Opening Doors........

If windows are the eyes of a house.... a door screams "Come on in and make yourself at home!"

As you all know .... unless you have just started reading this blog....... I am an old house fanatic.

I have often said I was born in the wrong century.  And that is particularly true about houses.

I really like the layouts and style of a new house.  I like the convenient laundry rooms, the shiny granite countertops and the family rooms that open to the kitchen.  I like the master bedroom suites with a shower separate from the whirlpool.  I like an attached garage!  Why ... I might even like central heat!!! (We won't even mention air conditioning!)

But ..... I break out in hives!!

I would be be putting a rusty patina on the satin nickle fixtures.  I would be creating little tiny corners to hide, create and read within.  I would take doors off cupboards to have open shelving.  And I would make sure windows had cute little window lifts that looked like tiny little hands.



Or little belt buckles.


Yea ....... I would not survive in a new house. 

And it would not survive me.

Several years ago ... we decided to re-make the door to the parlor.  The etched glass had long ago been broken and replaced with a piece of plywood.  Unfortunately, getting two pieces of etched glass cut into an arch ... was not going to be cheap.  So ... some people said ......... replace the door.  But the door is an odd size so it would have to be custom made.

Fortunately, I met a guy that could do this.................




If you go to Eric's gallery ... you can see the door when something called the Sun was shining through it!  (Seriously --- when was the last time that the sun was spotted  in eastern Iowa??????)

So when Honey mentioned that a different door might be in order for the kitchen, I jumped on the opportunity to hit our favorite building supply store ............... Re Store.

What?????  Did you really think you would find me at Home Depot?????

 New door to open up into the kitchen.................




And look at this molding!!!

A little paint removed --- a little etched glass --- some awesome hardware.  It will be beautiful!!!!

So while digging through the stacks of old doors...... Honey spotted something wonderful.  And after careful measurements .............. (Yea ......... I can make this work!) We found a new door for the Summer Kitchen!


Yes ... the Summer Kitchen has a door.  But as I have explained to many of you .... we need to router out the panels and put in some glass to lighten the space.

Although it is missing the door knob, striker plate and escutcheons............ Look at this fantastic Russell-Irwin lock!!!!

Yea ... I know.  Our lists aren't getting any shorter.  The stacks of things to-do keep on getting taller and taller and taller.

But two glorious doors will have a proper place to live.  And I won't break out in hives!

Comments

As if I needed one more indication that we are soul sisters....I should show you the stack of doors in my garage...I just can't resist them. So beautiful and so much character...my husband just rolls his eyes everytime I show up with another one. I keep telling him they will all have a purpose. Now I'll just tell him I'm collecting them for Miss Eff. ;-) And hellooo..those sash pulls...I'm dyin'.
BlueGate said…
LOL! At least we are all in good company! Love the new door, perfect for a swoopy-roofed Summer Kitchen!
Christine said…
You and me both, I don't do new. I even used old doors on my chicken coop.

LOVE those window lifts. Way cool.
Miss Effie said…
Christine! So did I!!!!

I'm lovin' my Shabby Chic soul sistas!!!!!
Miss Eff, the doors are fantastico! Those window pulls? Did you find those at the re-store? Love your style.
Miss Effie said…
No --- I found the lifts several years ago online. Ebay or an old hardware place. I paid way too much for the little hands but I loved the humor of them. They were made around 1888 or so. And there is only 3 windows in the room so they were worth every dime!
Sharon Wren said…
We had something similar happen at our house. The screen door broke & hubby was going to replace it, until I showed him where you could still read the pick up instructions the lumberyard wrote on there when his grandpa ordered it (Grandpa built our house). No way we were going to replace that!

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