Wednesday 21 April 2010

Knock knock 1

As the weather forecast for the rest of the week seemed promising the chaps and I decided to embark on the fitting of new front door and frame. Once the old door,steps,boot scrapers and assorted junk was removed we set to cutting through the original frame.The effort required to cut through the frame was considerable and the smell released by the saw blades truly beautiful. It never ceases to surprise me how wood no matter how old can release so much of a powerful aroma from its sawdust. The wood available today in most lumber yards even after careful picking and choosing is generally second rate and pretty poor stuff compared to wood predating the second war. Windows of houses as old as 200 years are if given a bit of tlc easy to refurb to an as new condition were as most wooden windows of today are rotted out in 20 or so years (lets ignore upvc here for the sake of decency) Because of this lack of quality we reused wood cut from top of the frame to patch in the protrusions that can be seen on either side of the newly formed arch. Once the frame is set there will be a rather large amount of making up to do with mouldings and cladding to be added before the new barge boards etc are cut to match...then ...well lots of other blogs posts to come. I'll hopefully show more of the progress on the door tomorrow.

5 comments:

Vinogirl said...

That's all well and good...but how's my bedroom coming along?

Trubes said...

Nevermind, 'your bedroom Vinogirl', what about the old retainers cottage for DT and Moi?

Glad to see all your hard work coming to fruition Thud, its looking fab.
Hope Mrs T and the little Princesses are well.

Di.xx

Thud said...

Trubes...if you pass by this way you would see the chaps working away on the gate lodge at this very moment.

phlegmfatale said...

Wow - this is stunning! I'm seriously envying the shape of that door!

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Wood.

A few years ago my brother-in-law had the misfortune of breaking the bowsprit on his boat.

We duly removed the broken stub, only to find that in fact this was the second spar in that position; the base end of the original one was still in place. It was pitch-pine. You could still smell the resin in it, after ninety years in the open sea air.

Wonderful stuff, now hardly obtainable at any price afaik.