Floors and Doors

Updating and improving means you get to get rid of those minor annoyances that you otherwise live with, because, “. . . . as long as we’re here. . . . “ we may as well.

 

The patio door in the master bedroom is one of those annoyances.  A sliding patio door that was a good unit in the early 90’s, it had lived out its usefulness.  It no longer opened or closed without a significant amount of effort and opened onto a deck that the carpenters immediately condemned when they saw it.

 

New French doors and a re-designed (read “smaller”) deck with a set of stairs that go down, providing an alternate exit to the second floor of the house.  It was supposed to be a window seat, with the deck going away.  But then the realization hit that nobody thought to put in the support beams for that, and it would have required ripping out both the electrical and HVAC that was just installed.

 

This prompted (a) a minor meltdown by some of us and (b) a re-design of the plan, keeping the deck in place and modifying it to let a bit more sunlight in through the patio door directly under the one in the Master Bedroom.

 

Turns out this wasn’t a bad option, as the new French door lets in lots of light and gives a really updated look to the bedroom.

 

It was also time to move forward on refinishing the floors in the bedrooms.  Drywall dust and floor dust aren’t all that different – they sift into everything through the entire house.  Imagine going through your house with a 10 pound bag of flour and a leaf blower, and you’ve got the idea of what a mess it is.

 

The floors got an updated color, too – the center one in the picture – and take some planning because as the polyurethane dries you can’t walk on them.  

 

Not even a tiny bit.

 

Not a single step.

 

This can be a hard message to get across to some folks.  It takes tape and signs and threats.

 

In the bathrooms, drywall is followed by tile.  Well, first there’s a bit of concrete poured in the shower floor to create the base for it, then tile goes in on top.  That’s when you can understand the entire vision and how it all meshes together.

 

And, in the midst of all this, we got ready and left on vacation.