First Project - Basement Slider

So, we went to the cabin on Easter weekend.  We left on Good Friday and came home LATE Saturday night.  Eric really wanted to spend the night there.  Me, I was a bit skeptical because, well, we have unwanted guests there... squirrels and lots of bugs.  Seriously, it has been vacant for 20 years, so did you really expect anything else?

We got up early on Friday morning and rented a UHaul trailer to haul some furniture that we were getting from my Aunt Oda's place.  She nearly furnished the entire cabin with the exception of the bunk room.  We headed to Monroe to load up the furnishings...  grabbed a quick lunch and got on the road to the cabin.

We arrived safely and unloaded.  It had already been a long day, but we wanted to head into the nearest Home Depot (in Cadillac), over 30 minutes away...  This will come into play later in my story.

We managed to clean up the entire cabin and when I mean clean up, I technically mean, we vacuumed up the bugs.  Eric lit a fire because it was really getting chilly in there and we all slept in the living room with the wood burner.

So, the plan for Saturday was to replace the glass slider in the basement.  Why?  Well, our property does not have a barn or a garage (yet) and we have to have place to store the toys.  We replaced the glass slider with a french door to allow us to get the tractor and quads in.

We headed out to Menard's in Traverse City (the closest one that had the door we wanted in stock), which was an hour away.  By the time we loaded it and got back, it was nearly 1 PM.  Kind of late to start this project, right?

BEFORE

Taking out the door was more difficult that it should have been, but finally, we had a huge hole in the wall.  No turning back now!

Next step was to dry fit the door... to make sure everything fit.  Well, because we were going from a slider to a french door, we didn't take into consideration that the new door had brick molding.  Sorry, I didn't get a picture of that.  (I'll take more pictures for my next post!)  It's the part that sticks out on the sides to cover the cut siding.  Needless to say, it wouldn't fit without trimming the siding.  I did that by hand because we were working with limited tools.

Also, did you know that a french door is 3 inches shorter than a slider?  Well, you do now!  Eric headed out to Home Depot (again, over 30 minutes away) while I stayed behind to guard from anything entering the house!  Since he was gone for 1 1/2 hours, I also managed to clean some of the 20 years of grime from the windows.  It's amazing how bright the place is now!

Eric finally returns with one 2X6.  Note to self, buy more than you need!  A 2X6, for those that don't know, is 1 1/2 inches thick.  You do the math!  So, I head off to Home Depot a 2nd time.  Meanwhile, Eric stays behind and cleaned the other half of the windows!

Jump ahead a few hours...new header is in... kids are starving... the sun has set... REALLY cold outside, but the door is in!  Hallelujah!