Shut the front door!

The ladder injury really slowed me down, as has the weather. In the last few days we’ve had more rain than in the last month! But now that my hand is healed, I am back to dodging raindrops.

Doors, it turns out, are a massive pain in the arse to build, even when you use the material cut out from making the doorway! As we are only using 1/4″ ply, I had to double up on the thickness. I am using pieces from the scrap pile for that and screwed them to the back. The flush trim router bit is getting a massive workout!

Know what else is a major pain in the arse? Plexiglass. I scored that mother about 40 times along my 2′ level. Still didn’t snap cleanly. But it is in. I routed out an inset for it on the inside of one of the door pieces, then sandwiched it in place. Then I had to remove all of that plastic protective covering, which umm…took a LONG time. I’d love to learn the secret to ripping that stuff off in one quick go.

Hinges aren’t all that bad. I too two thin pieces of cut-off ply and split off one of the layers. The result was just a bit over an 1/8″ thick. I then put these down in the doorway and set the door on top of them as a spacer. Started with the top hinge, then did the bottom, then did the middle. Probably should have had Jenny sight the middle one for me, but whatevs. It is a kids fort and there is not a straight side or square corner on the door. The middle hinge being a bit high is the least of its problems.

That was as far as I got on Sunday, as the rain clouds were starting to gather. I own it some trim work, a door jamb, a latch of some sort, and some minor tweaking, as it does not open all of the way (like 80 degrees, not 90+) as it hits the deck.

Calin really is moving in out there. He’s brought out his telescope and everything! He told his mom he wants a bed out there, too! HA! During the wicked rain storm that evening, Jenny was freaking out about the telescope being left out, so I dashed out there and confirmed that it was fine. There is one screw that needs to be addressed on the roof, but other than that and a tiny bit of splash just inside the open windows, it was dry inside. In fact, I stayed out for about 15 minutes. It needs a bathroom, otherwise I would have stayed out watching the storm much longer.

I think before I do those door tweaks, however, I am going to get him screens, at least. I was going to custom make screens from wood, but I now think that is for suckers. Turns out, you can custom make screens for much easier. Here’s some guy’s crappy Youtube video about how easy it is. Part 2 is even easier, and is a worse video. Enjoy!