Updates on Main Door

LOL ... I know it's getting a little bit old, harping on the main door.  However I have to give you guys a little update on what's happening.  Well ..., we've made the frame and sent it to the new house.  When our contractor's carpenter wanted to lock it down, he found that the corners are not all that straight or aligned. 

If we were to leave it as it is, we would have a main door with a gap at the top and that the door will not lock properly.  Being that this was a main door, we did not want such scenarios.  So Hubby had to take this heavy frame down and re-do it, (it took 4 people to carry it out and lay it on the ground).  Dismantling the frame was no easy task.  He had to knock it out and cut the wood slightly to fit 90 degrees.

Knowing that the reward is that we've put our heart into making something for our HOME is priceless.

Hubby dismantling the door frame to rectify

Hubby knocking the wooden frame out to rectify

Cutting inches off the wooden frame with the machine (on loan from brother-in-law)

The little laser gadgets that tells if your frame is aligned

The wooden door frame that took 4 men carry

  
  

Renovation Progress - Patio & Room Doors

All our weekends have been dedicated to sanding down the patio and room doors.  We bought another 3 doors from a lumber yard in Klang.  Apparently these doors were from a KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu - Malaysian Railway) office.  It's solid, heavy and a unique in design.

The sanding down was done by machine while the edges had to be done by hand by sand paper.

The Patio doors were white on the outside and brown on the inside.
So we had to sand down both sides.

Two of the three room doors which we bought from the lumber yard.
Before and after the doors were sand down

A close up of the doors

Renovation Progress - Patio Door

If you've read our blog post here, we wanted to recycle and reuse the French doors at the existing house for our patio area which is also at the same location.  As usual, our Contractor had discourage us to reuse the door and advise us to buy new door, giving reason that it cannot be sand down to the original wood or that it would be expensive to re-varnish it.  

Because the doors are still in good condition and we felt that it adds character to the house.  And because hubby dearest was a DIY and handyman, he took the challenge.  

The French doors dismantled

Trying to remove the white paint to get the wood color

The wood is scratched when using the metal brush

So hubby uses a sander

Much better and faster

The difference between before and after sanding down

Because the glass edges could not be sand down using the machine, we tried using a paint remover

We applied the paint remover to the wood and waited for a while until it bubbled

But it was hard to remove the paint and it didn't come out 100%

Have to think of another solution on how to remove the paint

Renovation Progress : Main Door

The frame of the 'awesome' main door has finally been completed. Hubby's DIY and handyman skills were put to good use.  Credit must also be given to three experienced carpenters that we hired for the day.  These three men actually work for a teak furniture and their kind employer has allowed us to hire them on their off.

As for the main door itself, it has been partly been completed.  Now all that is left to do is fix the lock and varnish the door and frame.

Men @ Work

The completed main door and frame

The muscle men

Drilling is though work

The main door frame fitted into our new home

The floor is raised so that the main door frame can sit

The wood for the main door and frame

Wood for the main door

The almost completed main door ~ left to fix the lock and varnish

Renovation Progress 5 : Children's Room & Kitchen

As mentioned in our Renovation Progress 3 blog post, the children's room has it's walls up and the walls are up for the bathroom as well. 

The walls are also up in the kitchen area.  One window and the back door.  However, we now feel that it's very dark once the walls in the kitchen area are up.  Hmm ... must think of another way of allowing light in.  Maybe paint the walls in bright colors, white kitchen cabinets and light tiles for the flooring.

Children's Room & Bathroom

The back walls as well as the walls to the bathroom are up

Kitchen

Walls are up BUT kitchen looks very dark

Renovation Progress 4 : Master Bedroom

The contractors have started to concentrate on the front portion of the upstairs, mainly the master bedroom.

The current setting of the master bedroom comes with a very large balcony.  As we are not a big fan of balconies, we've decided to extend the master bedroom all the way out.  Only leaving a small area for storing the air-condition compressors, with a window big enough to act as a door for servicing the air-conditions in the future.

Looking at the master bedroom now, it looks huge but I can imagine that after all the furnitures go in, it's going to look just nice.

Main Door

The construction of the house is coming up fast.  I've been so busy with other projects that I've neglected updates on our blog site.

We wanted a main door that stands out, not an ordinary door that every house has. We wanted a main door that made a statement, so, ... dear hubby decided to build his own door.  We have been sourcing for wood and we have an idea on how we want our front door to look like.  We have also been sourcing for wood for making two benches for our dining table also

So for two weeks or so we've been driving to some really 'ulu-ulu' places to look for good, cheap if not reasonable wood.  After going to point A and point B and going back and forth, we've bought our wood.

Now, once the door is up, we'll post some pictures.  In the meantime, we'll leave you with some photos on the 'birth' of our main door and most importantly wish us LUCK!

The railway slippers for the bench legs

What we think is Balau wood for making our bench  for the dining table

An idea of how we want our main door to look like

A carpenter's paradise - heaps of wood

The wood we bought for our main door

The workers cutting the wood for us

The cut wood