Success?

I had one major project this year for the Historic Society Home and Garden tour. No one on the tour even noticed it. I guess you can say that's a compliment because the front door now blended with the rest of the house instead of sticking out, but come on, I put over 60 hours blood, sweat, and tears into the thing! Technically, only Silas and Emmet contributed the tears, but close enough.

Our front door before:

And after:

Note 1) The door, new glass (had been broken out at one point and replaced with Plexiglas), and door hardware was all sourced by and from the best personal shopping services I've ever dealt with: Mom and Dad.

Note 2) Nathan was right, I could have built a door in the time it took to restore this one, considering just about every aspect of it had to be adjusted/added to/taken from, and some parts even built from raw lumber. And a whole lot of hand chiseling. But I don't have the skills to replicate the character of this old door. Added bonus: I feel 'green' recycling this one from the tough neighborhoods of South Bend and giving it new life.

Note 3) Not only did I get no comments from the tour goers, but I think Bridget and I are already overlooking the improvement. Ah well, success is hard to hold onto I guess.

Note 4) Who cares. Because I enjoyed this one. Nice to be figuring out problems of this nature and adding to these skills again. They were getting dusty in Ireland. By the end of this project I was a bit burnt out though, considering the rush of late nights and weekends to get this done. Will need to recharge with family time before tackling my next big project. Speaking of which, movie time!

-Orrin