I Think I'll Use the Door as a Door

Back in July, we replaced the two back doors of the Sandwich Shoppe with windows.

At the time, I talked about how I wanted to somehow reuse the narrow, five paneled door somewhere in the house. Probably by doing a combination of these two pictures:

As much as I still liked that idea, last night I came up with a completely different (and very traditional) use for the old paneled Sandwich Shoppe door...

You see, when we first bought the house, half of the downstairs doors and trims were white and the other half were stained wood in an orangey shade. It drove me nuts. So I took down all of the orange doors and painted all of the trim white.

I really liked the open doorways, but when it came to keeping the living room warm, it just wasn't practical. Last winter, in an effort to contain the heat to the front part of the house, Stephen put the door between the front hallway and the kitchen back up and over the summer I found the time to paint it white.

However, that still left an open doorway between the living room and the downstairs bath/dining room (the tiny narrow doorway in the back right corner).

Unfortunately, I had already decided that the old orange door that used to be in that doorway would become the door to the walk in tool closet (open doorway with tripod) so that no one in the dining room could see in there. Because it's ugly. And full of tools. And who the heck builds a closet but never conceals its contents with a door?? The previous owners of this house. That's who.

But what to do about the living room doorway?? I could buy or build a door... but my ultimate goal in life is to spend as little money as possible at all times, so I didn't really like that idea. Wait... isn't the old sandwich shoppe door about the right size??

HOLY COW. It's bloody perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right width. Right height. Has character, history, and really cool old doorknob.

Completely suits the style of the living room and my future, future plans for board and batten and coffered ceiling... Dudes. I'm in love.

It just needs a little, tiny bit of work...

I'm going to clean it up and hang it for winter heating purposes anyways. I can replace the panels and repaint it white when I'm no longer preggers. And I'm pretty sure those panels are destined for some chalkboard paint. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Now, I'm off to open the rest of the windows in the house. Yes, I'm aware that it's the middle of December. It's also 53 degrees in my house and 56 degrees outside and it should get up above 60 by noon. We are so playing outside today. Even better, Stephen's getting a raise AND a Christmas bonus this year so we just might be able to fill up the heating oil tank next week! WOOT!