It's a bedroom? It'll need a door! Part II

As I mentioned in last week's post (and I'm sure other hints have been dropped here and there), I have a mild preoccupation with doors. Don't believe me? Take a look at the profile picture to your right - it's a picture of a door I saw on a recent trip to Lisbon, Portugal that reminded me of the basement door at Isthmus House!

The one at Isthmus House is an original there though so, to be clear for those that are Facebook friends as well as readers - I didn't bring the door home! I did, however, finish installing one at Isthmus House this week!

When we left off in last week's update, we had electrical in the right place, most of a hole in the wall finished for the doorway and a bit of a mess.

It was time to get started on the actual opening.

Eric, my carpenter, and I got started by cutting out the lath. Which promptly didn't work because, as previously discussed, plaster stays on walls by holding on with little teeth to lath that's connected on both sides of each little strip to a stud. If the lath isn't stable, the plaster won't be either. 

To add stability, we ended up removing the plaster and lath to the nearest studs to be patched in later. That old light switch to the right of the opening in the picture above had to go into my old house relics collection (along with the hologram from our recent duct cleaning and some old papers from our paneling removal).

From there, the door took shape in just a few hours!

In removing the beams, a couple of small pieces (we're talking maybe an inch) of the beautiful floors that ran right under the wall did splinter. Some were easily patched but one just might require me to feather in a piece salvaged from somewhere else in the house.

Once the wall was out, Eric added beams for the rough opening and furred out the new walls to make them flush with the pre-existing walls before patching in drywall. 

So we have a beautiful door and now all that's left is to finish off this story and project is to get all of those sewing room walls looking smooth for paint. Can't wait to show y'all when it's done - stay tuned!