Hi, Helpful thread. Sorry, I don't have advice but have a related question. Hope it's okay if I ask it here! Our 1870 farmhouse came into our hands with a 4 panel stile and rail front door, with panels about 1/2" thick and linear splits as though someone had tried to kick them in. I'm sure it's not the original door... it's both crappy and too flimsy. It often goes down to -40C in January here, so something more solid was needed. Finally bought a very old (1860s est.) solid heart pine exterior door from an architectural salvage place. Our cabinetmaker friend says it's true and will fit fine. It has been stripped (mostly) and the old door latch and key holes patched, probably with epoxy. I'd like to finish stripping the door, stain it and seal it, but when I hang it, the hinge side will be on the opposite side to what it was. (I can't just turn it inside-out, because there is an obvious difference in the panelling on the inside and outside of the door, with the outside slightly more ornate). I think I will have to carefully stain the epoxy to match the wood. Is this even feasible? Any suggestions about any of these steps would be welcome. If it doesn't seem feasible, I'll paint it, which would be more historically appropriate, I guess, but I'd rather stain it as I like the look and think it would create good contrast with the white facade of the house and the grey porch floor and roof. Thanks!

Thanks for clarifying the sanding blocks. I thought they were pine also, mainly because of the knots, but lots of people kept saying throwing the word plywood around. Although neither is really desirable for this. The first photo I posted is the basement door at the bottom. The 2nd two photos were during the process when the house was built. I posted them to show the steps underneath. The basement door will be open most of the time once finished and I had wanted to run the basement flooring (pergo) in that landing butting into the stairs. The white spindles were actually oak and I ended up painting them. (I didn't think out the stairs real well) IRL, I don't think they look real grainy. Also, that odd piece of trim along the stairs will come off and the wall will be drywalled right. I know you can only put so much lip stick on a pig but I think I'll probably take the plunge. If it does look bad I believe a runner could help it out until we could replace the treads and railings/newel. It won't be for awhile but I'll post an update if I follow through.

Thought I'd update the information posted here over the past year. Here's the scoop on the Reliabilt products Lowes sells. The Reliabilt name is an exclusive name Lowes puts on their inhouse items sold in certain areas. The Reliabilt products are made by different manufacturers across the nation depending on the market you live in. Here in the Upper Midwest & across the Northern U.S. the Reliabilt doors & windows are built by Jeld-Wen. Lowes has specific guidelines manufacturers must follow when making products carrying the Reliabilt name. No matter where you live in the U.S. the different product manufacturers are suppose to build them all the same way. Just like everything else we buy it's just some make their products better than others. It all differs from market to market. The problems Johnny faced with his new door coming in the wrong size was probably related to a bad measure of the existing opening. One of the biggest problems in todays market is replacing an existing entry door with a Therma-Tru replacement. The standard door opening height since the cave days (just being funny) has been 82". Over the past few years some of the manufacturers out there, including Therma-Tru, decided they should change it to 82-1/2". This works fine for a new construction application but creates huge issues in the replacement industry. If you don't specify a unit height of 81-1/2", you'll be getting the 82". Some modifications will be in the cards on the day of installation. So make sure you specify your unit size or rough opening size when ordering replacement doors. As for French Styled Hinged Doors, I'm sold on Pellas new style just recently put on the market. Both doors operate and lock by using their individual levered handles. Both doors have 3-point locking functions and come from the factory ready to go. There's no field drilling for manual flushbolts in the head or sill because there's no manual flushbolts anymore. The doors have mounting plates pre-applied already set to the right locking position just by a slight lift of the handle. This makes the installation much easier on the installer when they can latch the doors shut from the start. The old doors had to be set in place and then drilled for bolts afterwards. This was always a royal pain in the rear making sure you drilled properly for each bolt to work without binding. Then you had to make sure both doors sealed when closed. This could always be very frustrating at times during the process. The new doors make it much easier to install & even offer the normal DIY'er the ability to install them with ease. If you haven't seen them check them out. They are a little more expensive than the competitors. It's just the nature of the beast. You can always negotiate your pricing no matter where you buy your wares. So always take the time to chisel the price down.

