Finished laundry room door

Finished the laundry room door with the stain top coat today. Now only 5 more doors throughout the house to go! Very pleased with the way it turned out. Next step is to shellac, install in the door jamb, and install in the house.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

We're contemplating different types of art glass for the door. Reed glass is one option, or perhaps the perfect piece of vintage stained glass.

Laundry room door

Today we worked on the new laundry room door getting it ready for installation. We selected a 3 panel Hemlock door to match the doors we're using throughout the house. This door has an open panel at the top which will allow us to install our own art glass. The door did not come pre-hung with a jamb, so we had to buy door jamb stock and build it ourselves. FYI... good door stock is not that easy to come by so we've learned.

We chiseled out the mortises for the hinges.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Because the door in soft Hemlock, we had to find a way to prepare the wood for finishing so that it didn't soak up so much stain. We're using an Analine dye/stain combo to match the rest of the wood work in the house. We had our stain color matched at Dalys. The wood grain just soaks up the dye, so we first applied a 9:1 ratio of Mineral Spirits and Boiled Linseed oil. I discovered this trick by watching a video posted by Gizmodyne about how to stain soft woods. Long story short, the conditioner causes the wood grain to be less absorbent, thus creating a more even finish.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Here is the door after the first coat of the Aniline dye. After this pic, we applied another coat to even it out. Tomorrow, we'll do the other side and then apply the stain. Finally, we'll finish it with Shellac.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Stay tuned for the finished project.

Sunny days

What do you do when it's sunny and 65 degrees for two days in February? Well, build fence of course.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Got the 20 foot section of fence built that cuts over from the main fence to the house. This particular area is to become the outdoor dining area. Through the gate (yet to be built) and on the other side of the fence is the potager kitchen garden. Ahhh, I love progress. Hard to believe all this area was driveway just last year.

Oh, and I had some help :-)

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From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Happy soon to be spring everyone!