Owning your home – better learn some handy skills

Fortunately, I am not afraid to learn something new and give it a try when something needs fixing. I say “fortunately” because if you own a home, you know that stuff needs fixing constantly.

Yesterday D & I decided to replace the exterior door to the kitchen. We could then use the old one, which is super crappy construction anyway, as a door to the tack room in the barn. The new door would have one of those “blinds inside of glass” designs so we could let in a lot more light to the kitchen. Replacing an exterior door would be a little bit of a challenge for us, but we figured we’d give it a shot.

Things went pretty well until we got the old door out and inspected around the sill. Rot. Everywhere. This house is only 8 years old, but I’ll swear, it is contructed with chewing gum and spit. It looks like at least some of the subsiding and subflooring, and maybe even a couple of framing pieces, will need replacement. But we figured we would hold off on that until the day we replace the siding (which is being held together on one corner with, literally, duct tape). For this weekend, we just dug out as much rot as possible, stabilized with a wood stabilizer, then filled it will a putty/resin. When all that dries we’ll caulk the hell out of it, put the new door in, and make sure we have a good storm door over that.

All told, this “little” project will probably cost us about $700 and that is with us doing it ourselves.

I have come to the conclusion that the people who manufacture these things just absolutely do not give a crap. Or they do not think about what they are doing. Or both.

I look forward to the day we can put a sunroom on the back, if for nothing else, to keep the elements (wind/rain) away from the subsiding. Of course, the builders will need to flash the new hip roof well or that will leak and rot too. Too bad I am not a carpenter – I can see where that is a pretty good business now.