17. Hiccup

I lied.  Well, not really - more a case of jumping the gun.  I shouldn't have promised you that I was starting a real project on Wednesday.  Let me explain.

I started out this morning at Superior Trim and Door.  Met a very nice man named Justin who walked me through the factory.  I love that kind of thing - big machines, turning slabs of wood into molding and trim.  Men building door jambs and driving forklifts.  (Sorry Judy, nobody was wearing hard hats!)  I brought the three deadbolts I had bought over the weekend in so they could re-key them, and we were walking to a little office in the corner.  Inside was a man named Dave, surrounded by paperwork and locks and keys of all kinds.  I felt like I was behind the curtain with The Great Oz - too bad I didn't have my camera.

Dave was very nice and looked the locks over - he said he remembered when they put these out for sale he noticed that a piece was loose and told me he would give all three the once-over and re-key them all alike, so I would only need one key.  I left him with the locks and my phone number.  As I walked out with Justin, I asked him about the garage door - my problem was that the door opening was 80" high, but I was buying a door with a jamb already made that was 80 3/4" tall.  I told him I planned to take the top piece of the jamb off so the whole thing would fit and he said that would be fine but I would need a piece of casement molding which he would give me for $1 when I picked up the deadbolts tomorrow.

Then I went to the Surplus place and bought the actual door, which I will pick up tomorrow.  I decided on a $114 6-panel door instead of the plain one for $109.  I am going to make the whole thing a little nicer than I had originally thought, after looking at some custom garage doors in a brochure that Bobbie had given me months ago.  I'm going to do something like this, except painted, and not curved at the top of course.  You'll see, I can't really explain it all right now.

Then I returned home and started drawing a sketch of the work to be done, so I would know how much lumber to take with me on Wednesday.  As I did this, I had a little thought in the back of my head that I might need a permit to do this.  For some reason I was thinking since it's at the back of the house I wouldn't need one.  Being the conscientious citizen that I am, I called the City Building Department who confirmed my suspicion.  I don't want have to look over my shoulder, and I would much rather the City and neighborhood on my side, so I'm postponing the work until I have a permit in hand.  I will make the application on Wednesday.  I won't be able to do the fence app because it doesn't look like I will have my survey until next week.  *deep breath*

It's ok - I'm not in any big hurry.  It's wonderful to be able to pace myself and enjoy the project - I forget that sometimes.

Now for the good news,  Visited St. Vincent's thrift store today and what do you know?  There were two light fixtures, new in the boxes - that almost exactly match this super-cool fixture that is on the porch at Grandview!!  All that's missing is a little rust.  One of them is a chandelier that I will use in the foyer.  One will go over the bar that I will build when I remodel the kitchen.  And I got them for $10 each!!  I know I can hardly believe it myself.  See below!

Balance forward:  $272

$20  two awesome light fixtures

Remainder:  $252