The Door

The door tried to kill me. It gave everything it had but I wouldn't let it take me. I knew I could win this battle.

I'm talking about the storm door I installed the other day. This is a job that should take between two and three hours. That's for a normal person. Took me a bit over eight hours.

Taking down the old door and throwing it in the yard took about fifteen minutes and required very little effort. In fact, I wouldn't mind un-installing storm doors full time. Just don't try and re-install a door that I have taken off of your house.

The new door whooped me. The biggest problem I had was lack of proper tools. Most of the install required a 1/8" drill bit for punching holes in METAL. I thought I could get by without that. For the most part, I did get by without that. I paid for that in blood, sweat, and yes, tears. Mostly I paid for it in time. At one point Cari, my fine assistant, offered to run and buy some proper drill bits. "Nah, I'm almost done.", I told her. Note that I said that at two pm.

The second biggest problem was that I purchased an open box item to get it REALLY cheap. It didn't have any of the hardware screws, so I stripped some from the old door. They seemed to be the right size. This required more time.

At about SIX pm I had the door in place. It was a beautiful piece of work. Now, to install the handle. Tool required: drill 3/4" holes in door. With instructions in hand, I went to Cari. "Please go to the store and pick up the drill bits and a hole saw.", I begged. She went happily, while I finished up some touches on the frame.

WOW! These holes and pre-drill areas were EASY with this drill bit for METAL! I wish I had all these tools at two pm!!!

Then I started crying. Not because I had been fighting with old screws that were stripping. Not because I couldn't pre-drill my holes with ease. Not because I smashed my finger in the hinge. I started crying because when I opened the box with the closers, I saw a HUGE bag of screws. The proper screws to install this already installed door.

I walked back and forth in front of the house picking up my various tools and left over parts. Yeah, I had left over parts. It was dark.

My final act was to walk over and look at my finished work.
"You didn't kill me.", I told the door.