Now, That's A Sill

As most home remodellers know, a project generally never goes without some unexpected challenges. In fact, after the many projects I've taken on, I still visualize everything to go as according to plan. I have no idea why I still do that. Just undaunted hope, perhaps.

This weekend was no exception. I planned on my friend Guy to stop by at 1:30 to help me lift the French Door into place. This would give me enought time (an hour and a half) to remove the originally sliding door and prepare the rough opening. Oh, and to also clean up the sill because the door installation guide told me so.

And this is what I find after tearing out the old sliding door:
A closer look into the hideousness:

In the interest of time, I was able to slap a couple of 2x4s to rebuild the sill but I was rushing since I had already spent the good part of the day removing the old door and darkness wasn't too far off. I needed to get that 80 x60 hole filled with something- it was cold outside. Guy was a big help in nailing the 2x4s to recreate the rough opening and we were able to get the door inplace before long. However, after finally getting something to eat, I got a chance to have a look at the work I had done. That's when I realized that I had placed the door incorrectly. It was installed on the floor, not the subfloor. This meant that the bottom piece would be sticking up almost an inch higher that what it was supposed to be. That would have driven me crazy.

It turned out to be a blessing though. I was able to give some more thought on how to reuild the sill and the next day, I was able to spend more time on that since I had a head start. Working at a slower pace for stuff like this is vital and I enjoy it a lot more.

Here it is, the newly built sill:

Regarding the French Door itself, it's up and working beautifully. I really like it and much more than I thought I would. However, I still need to finish up the siding on the outside in the vincinity of the door so I'm going wait on posting any pictures until that's complete.