Hi Breezy and all, We are closer to getting resolution on our many problems and are waiting through the time period the g.c. has to respond to Consumer Affairs. We should be hearing something late next week or the beginning of the following week. I have been busier than before with work, the boys have baseball playoffs and I just got out of the habit of checking the forums for quite a few weeks now. In the meantime, we may be getting solar for our electric due to all the incentives out there since we seem to have a good shot of recovering the costs to fix up the renovation. The paperwork I had to fill out for Consumer Affairs was extensive (think of a term paper plus photos to get the idea). We had been putting aside money in case we did not recover and have been fixing a few smaller items. The guy at Consumer Affairs says we should recover most if not all of what is needed to fix and finish our job. One recent thing was that in order to get a new screen door to replace the sinking Titanic-like one we had due to the poor installation, they had to rip apart the doorway and install a different door. Sad that it took such a tear apart to a 1 year old doorway, but the old size and finish work was all wrong. I was so thrilled to see the new doorway looking... er.. new! The one they made last year looked like it was gerymandered and was not professional or neat at all. It cost almost $1k to do, but it needed doing and not getting chewed by mosquitoes is heavenly. We have also been working on picking out a new kitchen floor and may be settled on Bio Spec sheet flooring by Mannington. It is a commercial product, often used in hospitals and operating rooms, hence the name. We would have 2 seams and I think we have worked out how to style it with color changes to get around having a noticeable in-a-bad-way seam in each spot. I have a floor specialist helping me this time, who assures me that her installer is top notch. I have not found out the cost yet, but it can't be much more than the Marmoleum had been and it will be a smaller area this time since we have the mahogany for the den and won't have it match this time. It is sad because the love the look and idea of our current floor, but it is structurally ruined so it is time to move on. I have also been working a ton in the garden because that went south last year due to working on the house and the renovation aftermath. It is looking passable now, lol. We joke that we have a weed garden, but not the fun kind ;) I hate gardening, but it looking shabby is not fair to the neighbors, so I just had to buckle down and attend to it. I am constantly amazed at how many hours that sucks up. I have also painted some more items that needed doing (non-sheetrock) such as a support column and the last coat on the radiator covers. I had gotten pretty burned out with paint last year, esp since much of it is now damaged with nail pops and from the 4 roof leaks, tape fails, cracks, etc.... We were advised not to fix the roof until after the town inspector comes, so that is going to happen by the end of the month. We actually had some pieces of sheetrock on the ground by our front door the other day when it rained, so we are past due on that. The solar guys took pictures on our roof today and I will be adding those to the complaint. I had taken interior shots of the damage before, but now I will have those from above. He says they are quite obvious when standing on the roof, so we shall see once he forwards them to me. As for my client with the nice kitchen and ugly cab doors... in the meantime, his older style large screen not-flat tv died and when he removed it from the den he saw that the heat from it cooked the wallpaper, so that is coming down (Yay!)and he will put up new sheetrock. While he is at it, he will remove the cedar planking that was on one wall (also, Yay!). When they moved the tv out and moved some stuff around, the cherry den floor started to buckle and by the end of the day, it was obvious it could not be fixed. It was a 5 year old floor installed with a special glue and was supposed to be bulletproof. The owner was skeptical, but they swore at the store that he could put wood on a slab floor if they used the right glue (i.e. $200 a bucket x 2) but they were dead wrong. So a new floor will be going in too. He had also agreed to remove some wallpaper borders and install crown moldings to modernize the look some in the foyer and upstairs hallway. So, with all this work on his hands (a retired contractor with a contractor son) the cab doors issue is on hold for a few days. He is out of town for another day or 2 fishing, so I will get him back in focus when he returns. I think the new doors would turn a negative into a positive. It may not become a magazine worthy kitchen, but since the size, layout, appliances, floor, windows, and bs are all really good, and the current cab doors are ugly, it will move it from an overall 4 to a 7-8. Thanks for the good thoughts about our hopefully soon resolution. It will mean the start of phase 2, with all the chaos and upheaval that will bring, but at least it will finally be nice all around. You can't imagine how much we appreciate the new screen door and doorway. I may even be allowed to hook up my stove finally! The last time I had a stove to cook on at home was 12/10/2010! I have gotten an electric tea kettle and a 5 in 1 cooker (great for pasta and rice) recently, so it has gotten better, but I should not need an army of kitchen electrics to cover for not having a working stove in a new kitchen, esp after what we have paid for it! Once we are back to renovating (shudder) I know I will be here frequently again. I just needed some time to be working on other projects and not stressing over our not done house for a while. We feel like we moved forward on some small stuff and are about to leap forward on the rest very soon. It was tough feeling so stuck for a while.