This one is a decidedly low-tech project. One portion of our home is a stone structure that reportedly dates to about the 1750s...not unusual in this area, either. There is a door on the front that was originally considered a "front door" but has been unused for the same for decades and will remain that way for both practical and safety reasons. We also put on a "very expensive" new front door back in 2008...it came with a 2200 sq foot addition. The actual door I'm referencing has deteriorated significantly since we bought the property in late 1999.
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I could replace it with another door but it's still not going to be used as a door as I stated and that keeps the potential for drafts in place. It would also be pretty involved because it's not a normal sized door height-wise. One other option I thought about was to wall it in with a window that matches those on either side, but putting a modern window in between two really old windows would look wonky and I'd also have to decide on whether to just frame it in completely or hire a mason to fill the opening with more limestone. Stone isn't an issue...there's a ton of it on the property...but the cost of the mason would be substantial and that's not a skill I really have, despite being a hard-core DIY person. So I decided to combine the ideas...I'm going to frame it in, but it's still going to look like a door. That preserves the look of the structure from the road, but seals it off for better energy efficiency. It's also reversible by a future owner if they so choose to invest in the necessary work to make the 3' tall steps safe again.
I'm doing this low cost...with the exception of the one stick of PT 2x4 I needed for a bottom plate, the regular 2x4 material is remnants from the huge crate my CNC was shipped in and the face will be made from a sheet of MDO I have left over from a client project. I did order new glass for the light in the "door"...it's the same 20"x20" size as current but is insulated, double pane, low-e glass for $90 from an online supplier. I built the frame yesterday...
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I'll skin it today once I can dig out that sheet of MDO from behind a bunch of other sheets of plywood. I can then install it, sans glass, from the outside without even removing the existing door and work on making it pretty.
While the tools in my shop are generally used for "fine woodworking", I have to chuckle about the big saw suddenly being used like a job-side saw, cross cutting two by fours...
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