The Front Door: Finally Completed!

After having our new-old front door for over a year, we finally have it installed!  I worked on stripping and refinishing last year, and with the burnout and restart of projects... I finally doubled-back to this one.

We've made a lot of door moves this summer, and even have a few more coming down the line, so getting this one moving was a really big step.  With it being an exterior door, it was also a tricky one.  Getting this door to fit in our slightly crooked original jamb was not as simple as swapping hinges and putting it in.

Fitting the Door

The new door was a little big, and had slightly different locations for the hardware. So, the first thing I did was extend the hinge mortises to where they would need to be for this door.  Changing these in the jamb would mean removing and redoing the spring bronze weather stripping, which was in great shape on the hinge side, so we made the adjustments on the door.  

The hinges are in great shape, but the original mortises were slightly deeper than the new ones.  On one hinge, we had to add a hinge shim to keep the door from binding at the top, and over the bottom two hinges, we planed the door down just a bit to help it fit in the jamb.

Adjusting the Jamb

Once we got the hinges to stop binding, there was still some binding right at the mortise latch.  I'm fairly certain the original door was planed to fit, which left gaps along the latch side of the door. No matter what we did, it was drafty all winter.  

With the original 140-year-old mortise latch installed, I didn't want to attempt adjusting the mortise or risk damaging it, so I instead painstakingly chiseled back the jamb until it fit.  I filled the latch slots in the jamb, and re-bored them to meet the door.  In the end, we adjusted the hinge side on the door and the jamb side at the latch. 

Hardware

In ordering hardware, I had two things I wanted: a keypad lock that fit the style of our hardware, and a knob and escutcheon that fit with-if not matched-the rest of our main floor.  I'll write later about the deadbolt when we've lived with it for a bit, especially since it's our first real foray into smart home technology.

As for our knob, I looked online for weeks, but we have a unique handle-set.  I only know one other house like it!  And was lucky enough to find a single match on Etsy.  It was as simple to install as any of our other knobs, and really helps the door fit the rest of the house.

Honestly, this door adjustment really turned out perfectly.  The proportions fit our house better than I could have predicted, and the light we now have pouring into our living room is incredible.  It's going to be such a great shift come winter.