our new doors are going in

Today we are in day two of our complete door replacement project. Fortunately, after some rain last night, the sun is working hard with just a few clouds moving by. Having the house in a turmoil, plastic sheeting over doorways and drop cloths on furniture, I am recalling our city house kitchen remodeling in the fall of 2009. We had the entire room gutted, walls, floors, ceiling. The project took nearly a month. We did dishes in the basement laundry tub (for a while going outside to the side door down to the basement when we couldn't walk through the kitchen to get there) had the refrigerator in the dining room and our microwave and toaster oven on the back porch. Here are before and after pictures from the northeast corner of that kitchen. The window in the first shot is the same as over the sink of the second photo.

 
As with any job of that scale, it always looks horrific at the beginning. I tried then, as I am trying now, to keep in the front of my mind that I have hired the very best people to do the job, recommendations of people we know and trust. Once hired and on the job,  it's just a matter of keeping out of their way when necessary, offering help when appropriate, taking lots of pictures, and being very, very complimentary and appreciative when the job is done.
Today it's the first floor patio door and the back entry door that are being installed. Here are a few shots in progress.
French door demolition site, 

new sliding doors framed in.

Now to cut out a larger opening for the new back entry door. Here are Steve and Dustin, ghostly outlines behind a protective sheet of plastic, working just outside the dining room cutting the opening. It's noisy, difficult work. Anne and I have opted to leave the immediate area while this is going on!

What is it about freshly cut wood that is so appealing? The entire upstairs smells lovely from the wood of the new patio doors there. Standing in the upstairs sun-room looking through the new doors out to the fields sloping away at the south end of our property, I am overwhelmed once again by the beauty of the landscape surrounding me here. And all the noise, dirt, worry, and inconvenience is insignificant and melts away.
More later.