The Bedroom Door Is In!
Our bedroom now has an exterior door, and I love it…kind of. This wall is on the front of our house, and it used to have a window that looked like this…
And the last time I showed it to you, it looked like this. They had done some preliminary work that included rerouting electrical wires so that they would clear the area where the door needed to go.
And now, we have a door! I absolutely love it…from the inside of the room.
I’m so glad to have this door in here. I’ll sleep much better with the peace of mind knowing that I can get Matt out of the room quickly and easily in case of emergency. That peace of mind is worth much more than what we’re paying to have this door installed.
I can’t wait to see it all trimmed out on the interior, and then to see it “framed” with the teal draperies. I think it’s going to be so pretty.
Once again, I’m debating what to do about privacy on the door. I’ll definitely need to add something for privacy since the door is on the front of the house. I haven’t settled on a decision yet, but I have some ideas.
So while I’m thrilled with how it looks on the inside, what I’m not thrilled with is the outside. And the issue isn’t even that we now have to doors on the front of our house. Since this one is way over on the far left side of the house, I’m really not bothered by having two doors on the front. But what does bother me is how unlevel the house is. For some reason, it’s not too terribly noticeable on the inside, but it’s very noticeable on the outside.
This section of the house is lower in this corner where these two sections meet. It’s been like this since we bought the house, so it’s not sinking. The house settled long before we bought the house. It would have cost a fortune to fix it, and even fixing it would have led to lots of other problems, so we decided to leave it alone. Since it’s not continuing to settle, it’s best to just leave it alone rather than try to fix it and lead to other problems that would need to be fixed.
But it’s very obvious, at least to my eye. And having a level door inside an unlevel section of the exterior wall makes it even more obvious.
But all we can do is just press forward and hope that once everything is trimmed out and painted, and once the porch area is built (which will be level with the door), it won’t be quite so obvious.
Dealing with an old house where things are never perfectly level and plumb has been one of the biggest challenges for me. I’m a perfectionist, and these things used to really bother me.
I mean, I’d lose sleep over it during a project where I was having to deal with how to work around these issues and make adjustments to disguise the issues. But after 12 years, I’m kind of used to it. I still get disappointed when the issues are obvious to my eye, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I don’t lose sleep over it anymore. I just try to make the best of it and move on.
But overall, even with the imperfections, I’m so excited to have this door installed. I think once it’s all finished, it’s going to look great. And that peace of mind that I feel having a door in our bedroom is priceless.
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I honestly don’t think it looks as bad as you think from the outside. And I’m a perfectionist. I’m confident once you have time to move to working on the porch, etc., it’s going to look great! But between now and then, it still looks fine. Don’t sweat it!
Beautiful but yes… I what you’re seeing. I’d also be afraid of bugs and rodents getting under there too. I’m assuming that one blocks is your crawlspace venting, correct? Can that be relocated economically then when full front stone replaced, can some type of a border stone be added as a fascia of some kind across the entire threshold? Then once you have the outside stairs / ramp, it would be hidden behind?
I’m not sure I understand or see where the house is sloping. It appears that the black (tar paper under the wood floor?) is deeper on the right than the left as if the door is set back further on the right. Regardless, I think if there’s a silver tone threshold covering the black the slope will be much less noticeable. Likely you will be the only one who noticed it.
Landscaping.
One way to mitigate the visibility of the levelling issue is to paint out the door and trim on the outside. It is a utility door after all and not one that you want to make a focal point on your facade. Choose a paint colour that’s close to the stonework and make it disappear.
Huh. It doesn’t look that bad to me.
Looks great! Honestly I was writing anything “off” from camera angle. Wide angle lenses distort a lot now-a-days.
I can’t remember if you discussed or researched where to relocate or remove the vent under your new door. The structure for your new landing will likely block airflow, if airflow is needed. Its important to know where and how much is intended to be coming in overall in the home.
That is a likely source where unconditioned wet air from below came in from the carpet tiles (if unsealed). If its needed is up to you (and know/communicate), but be clear on what the goal is and communicate, especially with HVAC and the contractor when you do your expansion. You’ve replaced windows, wrapped the home where you could, as you did the siding and did foam in the attic. Some things do require fresh air or venting for safety, if you have a lot sealed. Some home HVAC systems require fresh air to come in and you need to install a vent at a point, or it pulls all the needs in one focused area bringing moisture problems. Some geographical areas have code requirements on venting near these systems especially if it’s off of gas.
I’ma freakazoid perfectionist and it took me a minute to even notice it. I think if you plan to plant any landscaping around it, it will not even be noticeable at all, especially on casual glance.
I think you are right. After you get everything finished it won’t be so obvious if at all. Especially, once you dress the porch. I understand though, it can be very disheartening at first.
To my eye, those two pieces of stone right beneath the door (center and left) look high in comparison to the block on the bottom right. Maybe that’s it?
I think the fact that you thought to have a door and then got one installed speaks volumes! Older houses are suppose to be crooked. It adds to their character. I bet when the steps are poured and you landscape around it, nobody is going to notice what you see. Especially not from the street. Perfection is overrated. Getting it done is my new mantra!
I think when all is said and done, no one will see the imperfections but you (and those of us whom you’ve told! LOL!) That peace of mind will be worth it!
I was showing my new house (12 ft ceilings) to my mother, and asking her what to do about the flaking ceiling paint on said ceiling, and she said: “Put a little sign up there saying, “What are you looking up here for?”. 🤭 She would also look up at upper cabinets and ask, “What are those for?” ( we were both short). And btw, I did not notice any slant…assuming you’ll have a concrete ramp at a very gentle angle?
I don’t think it looks bad at all. I’d build up the ground around the house and put in some low maintenance landscaping and no will ever know.
I don’t think it is that noticible but I wouldn’t draw attention to that and keep the paint on the door and trim the same as the house color.
Some well placed trees, shrubs and flowers around (and in front) of the porch could draw your eyes away from perceived imperfections!
I didn’t think it was that bad! Like everyone else has said…..it isn’t finished yet. Still needs a ramp and landscaping around it, and then it’ll fade into the background! Kudos to you for safety issues for Matt and yourself!
Peace of mind in always priceless. By the way, I really like your post of cost between now and 11 years ago when you started the work. The comparison was good no matter what!
I would love to see the mock up(s) of the door you did in an earlier post but can’t find it.
It looked great.
And this will look great eventually!
XO
Found it!
And this is going to turn out GRAND. Just you wait and see Kristi♡
I honestly didn’t notice it until you said, then had to have another look, and I think I have a pretty good eye!
Once it’s trimmed out, painted and the pergola frame built, landscaping etc, it would not be noticeable at all.
This new door installation is huge progress on your bedroom suite coming together! Well done!!
It’s the lintel above the door, which notably slopes downward toward the knob/latch side of the door, that really contributes the most to making it appear crooked. I would think you can probably counteract this to some extent and make the opening look more true when you trim it out. I agree with the other commenters who suggested painting the door to match the stone to help minimize this problem.
I’m seeing a door sweep across the bottom positioned at a gentile angle to “Disappear” the small space… then painted the same color as the door…