Replacing the back door

For over a year, our back door has been unusable. Stuck shut. Completely worthless.

The problem: the door was out of square with the frame. There were giant air-leaking gaps all around. We could see those cartoon dollar signs floating out of the cracks. Oh yeah, and we couldn’t open it. I tugged so hard, the knob started to come loose from the door itself.

A new deck is on our to-do list this summer, so dealing with this door is a precursor to that larger project.

I decided that the existing door was a lost cause and that our time would be better spent installing a new door. With a window! (Whenever given the choice, always choose to add a window. You’ll thank me later.)

I found the new steel door at Home Depot. It’s not too utilitarian, but not at all fancy either. A good fit for the room. And it was affordable too at $197.

It has a couple of (barely noticeable) nicks in the primer on the interior side, but it was the only one they had in stock. (Even though the HD website stated there were six.) I didn’t want to spend all day running to different stores to locate a spotless one, so when the associate offered me a $30 discount, I took it. The chips will be easy to deal with, and honestly, anything new in this house gets broken in quickly.

My dad spent a whole day working on this project. Ripping out the old door frame was no small feat. The threshold was completely rotted out. And we discovered the framed opening is not at all square. #oldhouseproblems

You see how that gap on the left side of the door is small at the top and wider at the bottom? That should be absolutely level, straight up and down, but it’s not. There’s like an inch and a half difference between the top and the bottom.

Yet somehow, he made everything work. I don’t know how, and it’s not 100% perfect, but the door opens and closes easily without scraping the frame. I will call that success.

We still have to spray foam insulation around the frame, put trim up the trim, and paint, but we have a working door! Amazing! We can visit the backyard! It’s the little things.

Speaking of paint, for the outside, I’m thinking black. The old “deck” (a generous term) is on its way out, so I am not matching anything to that dark brown. But for the inside? The obvious choice is white to match the trim, but maybe I should consider a bright color? What color would you paint it?

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