This weekend I did most of the rest of it. I painted the beadboard a dark blue with a hint of grey to it. I finished sanding and mudding around the last window. I painted the walls a grey that turned out darker than I intended. I cleaned up a lot of the plaster dust that has been gathering on the floor. I installed the door. Packed mud behind one chair rail. And I put in the other chair rail. It's finally looking like a bedroom. I honestly think I can go bed shopping next weekend.
The door was the trickiest part. The door I ordered was made the size I asked for. But they added an inch or so to the bottom so that the door would be able to clear any carpet I put down or those metal strips that separate one kind of flooring from another. Which meant that the door was too tall for the space I had. So I shaved off a quarter inch to make it just barely fit.
You want the edge with the hinge to be straight up and down or the door will swing open or closed of it's own accord. Oddly, while the wall stud said it was 90° straight up and down, the door frame, when shoved into place, also said it was 90° straight up and down. This, despite the fact that there was a great deal of space between the door frame and the stud at the top of the door and none at the bottom.
So, shims in place, nails through the shims, and close the door. The door doesn't want to close. I push the door frame above the handle up and the door closes. Fine. Let's just nail it up there. But the nail keeps bending. Maybe because I'm nailing it to 100 year old wood that I salvaged from elsewhere in the house and maybe because the nail is a complete dick. Mind you, the next two nails were complete dicks, too. So I got out the nail gun. I should have started with that, but I was lazy and didn't want to drag it and the compressor out of the basement. So I put the door frame where I want it and hit it with the nail gun. The wood smashes and rains splinters on my face. But it's holding. Fine, whatever, a bit of wood putty will handle that.
What I had just put into place was one side of the door frame. The side with the door. The other side is just supposed to slide into a groove, you put a few small nails in, and it's all good. But, in this case there's a lath and plaster wall starting very close to it. So close, that I have to put the lath either under the door frame or over it. I should say that I put drywall there first. So when I eventually knock out this lath and plaster I won't be having to worry about space between the door frame moulding and the drywall. So the lath already is over the strip of drywall I put in. I had to slip some board under the lath to pry it out so I could slip the moulding of the door frame under it and connect this side of the door frame to the other. It doesn't sound like much if you say it fast. But the lath didn't want to be pried out. So much so that it was warping this side of the door frame. I had to pry the lath away with the board, push the door frame into place with a foot, and beat the crap out of the frame with a rubber mallet to get the tongue and groove of the two sides of the door frame to line up. And then, they didn't want to click together. I had to get a clamp around them and force them together.
I'll try to post some pictures of what I'm talking about this week, but the rooms are a bit small to get proper pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment