Old Home Supply

Part of renovating an old house is trying to restore it to it's original time period with pieces that are true to the year the house was built.  Well, I have found that is easier said than done when it comes to replacing exterior doors.  Even one of my favorite junking stores in Ft. Worth didn't have any of the four panel exterior doors that we needed.  If you haven't been to the Old Home Supply store in Ft. Worth, you may be missing out---they have everything you can image from doors, lights, bathtubs, sinks, art deco things, and even retro stuff for your garden.  

We made the two hour trek over to Ft. Worth looking for doors to no avail---we needed the door and the jamb but could only find doors that were all an inch off---inch too tall, inch too wide, etc.  So, guess what----after talking to every home store around we had to settle for 6-panel doors.  The old doors are 4-panel wood doors.  I was sad that we couldn't find the old ones to replace with but in the end the new ones look good and will definitely be more weather resistant.  We were able to get three doors in stock and only had to order a small exterior door that will be here by end of May.  All in all that wasn't too bad.

On another note, we are finally moving inside to work on interior stuff! Our first project after getting doors figured out was to get the kitchen moved back to where it was in the 1920's and to reframe the back wall for new windows and cabinets to go underneath.  This seems innocent enough but if you could see the back wall it looks a little suspect by the bowing that is going on.  Surprisingly though, the wall is very sturdy-- it's just tired from standing almost 100 years!  You can see how big the old windows were and how much we had to bring the frame up to fit the new windows and make room for cabinets underneath.

When we decided to move the kitchen back to its original place, we had to find another bedroom so we decided to frame up the front living area to make a bedroom.  We will open the wall between the kitchen and what was a dining room to make it into an eat-in kitchen/living area that is connected.  The new bedroom is still big enough to have a queen bed in it so we didn't lose "sleeping" space.

Closing it all in & getting walls ready.........there is definitely more to come!