Reaching Our Threshold

One of smaller changes of our renovations was widening the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.  The original doorway was abnormally narrow and short, making the house feel very disconnected.

 

The contractor opened up the doorway as much as the wall could structurally allow.   Once the drywall was completed, we would begin preparing a new threshold.  The doorway from the Great Room into the kitchen had a uniquely worn and distressed piece of solid pine as the threshold.  The Laird liked this look and wanted to recreate it in the other doorway.  I suggested that it would be difficult to match that old worn pine, and would look nice to match the new red oak kitchen floors.  He purchased a long, unfinished piece of red oak to span the doorway.  I used our can of extra Nutmeg stain that came with our cabinets to stain the threshold.  After 3 coats of stain and then 3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane, it was finally ready for installation.

The distressed threshold between the Great Room & kitchen

Creating the step out of 2 x 4 boards

The original floor sloped from the kitchen to the dining room.  Widening the doorway gave us a reason to  create a step down into dining room from the kitchen.  The Laird was not entirely sure how to install the threshold, but came up with an idea.  He found 2 small pieces of thin metal that he nailed into the bottom of the wood.

Then he covered the place where threshold would be with Liquid Nails- the metal flaps pointing towards the kitchen. 

We applied weight to area as the Liquid Nails dried over night.  Then we were able to finish the floor.  A few more projects successfully checked off "The List"- the floor & threshold completed!

Taking on renovating an old farmhouse has been fun, but a ton of work!  We knew going into this adventure that it would be a lot of hard work and patience, but we did not know what our threshold would be.  I think we've reached it.  Thankfully, we're coming to the completion of many projects we've been in the middle of for a while- primarily the kitchen and stairs.  Seeing the finished (or semi-finished) outcome makes it all totally worth it.  In the midst of all the work, when it was below freezing outside, and we were trying to keep warm by the heat of our wood stoves, and the house was a construction zone- we kept asking ourselves, "What were we thinking?!"  Now with winter behind us, and the current house projects coming to completion, and the chance to be outside walking the property, or working on the garden, we are reminded why exactly why we came to live at this place we affectionately call REDWOODSHIRE!