Next House Project -Update #2

The project to enclose the lanai is gradually progressing. 

Next major task.....remove the sliding doors between the main room and the newly enclosed lanai before we finish the final wall. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to get the frame out of the house in one piece. We plan on giving these doors to someone who can re-use them. 

The doors are old style, meaning that each glass door doesn't come out all that easily. The stationary panel needed to be removed first, then the slider. But first various brackets needed to be removed and regretfully the screw heads were badly corroded. Because we didn't want to ruin the doors, each corroded screw needed to be gently and carefully removed. That took time and patience. 

Once the glass panels were removed we thought it would be clear sailing. Silly me! Things are never easy. The previous owner was a real believer in using lots of nails and screws in everything. Wow, those doors were super screwed in place, with long screws even going through the sides of the frame where I've never seen people put them before. Even after removing every screw and nail we could find, the frame was still stuck. Closer inspection revealed that the door frame had also been glued in place with lots of caulk! Thankfully it wasn't liquid nails. 

Lesson learned : don't over screw a door into place. Don't glue it down. No need and it makes it very, very difficult to remove it if need be later on.

Second lesson learned : put something over the screw heads to prevent corrosion. I opt to use a small dab of lithium grease, but I suppose one could use silicone caulk. Since I've gotten in the habit of inspecting and treating our metal appliances, exposed hurricane clips, door hinges and knobs each month, no reason I can't add a few more things to the list for quick inspection. But since we're eliminating sliding doors, then no problem here.

After the doors were successfully removed, Bob crawled under the house (no easy task for senior citizens!) and ran the electrical wiring for the receptacle outlets. Luckily we had just enough wiring leftover to complete the run. Got the boxes all wired in, so it's ready for closing in the walls. We already have the cedar for the interior but need one more sheet of exterior siding. Alas, that means another run to Kona. Somehow I figured wrong on the number of sheets I needed. Not totally uncommon for me!

Putting up the exterior siding was simple. We're using 4x8 sheets of T-11. Measure, cut, nail it up, caulk. Zip, done. 

But the door was going to be challenging. It wasn't pre-hung, so the framing needed to be custom made. David to the rescue! In a few hours he not only had the door installed and fully functional, but went around finishing some of the more complicated trim.

I had planned to sand and urethane the cedar planks this week but its been raining every day and the humidity has been close to 100%. Way too damp. So it will have to wait for the sun to return. In the meantime I can spend the time catching up on the paperwork that I tend to put off for a rainy day. But since we seldom get rainy days, the paperwork pile has really gotten tall. It will keep me busy.

Next up - enclose the interior walls. Trim out everything.