12-1 and 12-2 Two Long Days

Louise's new door

 For the last two days Larry and I have been at Louise's house replacing her backdoor. Larry has been telling Louise that her backdoor has some wood rot and it should be replaced. She wanted to go ahead and replace but she really wanted a doggy door in the new door. She works sixteen hours shifts and her dog Autumn is in the house for whole time. Sometimes Autumn has accidents in the house so she felt if she could train her to use the doggy door this would help. About six weeks ago Larry and I went shopping for a door for her. McCoy's said they could get one for us so Larry ordered one. Before he ordered the door he drew out the door he wanted. The door came in last week and Larry looked at it Monday to make sure it was right. It was perfect. Yesterday we rented a trailer and picked up the door. Before picking up the trailer Larry loaded the tools and supplies he thought he would need to do the job. We left Flo at home because it's too hard on her to climb in and out of truck. After getting the trailer we went to McCoy's and got the door, then off to Round Rock we went. When we got there Louise was gone, Larry was walking back to the truck when she showed up with a Papa Murphy's pizza. Louise and Autumn were disappointed when they realized that Flo wasn't with us.  While the pizza was baking we unloaded the door and the truck. After lunch Larry removed the interior trim of the door to see what we were up against. Once this was done we called it a day. When we got home Flo was very happy to see us. We had some extra trim laying around from when our house was built so Larry cut it to take with us today.

The wood rot on the old door

Removing the old trim from the old door

What the old door looked like after the trim was removed

Today we went back to Louise's. On the way we stopped by Lowe's to pick up some items. We arrived at Louise's about 9:30 and didn't leave until 3:30. It's over an hour's drive back to our house. We did a lot today. We removed the old door, then Larry cleaned up the threshold area. He grounded out the old seal and insulation with his grinder. Once the area was cleaned we installed the new door. Then Larry shimmed the door and leveled. Then he trimmed the door inside to stop insects from getting into the house. Then he sprayed the insulation in the door frame area. Larry was exhausted by this time so we called it a day. On the way home we stopped by the UPS Store to pick up our mail. By the time we got home Flo was very excited. Once she calmed down I barbecued sausages for dinner. We are still not done with the door, still need to complete the outside trim, caulk and paint both inside and out.

Removing the old threshold

Grinding off the old insulation

Installing the new trim

Spraying in the insulation

What the new door looked like from the inside after the trim

The new door with the blinds down

The new door with the blinds up

Autumn staying out of the way

The last two nights we have been so tired that we relaxed and watched PBS. They're raising money right now so we watched special programs. Last night we watched Arlo Guthrie and Ken Burns The Civil War documentary. They were both good. Tonight we watched Nature Pets: Wild at Heart: Playful Creatures and NOVA-Inside Einstein's Mind. Nature's show was very cute about pets. Inside Einstein's Mind was about Einstein and his discoveries.