Doors come in many shapes and sizes

and leave it to my husband to pick the heaviest.

Doors can be light. Doors can be made out of glass. Doors can be hollow. Doors can be custom ordered from the factory (I understand the price tags now trust me). Door fittings can be made from scratch.

Let me tell you, I am wholeheartedly sick of doors.

But on the flip side, look at what we did? Ignoring the plethora of paint you can see through that door (need any? - I probably have the color you want), look at that door, and the jamb, and the threshold. All made from scratch (solid birch) or modified by hubby honey and yours truly. Aren't they gorgeous? This from two entirely clueless people that know how to read.

Now these doors are fire doors. What's so special about fire doors? Well to be fire rated it has to take at least one hour to burn through them. Anyone know how they do that?

They fill the suckers with gypsum (yep sheetrock) which in turn makes them weigh a frakking ton. Okay, that is an exaggeration. Half a ton. 1/4 tops. Really really heavy.

The one on the left had to be cut down since they were 36" doors that had to fit double wide in a 5' space. The means a huge amount of gypsum dust all over everything. Then to keep the door from absorbing water (after you cut it down to the length you need) you have to rout out about 3/4 to an inch of that gypsum to glue a custom cut piece of hardwood in that space.

You make the frame to fit your opening (ideally with some wiggle room for leveling), mortis the hinges, transfer those measurements to the doors themselves (which side is in and which side is out again honey), mortis again.

Then comes the scary part, putting everything in place. We didn't leave much wiggle room side to side for the frame. Based on the door measurements, we had a magic number that everything had to fit within and still be workable without a huge gap between the doors themselves and the doors and the side frames.

We started hanging the doors (small one first) and it hung straight and level (meaning when you open the door and let go it doesn't keep swinging in either direction). Woot! Half way there. Then comes the big 3' monster. Still weighs a ton. Are four hinges enough (better be since that's what we cut for)?

The one thing we forgot to worry about was whether or not they would line up at the top and bottom edge with each other - not just where they meet in the middle with the hardware. Boy did we get lucky.

Again, aren't they gorgeous? Go back up to the top pic and drool over the threshold. That's four coats of poly to make it look that gorgeous. Hubby beveled so the office chairs roll over it like a dream. However, if he takes that dirty hand cart over it again I'm going to scrap it - the cart not the threshold - it's kind of glued permanently to the floor.

Now that took the better part of the weekend, in which the dogs usually get stuck in their room. I just couldn't do it again. Now Oscar the Dog LOVES to be outside - if only to attempt to get every burr on the property stuck to him. Scrat just wants to not be locked in the room and he's not allowed out in the house by himself.

So the boys got to hang with us. Scrat decided to play Jungle Dog (those poor tulips). Oscar attempted to play dead. Or hang with the table saw (until we were crazy enough to actually want to use it).

In case you're looking for Cliff. He LOVES having the inside of the house to himself, and he's allowed out of the room so he was happy as a clam as well. Hmm , how exactly does one know if a clam is happy? But I digress.

All in all, a productive weekend (and my house is still clean!).

On a knitting front. I went to knit group Saturday morning and trudged along on Tuscany. Remember my cute little marker idea. Purple is for a purl row. Seems simple enough, eh? Imagine my surprise when I get to a green marker KNOWING I just knit an entire row. So I tinked back that row one at a time. Then I looked down...

Imagine my horror at :

1. Not having a lifeline
2. Seeing that I have KNIT 3 of the purl rows
3. Knowing there is NO way I can tink back that far.

Susan heard my sigh. Yep. I pulled the needles and ripped the whole thing back.

If nothing else, I have the first 7 rows of the pattern memorized. I have gotten back to the end of the first chart repeat. I am NOT giving up on this. No way, no how.

On the bright side hubby honey actually asked for a pair of dress socks. Regardless of the fact that he doesn't wear dress socks. But make them I shall.

What do you guys and gals think of the Regia Silk in black? Crazy soft and I happen to have some. Now I just need a pattern. Currently thinking about going with Earl Grey. If you have an idea, drop it in the comments. Nothing fancy. My brain is full up on fancy with Tuscany and Palindrome.

Now to talk him into a sweater. Go check out Interweave Fall 2007 page 55. It would look great on him in a nice teal blue or deep burgundy.