Ryan McFarland

One of the planned improvements to our house has been to change a metal windowless door that exits to the back deck and hot tub into a French Door. A few months ago i ordered a nice door that includes blinds in-between the glass. I finally took the time to get the thing [mostly] installed. Below you can see that The door trim wasn’t even entirely on to begin with. I think i should leave the project at just about that level of completion.

I pulled the door and window out [yeah right - like it was that easy] and wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with the outlet that is below the window. The door that i bought was “right swing” which means that when looking at the door from the outside that the right door is the primary entry.

I knew that the wall wasn’t load bearing so i didn’t fret too much about having the ideal door framing. I left a few inches above the doors to ensure space for settling (although hopefully the house has already settled as much as it will). I re-routed the electrical line - it came in over the existing door, between the door and window, to the outlet and continued along the wall. I moved it above the door and then down the wall through the opening i had where part of the window had been.

I cut some of the scrap T111 siding and some of the sheet rock i had removed to patch the hole from the window. Putting in the new door took both of us. Cena held the door in place while i tried to level and plumb it. Eventually i had enough screws in the frame to keep it in place. I used spray foam insulation on one side. caulk on the other, and scrap fiberglass above the door. I still need to finish the trim but plan on doing that and the trim on the windows that are already in when i finish an interior door and a small interior wall.

Yeah, there is drywall to patch but i’d like to leave that until we’re ready to fix up all of the drywall in the house.