garden, swept and bagged the leaves and took some photos of our (almost) leaf-less tree:
And the 23rd street garden gate and fence, newly restored courtesy of our neighbors down the block:
The mulberry tree will be getting a serious trim in a week or so… Here’s a view from the garden:
Of course, the garden: Winterized. The sprinkler, garden bunny and solar light stay in the basement over the long winter. There are still some blooms out there:
It was so nice out we grilled on the deck, check out the geranium in bloom!
So that’s the garden update. Can’t believe how great it still looks despite the October snow storm!
Yesterday Rob cut the wood pieces for the closets so today I sanded and put a clear semi-gloss poly on them. The shelves are a lovely oak and were unused but salvaged materials from my dad. So they look great but this one shelf had sticky black foam on the front edge that had to go:
This was removed using a scraper, olfa, finger nails, goof off, and sandpaper. Looks perfect now:
Poly station on the roof deck was a good call, what with the sawdust explosion in the living room. The little shelves are for the little bonus closet:
After a while, they dried, and Rob Installed the oak rod, shelf & shelf supports in the orange bedroom closet:
So that makes it official- we have a closet in this bedroom again!
(Doorless, but still considered a closet)
You do? Us too.
We also love FINISHED PROJECTS! Which is why I updated our “Projects” tab with our Deck project, which we pretty much finished last (2010) summer. We have to celebrate our accomplishments!
So check out the Deck project under the Projects tab above!
You may have heard, but Irene is on her way to Philly:
Like everyone else, we’ve been trying to prep as best we can, including grabbing some fresh bread, stocking up even more than usual on fresh fruits/veggies/ cheese/olives, and filling pitchers with filtered water.
We know where the flashlights and candles are, and brought inside anything that may go airborne. We even repaired an exterior bathroom vent last night to prevent any kind of leaking.
(this was taken from our deck 2 years ago at our first demo-party…. It’s all gray right now)
We’re making a Saturday AM errand run for house-working-supplies, then hunkering down and keeping our fingers crossed that Irene won’t try to help with any of the demolition we’re planning on doing this weekend.
Stay safe, East Coast!
Today was productive- started out by potting a new fern for the third floor:
Put the first coat of sealer on our third floor sills:
Rearranged our basement to incorporate new shelving (and found our dust buster we’d given up for lost) and only one more set of shelves to assemble down there.
Also, we got a not-so-secret project started, so stay tuned.
What a change of pace from all this rain. Love the sky this evening:
Oh, and ^project candlestick^ above makes an appearance!
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