0 Retrofitting an Old Door

My mother, who can't resist an old treasure, and is probably the catalyst for me being the pack-rat that I am, found this old door on the side of the road marked "Free", and without any plan for what to do with it, packed it in her van and took it home.  She's been storing it for who knows how long, and as we were looking through her storage room recently, she offered it to us for the house.  Becky thought it would look great between the kitchen and the laundry room, replacing an awful hollow-core door, and adding some depth and interest to the kitchen.

It was slightly (about 2 inches) wider than the existing door frame, so I had to shave off about an inch on either side using a circular saw.

 After some careful measurements and careful cutting, I carved out the spaces for the hinges and hung it on the frame.

Now that I say careful measurements, and look at the photo, it's obvious that the window isn't exactly centered, and that the door must have been modified before. I was under the assumption that the door had never been altered, which is stupid on my part.  What this means is that I've cut off space from both sides, making it impossible to add a doorknob (working at least, since the hole would hit the corner of the glass), when I could have just cut it from the hinge side, or at least the majority of it.

This shot is not quite so bad. It might just be that the original frame is not quite correct.  I'll have to measure the two sides before I get too mad at myself.

Solid core also means that it is made of pieces of solid wood, so I had to putty in the joints that became exposed through the process:

Once sanded & painted, it'll look like a solid end piece.  Also in this photo, you can see the shelves I added to the bookcase under the peninsula in the kitchen for Becky's cookbooks.

As with all these projects, I learn something new every time, and no matter how frustrating they may be, I just have to remember this mistake and use it to my advantage in the future.  

Till next time!

-Derek