DIY Project- Someone Else’s Project – The Patio Door – Finishing Up
After a debacle of a day installing the patio door, I headed back to my brother-in-law’s, Evad, to finish up the project.
The place looked like someone dropped all their tools and left without finishing the project. Oh yeah, that was me. I had to apologize to Nagem, Evad’s wife, for the terrible mess I made. There was saw dust all over the place. Last night, the breeze moved through the opening and pushed all the saw dust into the house as I trimmed the header with my Sears-Craftman® circular saw.
Beside securing the patio door, there were a list of things that needed to be completed. There was trim on the inside and outside. The frame around the door was slightly larger than the old one. We had removed all the siding on the one corner. Those pieces needed to be trimmed. I installed the drip edge for now, but the siding on the top of the door needed to be trimmed too.
The threshold of the new door extended beyond the sill on the outside. I needed to install a piece of pressure-treated wood under it to keep the threshold from flexing when anyone walked on it. I also needed spray insulation to fill in the gaps. I made a list of materials that I would need to complete the project. For now, I just settled on securing the door. I would return another weekend to finish up.
I stopped over the following weekend and completed all the necessary items on my list. The insulation was in place. The trim was installed on the inside and the outside. The threshold was secured with the pressure-treated ledger board. Attaching the board with the concrete screws was an adventure. More screws fell below their deck than were used to attach the board.
The project was almost done. They were going to paint the room after they stained the trim and gave it a couple of coats of poly. On my end, I was done. I gathered up all the receipts for the materials I bought for the project and gave them to Nagem. She paid me in cash. I had a difficult time feeling good about this project. I had projects that had their twists and turns, and things did not go as planned. However, when you are displaying your DIY skills to others, you want to look somewhat competent, and even not just okay. There was no joy, no Zen moment. Moving forward, I would leave someone else’s project to someone else.