How about a little DIY to change things up around here?

I don't know about you, but I randomly scour Craig's List for stuff. Nothing in particular a lot of times. Other times, specific things. This time it was specific. I wanted a new front door. Have you priced exterior doors at Home Depot or Lowe's lately? Yeah - the door I wanted was #1 Special Order and #2 $1200! Sorry, but no.

In reality I need THREE new front doors. My mission has been for Robin's Nest because it still has the door from when it was a rental cabin - the kind for a key card! Once we tried to take that clunky thing out - only to find that there was a giant rectangular hole in the door. So I ordered an Oil Rubbed Bronze wrap around plate to cover the hole and put in a regular door knob.  Would you believe it wouldn't cover the whole hole? Naturally the clunky card reader was reinstalled. Yay.

I wanted a door with glass at the top to let in some extra light because the living area is rather dark. Funny how that happens when the floor, ceiling and walls are all wood. I would have loved a full glass door, but since we aren't there all the time, I fear it would be broken into more easily. I'm a huge fan of Craftsman style - mid-century modern in pretty much any aspect. 

Here's the door I wanted. It's a 6 lite Craftsman solid wood door slab. I didn't want pre-hung. I didn't want steel. I didn't want fiberglass. I just wanted a wood door.

So I happened to be in Craig's List on my lunch break at work a few days before we were leaving for vacation and HOLY CRAP! What do I run across? THIS!

 

So I get home, check my door sizes and immediately e-mail this person. Yes, the doors are still available. I'm interested, what is your schedule tomorrow and where are you located? No response. The next day I respond again - I'm really interested in both of these doors, can I come see them? Call me . Half hour later, he calls. Set up a time to meet him the next day - with cash. Mr. Paisley has to meet the termite inspector at the Cottage so I set it up for after that - either way, I'll be at work until after dark. Go figure, the termite guy is late. He finally turns up "yep, that's termites" (no kidding...I know it's termites - you've been treating them for like 3 years now - it's clearly not working - when do we do something that WILL work? To which he says "technicians cannot schedule treatment, I'll put in a work order and a supervisor will come out to verify and then schedule the treatment" SERIOUSLY? TWO more appointments? WTH Massey....WTH. Stay tuned supervisor will be here tomorrow...). Mr. P comes home with the doors. I am beyond giddy. You really have no idea. First - minus the dental molding, they're the doors I wanted. Second, these doors - I can't even tell you what they cost, but I would bet more than ordering them from Home Depot. They were custom ordered from this site Buffelen Door out of Tacoma, WA (according to the bright orange stickers on the glass). This is a "design your door online and we'll send you a quote" place. They have some amazing options! Third...$200. $200 for TWO DOORS! Score much? Yeah...I know!

So the next day we load up the larger one to go to the cabin and voila! It's installed with a smart lock. It was too cold to stain it on this trip, but we will do it next time. It's under a covered deck anyway so it's out of the weather. It's seriously amazing.

I made a quick no-sew curtain for it as well, but that will be another post. I don't want the windows covered, but at the same time, when we aren't there on a daily basis I don't want everyone looking in either...

Update!

Just a quick Whole30 update - I can say with 100% certainty that we have NOT been strict with eating Whole30 since mid-February. We just got home from a 10 day vacation and trust me when I say we were way off track.

I guess I should clarify. I had toast with breakfast. Sometimes breakfast was eggs and cheese on toast. Basically, there was bread every day. Though I will say it wasn't all day, every day. We ate canned chili. And Fritos (which are actually more or less OK - "fried" being the only downside). We had dessert one night - it was actually the 2nd day when we met some friends at our favorite steakhouse. It wasn't worth it in my opinion. Not as good as I remember. I wouldn't order my "usual" again for sure.

My downfall was sweet tea. Because we took one of the iguanas with us, we were pretty limited for meals along the way. Fast food...have you ever tried to get them to give you the BIG cup of water? Good luck with that. I really wanted to stay away from soda and artificial sweeteners so I went with sweet tea. Then I bought 2 gallons of it instead of sticking to water and juice all week.

I've had nothing but water since we got home. I missed it. Really!

This morning I was thrilled to hop on the scale and find the same 3 pounds that had come back BEFORE we left. That's 2 points for not gaining any more weight back. I'm going to work really hard at getting those 3 pounds off this week. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

I also have to get my blood work done this week as my first follow up appointment with my "new" doctor is at the end of the month. Looking forward to the results!

That's a first...