Front door DIY special

I embarked upon a front door project this summer.  When we moved in the house, the bottom two panes of glass were cracked, so we have needed to fix this for 3 years.  Clearly, we've had other priorities.  So, buy a new door? Or just replace the glass?  I had watched a DIY video on Youtube last year and had it figure out in my head that I would just replace the glass.  Well, if I was going to replace the glass, I would surely want to give the whole door a facelift, not just replace the glass.  My biggest challenge (other than choosing a new door color, phew!) was figuring out the sequence of events.  I would need order the glass to size, and to do that, I wanted to take out the existing glass to get a perfect measurement.  Considering I needed tempered glass in a custom size, at least one of our door windows would be completely glassless for at least a week while the glass was being cut.   But I wanted to paint the door, and would I want to do that before or after the new glass went in... before, yes!

Here is the before (well, kind of)... at this point I had already removed the brass kick plate and the old rice paper style contact paper on the back of the bottom glass pane.

Trying to select a door color that would say modern, interesting, a little bold, but not whacky!

My next challenge was trying to get out these pesky door window stops (the wood frame pieces that keep the window in place, for those of you who have never taken on this type of project).  I was proud to take this picture, because it meant that I had figured out how to get all four pieces wedged out of the bottom window.

Wood stops removed, now to get that glass out...

Bottom glass removed (and thoroughly cleaned up), Elisa really enjoyed peeking out to see the Mommy DIY show.  

This side of the door was quite interesting, as anything related to clean-up and vacuums is just Elisa's perfectly temperate cup of tea.

So I realize I skipped a few of the heartbreaking steps of this process, and I'm leaving out the times I had to pause and wonder if I should really have just hired this to be done.  I think the empty Sam Adams in one of the photos gives an indication to the necessary brain lube I needed to problem solve.

Here's one such moment.  Now, I have never removed a lock, but I thought the best way to go about it was to just start unscrewing screws.  At this point I had removed all visible screws, but the front lock plate would not budge.  There was just no getting this last piece off, and I didn't want to paint the door with it on.  Maybe it would be on there forever...

That is, until I got out a pair of pliers and just popped that sucker off from being nestled into layers and layers of paint.  I realize it's not the most likely lesson of DIY projects, but twice in this whole ordeal (really, twice!) brute force was THE answer.  I now know that our front door has been, in order of most recent, old shoe (dark brown), NYS Parks surplus paint (hunter green), rancid picnic potato salad (yellowish cream), and my favorite of them all, mint chocolate chip ice cream (minus the chips).  

Did  mention I thought the previous door knocker might need an update as well?  It did, after all, bear the last name of the previous owners.  So I ventured into the wonderful world of etsy, my favorite place for all things amazing and made to order (or in this case, vintage).  Of course there would be a tennis racket door knocker out there, right?  Right!  And I became the proud owner in just a few short days.  It was just what I wanted!  After a quick clean-up with some steel wool, I couldn't even wait to affix it to the door!  Here's my attempt at popping it right into the existing holes...(look at the lovely sky and trees in my old glass reflection)

And just for fun, here's another shot, because it's kind of actually a picture of me:)

And of course, you can see the newly painted oil-rubbed bronze (or ORB as it is referred to in the DIY world.  It seriously is) door fixtures.  Yup, the same door fixtures, just with a few ORB coats and some clearcoat layers as well.

So this is how I happened up a fancy new drill bit.  This is how you learn... I went into Home Depot with the screws of the old knocker.  I was convinced I needed new, longer screws of the same diameter.  They fit into my new (old) knocker, but were not long enough.  My trusty local Home Depot personnel hasn't let me down yet whenever I propose them with a completely amateur home project question, and this visit was no exception.  I was told I would probably need to drill a hole into my freshly painted Venezuelan Sea door to make sure the knobs on the back of the knocker allowed the knocker to sit flush with the door.  Bah humbug.  That drill bit looked huge!  But alas, I followed their advice, tried my best to measure (my biggest weakness at all things crafty), put the drill bit point in the general area I wanted to drill, closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.  These drill bits might be aplenty in your house, but when I was done and realized I had succeeded, I said, "Diego, take a picture of me and my drill!"  Thank goodness I did, otherwise what photo would go here?

So drumroll, please.... (bada bada bada bada bada bada bada bada.....)

Here she is, with new/old knocker, ORB fixtures, new Flemish tempered glass, a few new coats of Venezuelan Sea, and a whole lotta love...

I realize it looks like three different colors in these pictures, so just pick your favorite, and imagine in that way.  Also, I made the executive decision to keep our sweet tennis racket in the original brass to not get lost in the mix of metal fixtures.  Next up is an update to the storm door and/or threshold, because now that looks like an eyesore next to all my latest efforts!