Storm Door

 Aloma has been asking for a storm door.  I kept putting her off until she said,  “Let's go to Lowes and pick one out.”  We did and brought it home.  She wanted to have it installed, but I said I would do it.

I got home and watched two videos on installing storm doors and then went to the website for the company that made the door.  I read the full instructions that came with the door.  I gathered the tools I needed and two sawhorses, and a ladder. The videos said it was a 30 to 45-minute installation.  Since I’m old and slow, I planned two hours to install the door.

I worked on it all afternoon and finally got it hung.  But it wouldn’t open all of the way.  I hung it wrong.  I started early the next morning, took it down, and caulked the holes I had driven in the wrong place.  I read the instructions again, but I couldn’t figure out how it should go.  I used to be good at projects like this, but I had trouble understanding the instructions.

On day three, I still couldn’t figure out the instructions, so I did a lot of trial-and-error but didn’t drill any holes.  No luck.  I started early on day four and one of the trials worked, so I drilled holes and hung the door.  It worked fine so I put the glass in.  Then I tried to insert the molding that keeps the glass from falling out.  No luck. On day five, I glued the glass in place with Gorilla glue and then glued the molding in.  So far, the glass hasn’t fallen out.  I installed the two closing units that came with the door and they worked.  But cousin Bob came by and told me I should reverse the top and bottom ones so we could use a foot to press the hold-open button.  I did that the next day.

One day before I put the glass in, I had the other door open and sat in the family room with Aloma.  Two birds flew into the house at warp speed.  One smashed into the patio door and knocked himself out.  The other bird stopped in time and just flew around the house.  I got the flying bird out and took the knocked-out bird to the patio.  An hour later he was gone.

It’s now day 15 and all I have to do is finish the latch and buy some molding to cover a couple of open areas around the top and bottom of the door.  I still have tools next to the door to remind me that if I ever buy another door, I’ll have it installed.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com