Front Door is Stained and Installed

We picked up our front door on February 7th in Springville, Utah and returned home to a snowstorm on February 9th. It never really warmed up to the 60 degrees that is needed for painting or staining. In fact, Monday (Feb. 16th) we had another snowstorm, and school was cancelled on Tuesday (Feb. 17th). The weather has been too cold to stain the door, but Gary got brave today and used the same stain color as the logs (Cinnamon) to give the door a light coat. Because the logs are pine and the door is knotty alder, the color looks slightly different on each species of wood. This first picture shows a close-up of the newly-stained door. Gary also had to drill out the space for the locks--that was scary! When he finishes sealing the door, he will install the locks, deadbolt, and handle.

This next picture shows the view from several feet away. The silver rectangles you see on the sides and above the door are a radiant barrier on the plywood. Gary will put tar paper and metal lath mesh on top of it. Then he must put a "scratch coat" of mortar all over the lath before he completes the look with river rock. We looked at river rock over the weekend, and we think we found the color and style we like, but we are going to check out a couple of other options before we purchase anything. (Just imagine some sort of beautiful river rock covering the silver spaces.) Later this week, Gary will stain the posts the same color around the front door and along the north side of the house. The bottom two to three feet of each post will be covered with matching river rock. It is a slow process, but by the end of this week the house will be lockable!