Day 99 – Knock Knock Knockin’ on Basement Door

Today I finished up work on the basement door:

• Sanded down the areas I had plastered the week before
• Since we were reusing the old basement door frame there was a skinny line of white paint all around the frame that showed when the door was shut.  It got out a putty knife and spent a least an hour scraping all this off.    Then sanded it down to bare wood with a detail sander attachment to Dremel multimax
• Then I painted the parts that had been plastered and sanded to match the wall color.  I wanted to get this painted before I put the trim on since there would be a skinny little gap between the trim and the wall.
• Then we took off and went to a BBQ
• When we came back I hand rubbed some dark stain on the door frame where I had scraped and sanded earlier.  And I touched up some nail holes and gouges in the recycled trim where bare wood was showing.
• Now it was time to install the hardware & lock set.
• I did another prototype on a scrap piece of wood.  Working out how & where to drill and chisel.
• Then I rehung the door and started work. 
• Drilled out four holes with 3/4 inch bit.  squared off the opening with wood chisels.   This involved much trial and error.  Worked on it for a while, then try to slide the lock in, then chisel some more, then try to slide the lock in, then chisel some more.  Repeat 30 times.
• Then I marked out and chiseled out the spots for the “ears” of the lock
• Then measured, marked and drilled the hole for the door knob and for the skeleton key lock opening
• Then dry fit everything together.
• Then screwed the lock into the door
• Installed the face plates for the door knobs
• Put the knobs on and screwed together
• It worked!
• In the old door frame the strike plate was about 4 inches too low — so I marked out where the strike plate needed to go and drilled and chiseled another square hole in the door frame, and screwed in the strike plate.   The door closes, latches with a snug fit – but not too tight.
• Then I got out the compressor and nail gun and nailed the final piece of trim in place on the left side of the door where I had plastered and painted.
• Complete!  (except that now I have to scrape the white paint off the hinges (which shows up nicely against the dark wood!) and white paint off the door knob and face plate on the stairs side of the door, and rub some tung oil on the new trim…manana).
• Looks good.  

Now we can keep the kittens from escaping out the basement door while I load band equipment in & out of the downstairs basement door!

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