1,250,334 lb door

It turned out amazing but phew does it weigh a ton.

Apparently we aren't shy around here and doors for privacy are optional. We did get a door on the guest bathroom though prior to its installation it didn't seem to deter visitors (shows what kind of company we keep).

Anyhooo, after a few guests and a few issues we decided it was time to get a door on the spare bedroom. We are talking some petty crime of dog treat stealing, some early morning wake up calls up close and personal and secret bed sleepers that would sneak in there and help themselves to any and all spare pillow real estate. This is not the place to name names but in the spirit of Cottonwood Meadow MOST WANTED we are looking at you Wolf (rest in peace beautiful boy) and Ziggy!

So back to the door. Kyle has been dying to build a door out of the wood we salvaged out of the old hay barn. Great idea, with big metal hardware it will really be an amazing creation. 

And it is, but it weighs 1,250,334 lbs....it really does. Good thing our walls are a foot thick with 6 inches of that is all concrete baby. Anything less and I am not sure it would hang. Heck I am not sure how we picked it up and got it hung.

This thing is a beast. Made from four planks from the old hay barn floor and is an inch and a half thick. It really is a thing of beauty and most importantly serves as a stunning entrance to our visitors oasis.

We planed the boards, cleaned up the edges and then burnt them Shou-sugi-ban style and then waxed the door. The metal straps and hinge supports were made by Kyle from recycled metal.

The best part is the door handle that Kyle made - this was made from a salvaged valve he found. The door threshold on the side is made from angle iron and keeps the door from swinging back and forth.

All the door needs now is a door lock which is in the works and will be AWESOME! Stay tuned.

Uplifting

Kyle told me to name this post 'Uplifting' - I apologize in advance for the bad pun.

So you may remember many moons ago when we installed the center structural beam for the ICF portion of the house Kyle very smartly had the foresight to add two metal straps for anchors for lifting. He figured that in the future we may have the need to haul some big pieces up to the second floor and this would provide a lifting point. Details of this install are here.

Well low and behold we just had our newly refinished salvaged claw foot tub and a storage armoire that we needed to get to the second floor. Take my word for it - picking up a large cast iron tub that has been newly enameled, read slippery, is not easy nor light and that dang armoire weighs a ton. So those straps to the rescue!!

So the straps are permanently attached around the main house beam and have anchors attached to them. We used an electric winch to attach to them and then Kyle rigged the tub to attach to the winch so it would safely haul the tub and armoire up and keep it balanced and even on the ride.

It worked perfectly, the tub went up in mere minutes and the armoire took a little fiddling with the rigging but then we got it over the railing and it is in place. It was so easy and saved years on our backs from having to carry them up the flight of stairs.

Next post will be all about the bathtub - bet you can't WAIT!