Emtek is a great choice because you are getting a Baldwin quality lock at a less expensive price. Emtek Hardware is solid brass or bronze which makes the locks heavier and more durable than most hardware. Emtek also has a great warranty. You can find Emtek Hardware at discount prices at homehardware4less.com. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Hardware 4 Less

I wanted shutters,but friends scrounged us 5 bi-fold doors,and that's just as good for me. I'm putting hinges on them,putting them all together to make a 'screen' type thing to go over my huge picture window,having the screen on the outside on the porch. Still not finished with that project,but I did get the hinges and paint! Mine have a stain and varnish type finish,but I want to make them look old and weather-beaten with paints. Collecting S-hooks to hang stuff from them outside(putting S-hooks in the slats) I guess mine are about 6' tall,too.

Hey!In my opinion you should definately preserve this wood!I'm from D.C. area and have worked with this wood extensively.There are many ways to remove paint,fill nail holes,cracks etc.These may be labor intensive,but not real difficult.Burn in sticks are the best solution.The wood may then be tinted(toned)to the exact coler you prefer.Stay away from shellac,it is to high gloss.It is a great sealer,before a laquer coat.Heart pine should have a satin finish on an old structure.There are some great catylized laquer finishes which can provide iron clad protection for your millwork.There is no more old growth longleaf heart pine forests in America that can be harvested.All the lumber comes from re-milled beams,or sunken logging timber. I'm in Palm harbor.Pretty close,shoot me an e-mail,maybe i can look at it and help a bit.

Yes. I chose CDW bc of their warranty, their financing and bc I felt the material would hold up better to the exteme heat where I live. I am not sure I would use them again. We used CDW for 3 sets of bifold doors. We love having them and they really give the indoor/outdoor feeling. However, we had them installed in Aug 2018 and there was an issue at installation that has yet to be resolved. The weather stripping was wrinkled and didn’t lay flat in some places upon installation. The Company agreed to replace the stripping. When they arrived to replace the stripping, it was black not bronze. They said they would reschedule and come back. We later found out the reason the stripping didn’t lay flat was because it was painted bronze and should have been left black. The next time they came, the workman showed up but didn’t have the stripping. The next time they came they didn’t have enough stripping. The next time they came they came with the wrong stripping. I have an appointment scheduled next month and we will see if they can resolve this. Not holding my breath. Luckily I work from home and don’t have to take off work for the appts but it is an inconvenience. Mind you the workman travel 2-3 hours to my home, so their inefficient service department is costing the company money. I note that after the install I noticed one of the glass pieces had a refraction and the Company agreee to replace it no issues. There were a few times that the doors got slightly out of allignment and they came to fix them. I think this is due to the wrinkled stripping preventing the doors from alligning properly. One time this prevented us from locking our door. We explained that this was a safety issue as this was the door to our pool and they repaired it promptly. Overall, I love the doors but their service department is not run effectively. We recently replaced 6 windows in the front of our home. The caulking around the window was terrible and looked like a child did it. (This was not an issue with our doors surprisingly). The frames were scratched in some places. One piece of the window appears to be coming away after a few weeks. The stucco work on the exterior is terrible. The wall texturing on the inside was terrible as well. (We had some construction they did related to the install). I notified their service department. They agreed to let me have my own contractor redo the stucco and reimburse me. They are going to come back and replace the window frames and will recaulk around the frames. Hopefully this won’t take 1.5 years to resolve like my doors. I had hoped to avoid the hastle of a contractor and the pointing of fingers when something goes wrong, but their construction work is sub par. I am annoyed by the inconvenience of all this as I just wanted to check these projects off my list but can’t.