Nearly there

It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the air is still and it’s about 15°c in the courtyard. After I’d done a little bit of admin I venture out to find that Brian has set himself up outside in the sun. These doors have seemed like quite a long job, with lots of different stages — more than I ever imagined, but they are finally coming together and looking like doors that will suit our house. That’s always the challenge when you build something from new to fit into an old house, is to get the balance of being new but looking ‘just so’. Today Brian’s adding the long-awaited trim to the inside panels, and I think it’s really completing the look.

He starts by cutting 45° angles in the moulding, measuring them to length against the door as he goes.

He has to do it to 16 strips in total, with 32 matching cuts, before gluing them all into place. Despite spending a lot of time in the Brico trying to select the straightest pieces of wood, some of them are a bit twisted and need help staying in place.

While he’s waiting for them to dry a bit he gets on with marking up the inner panel pieces, ready for the next stage.

He’s using a template that he cut to get the right form for the inner panelling. I’m getting very excited to seeing them completed and start painting.