Our $100 Custom Front Door

Who says you can’t find a door on the cheap? Later on we will be making our bathroom door from scratch, but for the front door we wanted something with insulated glass to let the light into the front hallway. After scouring through misfit doors at several different building supply stores, I found a 26”-wide door with insulated glass for only $75! Just narrow enough for our small house:

Conveniently, it’s made of douglas fir wood, which matches the timber frame. The door did not come with hardware or a frame, but we knew we wanted this perfect door.

While transporting it to the site, Cory got bit by a killer splinter! But that didn’t stop him from helping me prep the door and build the frame. This included mortising our holes for our really neat, hidden hinges!

Dad in the background, mortising holes for the hidden hinges. Cory setting up to trim down the bottom of the door.

The only problem we encountered was its height. We needed to trim a bit off the top and the bottom to make it fit underneath the tie beam. We would have trimmed from only the bottom; however, there is a decorative panel toward the bottom that we would’ve had to notch into and we certainly did not want to do that!

It’s installed!

Tim starting the siding on the front side of the house.

The day after the door and threshold went in, Tim came by and we started the siding on the front of the house! This is a cedar shiplap, rough cut. So far, we love the way it came out! Stay tuned for more posts on how the rest of the siding comes out!