Door and Transom

The door to the upstairs bathroom is another one that has been weirdly chopped off. I'm still not totally sure why anybody would cut a door like these doors have been cut, except some form of madness.

It's a bit of a mess, so Noel decided to cut the top so it was even -- the pocket door hardware relies on the door being even across the top.

Fortunately this one was not as bad as the door to the library, and it trimmed up nicely. The top looks a little off, but there's not much we can do about that without having the door rebuilt.

He also checked that the wall was level. The laser level is much more useful indoors than out. There were some adjustments to make, but the palm nailer came in handy once again. I like tools that are useful on more than one job.

And a little playing around with the wide-angle lens on the ladder.

The pocket door hardware wasn't too complex to install. At the bottom center there you can see a nail in a slot holding it in place vertically.

I mostly spent the day outside planting bulbs, but I came in for a consult on how to design the transom window over the door. We're counting on this to bring light into the hallway even when the door is closed, though most of the time the bathroom door will be open and light can come through that way.

What it comes down to is that we're going to have to come up with some more trim to go around the opening, because this door opening plus transom will be taller than the old one, just because the pocket door hardware takes more room.

We also have to figure out some method of attaching the wainscoating that we will be taking off the walls of the bathroom part and putting in the hallway (the bathroom will have tiled walls, in order to be properly waterproofed).

Also, we're going to replace the simple square hatch into the attic with a fold-down stair, as soon as we buy a stair and get the permit pulled (we are told this will be an easy one to buy). Our friend Arlene told us to be sure to get a sturdy ladder rather than the cheap lightweight things, because the cheaper ladders are often not strong enough to allow attic inspections during a house sale. Not that we're planning to sell this house any time soon, but we will have city inspectors going up into the attic over the next several months as we do inspections for this bathroom.

posted by ayse on 10/07/12